Chinmayananda on Mandukya Karika 4

From Chapter 4 Alātaśānti Prakaraṇa (On Quenching the Firebrand) Introduction by Chinmayananda

The status of this chapter has been questioned by some critics with whom we find it difficult to see eye to eye. Their main argument to consider chapter 4 as an independent textbook is that it has started with a prayer. According to them chapter 4 is an independent textbook which has been incorporated into this volume. Indeed, there is very little logical reasoning to accept this point of view. // 

Prof. Bhatttacharya’s argument that the opening stanza of the chapter is with a prayer and hence, the entire chapter is an independent textbook need not necessarily be accepted since it is not rare, when in Sanskrit literature, we find that almost every chapter is sometimes started with a prayer. // 

There is yet another criticism that this chapter contains many stanzas repeated from the earlier three chapters. This is not a mistake or a fault in a ‘textbook of instructions’ (Upadeśa grantha). The idea of the Master is to emphasise certain points which are most important. // 

There is a criticism levelled against this chapter, especially by those who want to prove that Gauḍapāda is commending to us to follow the idealism of Buddhist that there are no quotations of the Upaniṣad in this chapter. ‘It will be seen’, says Prof. V. Bhattacharya (in āgama śāstra by Gauḍapāda), ‘that no Upaniṣad is quoted or referred to by our author in his last book alāta śānti; there is absolutely nothing of the kind’. But this is not a fair criticism of the chapter. To say so would be a philosophical lie. There are many a line which bring up to the mind of a student, familiar with the Upaniṣads, reminiscence of the eternal wisdom in the Vedas. // 

Even the very title of this chapter has tempted many an adverse critics of the teacher of Vedānta, Gauḍapāda, to conclude that he is striving to establish idealism of Buddhist and is seeking to find Vedānta in Buddhism! The teacher is misunderstood because he has borrowed the alāta simile from the textbooks of Buddhism. Indeed, it served the Master’s purpose very well. 

~C