TOC Karika 4 Alata-Shanti Prakarana “Quenching the Firebrand" (from Chinmaya Sandeepany)

Section 4.1: PRELIMINARIES 

Verse 4.0: The Guru-Parampara (Lineage or Hierarchy)

Verse 4.1: The Purpose of this Chapter

Verse 4.2: Salutation to the “Asparsha Yoga” 

Verse 4.3: Positing of Cause for Creation

Verse 4.4: Vedantic Arguments Used

Verse 4.5: The Vedantic Approach

Verse 4.6: “The Immortal is Birthless” 

Verse 4.7: “Immortality is Its Essential Nature”

Verse 4.8: “The Immortal is Immutable” 

Section 4.2: THE SANKHYANS REFUTED 

Verse 4.9: Inherent Nature of a Thing

Verse 4.10: Inherent Nature of Spirit 

Verse 4.11: Logic Violation 1: Cause Becomes Effect

Verse 4.12: Logic Violation 2: Effect Becomes Cause

Verse 4.13: Effect Born from the Unborn or Born?

Section 4.3: THE MEEMAMSAKAS REFUTED

Verse 4.14: The Meemamsakas’ Assertions

Verse 4.15: The Vedantin’s Reply to the Meemamsakas

Verse 4.16: Cause & Effect – Sequential or Simultaneous

Verse 4.17: The Chain of Illogic

Verse 4.18: Cause & Effect – Which Comes First?

Verse 4.19: The Logical Conclusions Presented

Verse 4.20: The ‘Unproved’ Used as Proof!

Verse 4.21: A Pointer to “Birthlessness”

Verse 4.22: The Summary Statement 

Verse 4.23: Cause & Effect are Birthless 

Section 4.4: REALISTS vs. IDEALISTS

Verse 4.24: The View of the Realists

Verse 4.25: The Idealists – i) Subjective Knowledge

Verse 4.26: The Idealists – ii) World is Not There

Verse 4.27: The Idealists – iii) Experiences

Verse 4.28: Vedanta’s Response – “Nothing is Born”

Verse 4.29: Birthlessness – Essential Nature of Reality

Section 4.5: BONDAGE vs. LIBERATION

Verse 4.30: Samsara & Liberation are Initial Concepts

Verse 4.31: The Unreal Never Exists

Verse 4.32: Utility is no Test for Reality 

Section 4.6: THE ILLUSION OF CAUSALITY 

Verses 4.33-36: The Falsity of Dream – 4 Reasons

Verse 4.37: Common View: Waking Causes Dream

Verse 4.38: Why Creation is Declared Unreal

Verse 4.39 The Evidence of Emotional Reaction

Verse 4.40: Causality Just Not Possible

Verse 4.41: Fanciful Whims in Waking State

Section 4.7: THE SAGE’S COMPROMISE 

Verse 4.42: The Sage’s Compassionate Compromise

Verse 4.43: Dilution of the Truth is Negligible

Verse 4.44: Perception & Behaviour do not Prove Existence

Verse 4.45: The Status of Brahman

Verse 4.46: The Status of the Jeeva

Section 4.8: THE FIREBRAND METAPHOR 

Verse 4.47: The Firebrand in Motion

Verse 4.48: The Firebrand When Still

Verses 4.49 & 50: Simile of the Firebrand 

Verses 4.51 & 52: Application to Consciousness

Section 4.9: THE EMPIRICAL VIEWPOINT 

Verse 4.53: Substance, Non-substance & Soul

Verse 4.54: Cause and Effect Negated 

Verse 4.55: Perpetuation in Causality 

Verse 4.56: Perpetuation of Samsara 

Verse 4.57: The Two Viewpoints on Life 

Verse 4.58: The Pivotal Role of Maya

Verse 4.59: Illusion Breeds Illusion Only 

Verse 4.60: Reality Breeds Reality Only 

Section 4.10: FROM PLURALITY TO REALITY 

Verses 4.61 & 62: Duality & Projection of Mind

Verses 4.63 & 64: An Analysis of the Dream Experience

Verses 4.65 & 66: An Analysis of the Waking Experience

Verse 4.67: Inter-dependence of Mind & Objects

Verses 4.68-70: No Birth & Death – In “Dream”

Verse 4.71: The Non-Dual Reality

Verse 4.72: Consciousness – “Object-less & Relation-less”

Verse 4.73: How Views Change with Height 

Verse 4.74: More Astonishing Comparison of Views

Section 4.11: SEVEN FRUITS OF KNOWLEDGE

Verse 4.75: 1. The End of Attachment 

Verse 4.76: 2. Liberation from Causality  

Verse 4.77: 3. Liberation from Birth

Verse 4.78: 4. Liberation from the Three Afflictions

Verse 4.79: 5. Liberation from Infatuation 

Verse 4.80: 6. Attainment of Equipoise 

Verse 4.81: 7. Vision of the Self-effulgent Self

Section 4.12: FROM PASSION TO DISPASSION

Verse 4.82: Passion for Sense Objects

Verse 4.83: Passion for Intellectual Arguments

Verse 4.84: Integration of All Theories 

Verse 4.85: The Integrated Sage is Dispassionate 

Verse 4.86: The Natural State of the Wise 

Section 4.13: THE FINAL SUMMARY

Verse 4.87: The Waking & Dream States 

Verse 4.88: The Deep Sleep & Turiya States 

Verse 4.89 The Threefold Jnanam & Jneyam 

Verse 4.90: Fourfold Re-Classification of the Knowledge

Verse 4.91: All Souls are Beginningless 

Verse 4.92: All Souls are Immutable 

Verse 4.93: All Souls are Equal

Verse 4.94: The Pitiable Condition of Dualists 

Verse 4.95: Pre-Conditions for Self-Realisation 

Verse 4.96: More on “Objectless Knowledge” 

Verse 4.97: Perpetual Enslavement to Objects 

Verse 4.98: All Souls are Ever Pure

Verse 4.99: Knowledge Unconcerned with Objects 

Verse 4.100: Obeisance to the State of Non-Duality!

3 Verses “Salutations to the Guru Parampara”

Ode to Turiya

Turiya is both Atman and Brahman because aja.

Dreams appear in sleep. Fantasies appear in maya.

Being in maya but not of maya is a little like lucid dreaming.

Me and my gods are now appearing on that silver screen of atman.

That witness consciousness really knows what's what and what isn't.

Ayam atma brahma is that mahavakya of turiya.

My dreams require the energy of sleep. My life requires the energy of maya.

Where the mind projects a phenomenal world, no-mind sees atman.

There are three states of sleeping, two states of dreaming,

and one state of self-awareness. Turiya is not a state.

All states appear and disappear in turiya. The universe is binary. Turiya is nondual.

The mind divides. Consciousness unites.  Self-awareness deconstructs.

Gaudapada was never born.

On Turiya

There are three states of sleeping,

two states of dreaming, and

one state of self-awareness.

Turiya is not a state.

All states appear

and disappear

in turiya.

Gaudapada Says

The universe is binary. Turiya is nondual.

The mind divides. Consciousness unites. 

Self-awareness deconstructs. Gaudapada was never born.

Hotel Gaudapada

Ayam atma brahma is that mahavakya of turiya.

My dreams require the energy of sleep. My life requires the energy of maya.

Where the mind projects a phenomenal world, no-mind sees atman.

Talking Gaudapada MK3.48

Turiya is both Atman and Brahman because aja.

Dreams appear in sleep. Fantasies appear in maya.

Being in maya but not of maya is a little like lucid dreaming.

Me and my gods and goddesses are now appearing on that silver screen of atman.

That witness consciousness really knows what's what and what isn't.

Talks on MK3.48: uttamam

No human being has ever been born. Neither has a universe come into existence. 

No cause for this appears. Note: maya is beginningless.

This Turiyam is the ultimate truth (uttamam satyam) and not a thing is ever born.

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

Translation & Commentaries on MK3.48: uttamam satyam

48. na kaścij-jayate jīvaḥ saṁbhavo‘sya na vidyate, etat-tad-uttamaṁ satyaṁ yatra kiñcin-na jāyate. ~G

न कश्चित् – not at all; जायते – is born; जीवः – jīva; न संभवः – no source, cause; अस्य – for this; विद्यते – exists, appears; एतत् – this; तत् – that; उत्तमम् – supreme, highest; सत्यम् – Truth; यत्र – where; न किञ्चित् जायते – nothing is ever born. ~G-trC

48. No jiva ever comes into existence. There exists no cause that can produce it. The supreme truth is that nothing ever is born. ~G-trN

This stanza summarises the very core of Gauḍapāda’s philosophy of non-creation. Ajātavāda is the platform of Gauḍapāda and of Sage Vasiṣṭha (in yogavāsiṣṭha). They are the two Masters explaining to us the old school of Vedānta as contrasted with Śrī Śaṅkara who has initiated the new school of Vedānta wherein he accepts a ‘relative reality’ to the pluralistic world of objects. Gauḍapāda and Vasiṣṭha are natives of Reality. // Delved in Consciousness revelling in Consciousness, living in Consciousness as Consciousness, the great Master of every heart, reigning the realm of all, in his vision there is no world of objects separate from himself. Here, in this concluding stanza of this chapter, we have the entire philosophy of Gauḍapāda summarised in a ‘multi-spiritual tablet’. In this is the central theme of the glossator’s philosophy that nothing is ever born. ~C

If at all you experience a world, Gauḍapāda says that that experience is not because the world is born out of Brahman, not because a world is existing but only because it is appearing for us. So the entire world is an experience exactly like dream, which is an appearance. The dream is not really created by the mind nor does it really exist, but appears because of nidrā-śakti. Similarly the world has not really originated from Brahman, and it does not really exist. The world is an appearance because of māyā-śakti. In the case of dream, the appearance is due to nidrā-śakti, and at the cosmic level, the word māyā is used. This is the message of Gauḍapāda. ~P

Legend:

C: Chinmayananda

G: Gaudapada

Gm: Gambhirananda

N: Nikhilananda

P: Paramarthananda

S: Shankara

S/G: Sandeepany / Gurubhaktananda

Sw: Swartz

tr: translated by

In the Name of Gaudapada

Gaudapada is pure perennial wisdom peppered with an annual or two.

Gaudapada's Karika is to Ashtavakra Gita as dancing is to song.

Gaudapada is to Jesus of Nazareth as Shankara is to Saint Paul.

~Aum