Mandukyakarika: The Metaphysical Path of Vedanta

by Gaudapada, Raphael (Translator), Raphael (Commentaries by)

Overview

The Mandukya Upanishad is part of the Atharva Veda and belongs to a relatively remote period. Though short, it sums up the entire metaphysical vision of the doctrine of the Upanishads.

The Upanishad, which is of great initiatory interest, acquires greater value through the addition of Gaudapada’s karikas (Verse commentary), some of which are an integral part of the Upanishad.

Gaudapada divides this work into four parts, naming them:

1. Agama Prakarana, based on the scriptures or Shruti.
2. Vaitathya Prakarana, based on the phenomenal or apparent character of experience.
3. Advaita Prakarana, based on non-duality.
4. Alatashanti Prakarana, based on the extinction of the “burning ember”.

Through it Gaudapada unveils for the first time, clearly and concisely, the Asparsha yoga or vada (path, way), the metaphysical yoga or the pathway that leads not to unite with the God-person, but to integral Liberation (Turiya).

Raphael’s commentary is intended as an explanation for the Western researcher, who may be unfamiliar with the vast philosophical themes of Hinduism and Buddhism, and is more accessible than Shankara’s extensive, deep and incisive com­men­tary­ expounded in the Mandukya Upanishaad with Gaudapada’s karikas. From it, numerous Shankara’s passages are quoted alond the text.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781931406048
Publisher:	Aurea Vidya Foundation, Inc.
Publication date:	01/01/2008
Series:	Aurea Vidya Collection , #5
Pages:	190
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Gaudapada, having touched the highest peaks of realization, saw that the ultimate Reality can neither be born nor die, and with the support of the Principle-Narayana was able to reveal for the first time to human beings the Teaching already present in the Shruti: Ajativada, the doctrine of 'Non-generation', and the Asparshayoga, the yoga of 'No-support or no-relation.' In order to enounce the Ajativada and the Asparshayoga Gaudapada chose to comment the Mandukya Upanishad. This Upanishad deals with the three states of Being (Virat, Hiranyagarbha, Ishvara) and the Fourth state (Turiya) which represents the absolute Reality. Because of its doctrine and philosophy, it is the most meaningful and profound Upanishad of the Advaita Vedanta and represents by itself the very foundation of metaphysical realization. The Mukti Upanishad says: 'If the goal is the attainment of the supreme Truth, the Mandukya Upanishad is altogether sufficient.'

Raphael having attained a synthesis of Knowledge (with which eclecticism or syncretism are not to be confused) aims at 'presenting' the Universal Tradition in its many Eastern and Western expressions. He has spent a substantial number of years writing and publishing books on spiritual experience, and his works include commentaries on the Qabbalah, Hermeticism and Alchemy. He has also commented on and compared the Orphic Tradition with the works of Plato, Parmenides and Plotinus. Furthermore, Raphael is the author of several books on the pathway of non-duality (Advaita), which he has translated from the original Sanskrit, offering commentaries on a number of key Vedantic texts. After more than sixty years of teaching, both oral and written, Raphael has withdrawn into mahasamadhi.

Read an Excerpt

Agama Prakarana
(Chapter based on the Sacred Scriptures)


OM
Salute to Brahman

I - Sutra of the Upanisad

Hari OM! OM is all this. A clear explanation (follows): that which is past, present and future is truly OM. And that which is beyond this threefold temporality, in truth, is always OM.

The threefold sense of time made up by past (bhutam), present (bhavad) and future (bhaviayad) represents the totality of the manifestation of Isvara, the “all this” of the Satra, and corresponds to the sound OM. But, beyond this threefold time, there is the atemporal or the non-manifest principle (avyakta), which is always OM.

OM is the “Word” of power which manifests and sustains the threefold world; all things originate and dissolve in It.

The non-manifest corresponds to the germinal, causal (karana), potential state. The entire manifestation, in all its unlimited qualitative and quantitative possibilities, is potentially contained in the primordial seed: similarly the entire tree, with its branches, fruit and leaves, etc., is contained in potency in its seed. Manifestation is the unfolding of the potency of the principle. The manifest objectifies or makes its potentialities emerge. One may say that the manifest “evolves” only, though, if this term is considered to mean unfolding, evolving of the seed, going from potentiality to act.
The totality of existence is contained in the “Word” or the fundamental, determined and qualified Note of Being. Seen from the point of view of Being, manifestation is a present whole; Alpha and the Omega are in Being.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

... As wesaid, the three states are three vibrating existential levels upon which atma lives, moves and is.
Someone may ask: if what we said is the truth, then why do suffering and ignorance exist in this world?
First of all one must be aware of the fact that suffering is an effect, not a cause; it is the effect of the identification of the sensorial ego with a vehicle of expression and with the qualities (guna) that the vehicle expresses.
The incarnate consciousness, when it identifies with one of its expressive qualities and with a mere tool of contact, can only be reductive; its “diminution”, its dwarfing, its degradation must necessarily have repercussions upon its cognitive capacity, so that it becomes a partial and limited knower. Ignorance or non-knowledge of its own nature (avidya), in turn, brings suffering, conflict, alienation. To believe to be what one is not causes tension and conflict because nature strives to regain its original condition. In addition, this “lack” of being produces compensations within the world of objects, leading to the production of continuous surrogates at all levels. And this is evident: when, for any reason, one is not oneself one tries to be outside of oneself. But whatever compensation and gratification may be obtained, one can never be fulfilled, because these gratifications cannot solve the fundamental problem of existence which is that of being Unity, of resolving fragmentation and oblivion, of being, in fact, Being. Family, social, political, cultural, etc., compensations actually alienate atma even further. This is no conjecture, but a simple observation, a self-evident fact.
But why must atma or the incarnate jiva identify? Why is it exposed to this process of alienation? The answer is simple or complex depending on the degree of “light” one possesses.
One might begin by saying that for atma this represents one of its nature’s expressive modes. And why should atma have such a nature? The empirical mind is able to discuss everything except the nature of a datum; the question cannot but lead inevitably to a regressio ad infinitum.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Agama Prakarana

Vaitathya Prakarana

Advaita Prakarana

Alatashanti Prakarana

Sanskrit text

Glossary

Raphael: Unity of Tradition