The Māṇḍūkya (माण्डूक्य)

🔗 Explore its source in the Atharvaveda compendium. The narrative sitting is Four feet.

Twelve mantras. The first seven are the self in four feet. The last five lay those four onto oṃ (ओं). The word the mantras use for the fourth is caturtha (चतुर्थ), the fourth. Readers later say turīya (तुरीय). That later name is not in these twelve. Gauḍapāda (गौडपाद)'s kārikā (कारिका) uses turya (तुर्य). That kārikā (कारिका) is a different book, four prakaraṇas (प्रकरण), and it is not sat.

The electronic text this pāṭha (पाठ) was checked against prints svaprasthāna (स्वप्रस्थान) and āndamaya (आन्दमय) in mantras 4 and 5. Those are dropped letters. The sittings read svapna-sthāna (स्वप्न-स्थान) and ānanda-maya (आनन्द-मय). Mantra 7 reads adṛṣṭam (अदृष्टम्). Another printing reads adṛśyam (अदृश्यम्). Mantra 12 closes once, ya evaṃ veda (य एवं वेद). A bhāṣya (भाष्य) printing repeats that clause.

The twelve

1. Oṃ (ओं) is all this. Past, present, future, and what is beyond the three times.
2. All this is Brahman (ब्रह्मन्). This self is Brahman (ब्रह्मन्). This self has four feet.
3. The waking foot. Vaiśvānara (वैश्वानर). Outward knowing. The enjoyer of the gross.
4. The dream foot. Taijasa (तैजस). Inward knowing. The enjoyer of what has been set apart.
5. The deep-sleep foot. Prājña (प्राज्ञ). A mass of knowing. The enjoyer of bliss.
6. This same one is the lord of all, the inner guide, the source.
7. The fourth. Not the waking, not the dream, not the sleep. They consider it the fourth. That is the self. That is to be known.
8. The self, as the syllable, is oṃ (ओं). The feet are the measures. A (अ), u (उ), m (म्).
9. Waking, vaiśvānara (वैश्वानर), is the measure a (अ).
10. Dream, taijasa (तैजस), is the measure u (उ).
11. Sleep, prājña (प्राज्ञ), is the measure m (म्).
12. Without measure, the fourth. Oṃ (ओं) is the self.

Yoga Sūtra (सूत्र) 1.27 names this syllable praṇava (प्रणव), the signifying sound of Īśvara (ईश्वर). 1.28 says to repeat it and to contemplate what it means. Gītā (गीता) 8.13 is the uttering of that one syllable. Kaṭha (कठ) 2.15 says the syllable and then oṃ (ओं).