Mandukya 9-11 Aum Associations Chart

~from Mandukya 1 of Chinmaya Sandeepany (Advayanandaji / Gurubhaktananda) p27:

click for clarity

Archaeology of Nonduality

Consciousness as we know it is reflected consciousness.

Nisargadatta calls reflected consciousness, I Am.

Gaudapada says reflected consciousness inhabits two states.

The Mandukya calls them waking, dreaming, and deep sleep.

Awareness is pure consciousness is the fourth. That is my Rosetta Stone.

Pure consciousness even witnesses deep sleep, can you dig?

Was Gaudapada Buddhist?

So there's this big controversy about Gaudapada being closet Buddhist and therefore Shankara being crypto-Buddhist by association.

It's obviously an academic thing and beyond my paygrade. But I like Alston's take. Gaudapada lived when Nagarjuna was in the air.

So he used this language to advance his Advaitic teaching. Shankara, on the other hand, lived when Buddhism in India had precipitously declined.

Shankara is the father of Advaita Vedanta as we know it. That Gaudapada is his self-proclaimed godfather is good enough for me. Academic questions are so full of sound and fury.

My Favorite Advaitic English Translations of the Mandukya Upanishad with Gaudapada's Karika for 2025

My recent transcreation of the Mandukya Karika 1.15-18 utilized the translations of Chinmayananda, Nikhilananda, Gambhirananda, Paramarthananda, and Swartz (I'm well aware of the incongruity and light humor of this last name being associated with the aforementioned four).

Chinmayananda was required reading for this task. His translations are accompanied by devanagari, romanization, word for word definitions, and a readable English rendering. Few translations come with such a wealth of information. And his commentaries are insightful. If verbose, follow the yellow brick road.

Nikhilananda has two versions of Mandukya plus Karika. One is included in his monumental four-volume presentation of the principal Upanishads (it's in vol. 2). The second is a stand-alone version including Shankara's Bhasya. His translations are workmanlike but masterful and his commentary is often sublime.

Gambhirananda's translation is included in his accomplished work on Eight Upanishads, well-known for its exhaustive renditions of Shankara's Bhasyas. G's versions are sneaky good. For me, the joy of Shankara is in his word by word definitions. But his commentaries are foundational Advaita.

I'm somewhat new to Paramarthananda but can see the influence of Dayananda in his work. As for Dayananda, there is a four volume work published posthumously, which means, unfortunately, the editing is less than adequate. And strangely enough, there are no actual English translations.

Lastly there is the translation and commentaries by James Swartz. His lineage appears to be Chinmayananda, Dayananda, and Paramarthananda, although he's been accused of the heresy of neo-advaita by some, albeit I honestly have not seen it. But I do enjoy his American spin on things.

Obviously these translators are from three schools of contemporary Advaita Vedanta: Chinmaya, Ramakrishna-Vivekananda, and Dayananda, who seceded from Chinmaya in a curious and secretive way. N's work is my single desert island stash but C is what I use when wearing my transcreator's hat.

Note: Not a book but a Youtube lecture series by Sarvapriyananda of the Vedanta Society of New York in their Archives channel consisting of 69 sound-only 'videos' of 90+ minutes each. Repetition is his teaching method, often devolving to long discussions with his students. But it's nothing if not an exhaustive analysis of the Upanishad and Karikas. 👍 

Talking Realization: Transcreating Gaudapada's MK 1.15-18

Dreaming misapprehends reality. Sleeping doesn't apprehend reality at all. When these two errors disappear, Turiya is realized.

Asleep in beginningless maya, the individual awakens into birthless, sleepless, dreamless realization of the nondual.

And there’s no doubt the world would disappear if it actually existed. But duality is nothing but Maya and nondual in reality.

Concepts are to be abandoned when imagined for the sake of teaching. This talk of duality stops upon realization.

~transcreated from translations of Mandukya Karika 1.16-18 by Nikhilananda, Gambhirananda, Chinmayananda, Paramarthananda, and Swartz

all the footnotes to mk1:11-15

If dreams are like special effects

The sleep of ignorance is the cause

If deep sleep is the absence of duality

Turiya is the presence of nonduality

Dreaming is the presence of duality

The waking state is like sleepwalking

Maya veils and projects and reveals

There's sleep and deep sleep

All dreams think they are awake

Awakening is beyond thought

There are two sleep states

The dreaming and the dreamless

There is one waking state

Realization

Talks on MK1:11-15

Gaudapada says both waking states and dreaming states are bound by cause and effect, deep sleep is bound by cause alone, and Turiya is beyond all cause and effect.

Deep sleep knows nothing of any other state of consciousness nor the state of deep sleep itself. It knows nothing of truth or untruth, but only knows the absence of duality. Turiya is the presence of nonduality, that all-seeing existence.

The absence of duality is actually common to both deep sleep and Turiya. But deep sleep is the seed of variety and such a fruit does not exist in Turiya.

Not only the dream state but the waking state is a state of sleep and dream. Deep sleep is a state of sleep without dream. The wise ones say neither sleep nor dream is to be seen in Turiya.

Dreaming misapprehends reality. Sleeping doesn't apprehend reality at all. Gaudapada says when these two errors disappear, reality is realized.

Nondual Haiku

1. nondual haiku

We are programmed by our dna and social conditioning.

Beyond this matrix of desire is a thing called love.

Nonduality is appearing as one within the many.

2. another nondual haiku

Duality is one divided. That's why fractions hurt.

The mind does not cause consciousness. Consciousness does not cause the mind.

The mind is an appearance in consciousness, make no mistake about it.

3. nonduality haiku cubed

Killer bees, birds, x.

Duality is a choice.

The Ballad of Intuition and Nondoing.

4. haiku the fourth

Ignorance is personal. Maya is godlike.

A reflection of consciousness is consciousness reflecting off itself.

Lights. The silver screen. Introducing Maya

5. the fifth

Every good dream feels now.

This waking state is my current dream.

Deep sleep is my default.

Footnotes to Talks on M7

Hopping further into Mandukya, I’m not the thinker nor the doer nor any other state of altered consciousness. 

Nondual awareness is invisible and undivided, formless and nameless, beyond spacetime.

Ekatmapratayasaram. That intuitive endless I-essence. Ground of consciousness, principle of existence.

Do not confuse consciousness for the reflection of consciousness. Attention is the reflection of consciousness.

Attention equals pure consciousness and mind. Attention is an attribute of dreaming. Attention is ordinary consciousness.

Yoga is the fourth. Nonduality is the one. The difference between deep sleep and death is the causal drive. Buddha agrees.

Talks on Mandukya 7

Sages say the seventh mantra of the Mandukya Upanishad is the peak of Advaita. In fact, the word, advaita, makes its first appearance there.

The Muktika Upanishad says, “the only means by which the final emancipation is attained is through Mandukya-Upanishad alone” and this is considered to be scripture by many.

If not the creator, Gaudapada is the godfather of the Mandukya. Tradition says he’s the guru of the guru of Shankara. Disciple of a godlike teacher, Gaudapada is Paramaguru of Advaita.

Mandukya 7 is divided into three parts. The first nullifies the microcosmic atmans of all states of consciousness. The second nullifies all the macrocosmic brahmans. The third affirms Mandukya’s mahavakya: ayam atma brahma.

Some people call reality a fourth state. Like nirvikalpa samadhi. Gaudapada calls reality nondual. Atman is Brahman. That is the real self. That is to be realized.