Śruti / The twelve Upaniṣads / Māṇḍūkya · 6 of 12

6. Four feet

Māṇḍūkya (माण्डूक्य)

The Māṇḍūkya (माण्डूक्य) belongs to the Atharvaveda. This guide does not freeze a śākhā beyond that. Twelve mantras are already sat. Gauḍapāda (गौडपाद)'s kārikā (कारिका) is a later book, often printed beside these mantras. It is not the twelve. The word the twelve use for the fourth is caturtha (चतुर्थ). Turīya (तुरीय), and turya (तुर्य), belong to that later kārikā.

The syllable oṃ is all this. All this is Brahman, and this self is Brahman. That clause, taken on its own, is the fourth mahāvākya, the one counted with the Atharvaveda: ayam ātmā brahma (अयमात्मा ब्रह्म), this self is Brahman. It is mantra 2, not a separate mantra. The same breath says this self has four feet. Waking is vaiśvānara (वैश्वानर), common to all people, turned outward, seven limbs and nineteen mouths in the mantra's count. Dream is taijasa (तैजस), the brilliant, turned inward. The shelf reads svapna-sthāna (स्वप्नस्थान), the dream-place, and not a smoothed spelling that drops the n. Deep sleep is prājña (प्राज्ञ), a mass of cognition, made of bliss. The shelf reads ānanda-maya (आनन्दमय). The fourth is not inward, not outward, not both, not a mass of cognition, not conscious, not unconscious. The shelf's mantra 7 reads adṛṣṭam (अदृष्टम्). A variant adṛśyam (अदृश्यम्) is noted on that page and is not the reading sat there. The syllable then lays the same four on sound. A is waking. U is dream. M is deep sleep. What has no measure, the close of oṃ, is the fourth.

The breakthrough is the fit. Consciousness is not a theory added to the world. It is already three places everyone visits, plus the one that is not a place, and the syllable a person says is the same map in sound. The mahāvākya names what those four feet belong to.

सर्वं ह्येतद् ब्रह्मायमात्मा ब्रह्म सोऽयमात्मा चतुष्पात् sarvaṃ hy etad brahmāyam ātmā brahma so 'yam ātmā catuṣpāt

All this is Brahman. This self is Brahman. And this self has four feet. The split words are on Māṇḍūkya 2.

Ayam (अयम्) is this. Ātmā (आत्मा) is the self. Brahma (ब्रह्म) is Brahman, the predicate. In the recited line the first brahma and ayam join, so the ear hears brahmāyam ātmā brahma (ब्रह्मायमात्मा ब्रह्म). That joined clause is ayam ātmā brahma (अयमात्मा ब्रह्म). The four feet in the same line are waking, dream, deep sleep, and the fourth, and those four are a, u, m, and the close of oṃ.

नेपालीमा

माण्डूक्य अथर्ववेदको हो। शाखा यो पृष्ठले टुङ्ग्याउँदैन। बाह्र मन्त्र पदमा समावेश गरिएका छन्। गौडपादको कारिका पछिको पुस्तक हो। बाह्र मन्त्रमा चौथोलाई चतुर्थ भनिन्छ। तुरीय कारिकाको शब्द हो।

मन्त्र २ भित्रको चौथो महावाक्य अयमात्मा ब्रह्म हो। अयम् भनेको यो हो। आत्मा आफैँ हो। ब्रह्म ब्रह्मन् हो। अर्थ हो, यो आत्मा ब्रह्मन् हो। सुनिने रूपमा पहिलो ब्रह्म र अयम् जोडिन्छन्, ब्रह्मायमात्मा ब्रह्म। त्यही मन्त्रले आत्माका चार पाउ भन्छ। जाग्रत् वैश्वानर, सपना तैजस, गहिरो निद्रा प्राज्ञ, अनि चौथो चतुर्थ। त्यही चार ओंकारका अ, उ, म्, र अमापमा छन्। पदको पाठ स्वप्नस्थान, आनन्दमय, र अदृष्टम् हो। पदच्छेद माण्डूक्यमा छ।

Where it sits

Mantra 2, the line above, is sat with its words. The book is the Māṇḍūkya hub. The five sheaths are next.