Mandukya Upanishad

With an Advaita Commentary from our Understanding

by Kenneth Jaques | 31,733 words

The Mandukya Upanishad is a short, just twelve verses, description of the material manifestation and the eventual return to unmanifest form of the Universe....

Verse 7

7.  Being possessed of a purpose in the case of the entities in the waking state,  is contradicted in the dream;   therefore they indeed are for the same reason known as unreal and nothing else on account of their having a beginning and an end.

"Being possessed of a purpose in the case of the entities in the waking state,  is contradicted in the dream;"

Perceptions experienced within the memory of the waking state grants reality to things like eating travelling and such like.
But,  after eating ones fill of food then subsequently falling asleep it is possible to dream of feeling hungry and eating more.
Then upon waking it is still likely that one feels hungry,  due to a perceived fast,  and so seek breakfast.  On examining this contradiction it is assumed that the waking state was real and the dream state was unreal.
The hunger of the body in the waking state will only seem more real due to the perception of that body remaining within the memory of the,  (for the present),  highest experienced conscious state.  But,  nevertheless,  this highest  "state"  has been proved to be transitory itself and is therefore also ultimately unreal.

"therefore they indeed are for the same reason known as unreal and nothing else on account of their having a beginning and an end."

Once again,  with the example of purpose due to need,  usefulness,  and so forth this usefulness is seen to change with the change in those conscious  "states"  under discussion.
The conclusion must be that all that changes due to changes in perception due to changes in conscious  "states"  (therefore having an arbitrary beginning and an end)  must be unreal.

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