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 12

12.  The shining Atman imagines himself by himself,  through his Maya,  it is he alone that cognises the entities, this is the conclusion of the Vedanta Upanishads.
"The shining Atman imagines himself by himself,  through his Maya,"

"Maya"  has subtle meaning.  Generally  "illusion"  or  "delusion"  translates a suitable meaning.  But,  in reality these translations convey an aspect of duality which is not intended or meant.
The  "Maya"  of the Non-Dual Absolute includes an aspect of temporary forgetting.
Gaudapada explains the coming into manifestation and the subsequent return to the unmanifest being of this universe as purely the nature of the Atman or the Absolute or God.
All who realise the Non-Duality of Existence realise that all entities are but the Absolute.  Therefore,  all imagining or illusion is described as the  "Maya"  of the Absolute or Atman which contains a  "forgetting"  of his higher Non-Dual absolute knowledge and consciousness due to his manifesting himself as this creation.

 

"it is he alone that cognises the entities, this is the conclusion of the Vedanta Upanishads."

Because  "he alone"  exists it is He that cognises and it is He that is cognised.  this is achieved through his own forgetting,  or Maya of himself.

Gaudapada himself has through his stainless realisation and logic brought us to this point.  Through systematically showing that all phenomena perceived through all states of consciousness are empty of reality,   and further,  that those perceived  "states"  of consciousness are themselves an illusion due to Maya.  All that has been constant is That Absolute Consciousness  (described previously as the  "fourth"  or  "Turiya").  Therefore it is reasonable to say that Consciousness alone has true Existence.
Having discerned this truth Gaudapada points out the support of the Upanishads for its verification.
This Consciousness Absolute,  this Self or Atman,  is therefore said to be the seer and the seen,  the cognisor and the cognised.

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