The equation of the states with the syllable Aum

Gauḍapāda after giving insight into the nature of the Self through the analysis of the three states of experience (avasthātrayavicāra), also provides a means to assimilate the same truth through contemplation using the syllable aum. The Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad in mantra 8 makes the statement that the Self is to be equated with the syllable aum, and that the letters constituting this syllable, ‘a’, ‘u’, and ‘m’, are to be equated with the quarters of the Self.^[1] The four letters (mātrās) of aum correspond to the four quarters (pādas) of the Self. The three audible/spoken letters (mātrās) are a, u, m and they arise from the fourth which is unspoken/non-sound called (non-letter). In writing, amātra is represented by the point (bindu) of the anusvāra. The principle of the meditation on aum prescribed by the āgama or scripture is to equate the letters (mātrās) of aum with the quarters (pādas) of the Self. Gauḍapāda calls the knowledge or equation mātrāsaṃpratipatti (i.e., knowing the mātrās to be identical with the pādas and aumkārasyapādaśovidyā (knowledge of the letters/ mātrās of aum as the pādas of the Self).^[2]

The Upaniṣad and the relevant kārikās give reasons for relating the particular letter of aumkara with the particular quarter of the Self.

It is thus stated by Gauḍapāda and endorsed by Śaṅkara in his commentary:

(1) The letter ‘a’ (akāra) represents the first ‘quarter’ of the Self, i.e. Vaiśvānara (Viśva), whose sphere is the wakeful state. These two are to be regarded as identical because of the common quality of being the first (ādi) as well as that of pervading (apti)^[3]. ‘A’ is the first letter of the alphabet and Vaisvānara is the first of the three deities viz., Vaiśvānara, Hiraṇyagarbha and Īśvara.

Because of this similarity between Vaiśvānara and ‘a’, they are to be treated as representing one block. Again, just as ‘a’ (as a vowel) is pervasive in all speech, Viśva the enjoyer of the wakeful state, is pervasive of the entire wakeful universe. ‘A’, the Vedās declare, is verily all speech (Aitareya Āraṇyaka 2.3.6)^[4]. So akāra pervades entire spoken language/speech. Likewise the Śruti declares about the Vaiśvānara that pervades the entire universe. ‘Of this ātman, of Vaiśvānara, the head verily is heaven….’ (Chāndogya Upaniṣad 5.18.2)^[5]. The Upaniṣad (Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad 9) declares as phalaśruti (result) that: He who knows that Vaiśvānara and ‘a’ as one, obtains all desires and becomes the first among the great/wise people.

(2) The letter (mātrā) ‘ukāra’ signifies the second ‘quarter’ of the Self, i.e., Taijasa, the enjoyer of dream. In this the common qualities are exaltation (utkarṣa) and intermediateness (ubhayatva). The exaltation of ukāra is due to its being subsequent to akāra. Similarly, Taijasa is exalted over Viśva because its realm is the subtle world. Hence, it is regarded as superior to Viśva. The other point of similarity is that ukāra occupies an intermediate position; it occurs between akāra and makāra in the word aum. Likewise Taijasa occupies an intermediate position between Viśva and Prājña, namely the wakeful and the deep sleep^[6].

The Upaniṣad glorifies the identification of Taijasa with ukāra. He who knows the identity of Taijasa with ukāra exalts or increases the continuity of the highest knowledge and is treated equally both by friends and enemies. Again, in the family of him who knows this, no one is born who does not know Brahman.

(3) The letter ‘m’ (makāra) signifies the third ‘quarter of the Self, i.e. Prājña, whose sphere is sleep. According to the Māndūkya Upaniṣad Prājña is ‘m’, because it is, ‘miti’, which means ‘measuring’. Prājña measures as it were Viśva and Taijasa at the time of creation and dissolution when they emerge out of it and merge back into it. It measures them as the vessel prastha measures barley. The same is the case with ‘m’. When the articulation of aum terminates in ‘m’, akāra and ukāra, resolve back into makāra. When aum is chanted repeatedly the ‘a’ and ‘u’ emerge out of ‘m’. Hence ‘m’ is said to be the measure of the other two letters, ‘a’ and ‘u’.

Prājña and makāra are equated because of apiti, absorption (laya), too. Apiti means merger, the state of being one. In the pronouncing of aum, ‘a’ and ‘u’ merge into, become one as it were with ‘u’, the last letter of aum. Similarly, Viśva and Taijasa are absorbed into Prājña at the time of sleep. Because of these similarities of measuring and absorption, Prājña and ‘m’ are to be meditated as one, and identical^[7].

The Upaniṣad declares here that he who knows the oneness of prājña and makāra measures the whole world. He comes to know the true nature of the world. He also becomes apītiḥ that into which all this gets absorbed. He becomes the Self in its causal state. These secondary results are invoked to glorify the primary means (i.e., to glorify the meditation on aum as the principal means of knowledge and these other meditations on parts of aum are secondary and are not separate from the main meditation).

(4) The (amātra) or the silence is equated with fourth ‘quarter’ of the Self, the Absolute, the Turīya. The Upaniṣad says that the ‘Fourth’ (Caturtha) which is not signified by any sound namely ‘a’, ‘u’, ‘m’ is identical with amātra of aumkāra. Here^[8] the Upaniṣad once again describes the Fourth as: ‘It is outside the range of empirical dealings, the cessation of the phenomenal world, the benign, and non-dual’. Thus the three letters of aum are to be equated with the three states of experience. The ‘non-letter’ (amātra) of aum is the silence from which the sound “aum” emerges, by which that sound is sustained, and into which the sound resolves. Similarly the three pādas of the Self resolve into the Fourth, the method of resolution as stated is that the wakeful resolves unto dream, dream unto deep sleep, and deep sleep which is the causal state gets resolved into the Fourth, the Caturtha. The niṣprapañcatā of the Fourth is identical with the amātrata or the absolute freedom from sound i.e. silence which is source of all speech. When the syllable ‘aum’ is uttered, the contemplator sees how the sound ‘aum’ arises, persists and disappears into the silence, the amātra, leaving the silence intrinsically undisturbed. In the same way, the contemplator should appreciate that what is represented by the letters, i.e., the three cosmic states, arise, persist and disappear in the acosmic (ni“prapañca) Turīya, which is the underlying principle, the Awareness, which remains ever untouched by phenomena.

According to Śaṅkara: The amātra of aum is ātman, the Self itself. The name and the entire language resolve back into the amātra–the absolute silence and so does the named–the object signified by the name. The objects resolve unto the mind because there is no object apart from mind/thought of it. Thought resolves back unto the ni“prapañca Self or Awareness. For this reason the amātra of aum, the fourth is incomprehensible (avyavahārya). The three letters of aum, which wise man meditates upon, though being fully aware that the letters mean nothing else but the ātman of the three quarters. He, who knows this, enters his own supreme Self through the Self alone, meaning he understands the Self through the Self knowledge. The knower of Brahman, the seer of the Absolute enters the Self by burning and destroying the third (prājña), which is the seed of all world appearances; and he enters the Self and is not born again. For, the Fourth is free from the causal third state.

When a man can discriminate a rope from its appearance as a snake, the snake-appearance gets removed in the light of the knowledge of rope. There remains thus no possibility of its reappearance, for both the name ‘snake’ and the illusory perception of the snake are together destroyed by the knowledge of the rope. Thus the three mātrās of aum, the abhidhāna and the three pādas of the Self, the abhidheya in a single stroke gets resolved into the absolute Truth, the Self.

Gauḍapāda concludes his exposition (Āgama Prakaraṇa) by prescribing and praising meditation upon aum (praṇavadhyāna). He says:

One should know aum in relation to the quarters of the Self. There is no doubt that the quarters are the letters (mātrās) of aum. After knowing the meaning of aum, quarter by quarter, one should not think of anything else whatsoever.^[9] Praṇava (the syllable aum) is ‘the fearless Brahman’. There shall be no fear anywhere for one who is ever focused on Brahman.^[10] This is supported by the Śruti statement like: “You have attained that which is free from fear” (Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 4.2.4).

‘Whenever one is fearlessly established in this (Brahman) which is unperceivable, incorporeal, and inexpressible and without support, then he becomes fearless (Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.7.1). Praṇava is the lower (apara) Brahman. It is the Supreme Brahman too. Praṇava is without prior, without interior or exterior, without posterior. It is undecaying (changeless) and immortal.^[11] The apara Brahman is represented by the manifest sound of aum, while the para Brahman is revealed as the silence of the amātra. Gauḍapāda refers to this amātra (silence, Turīya) when he says that aum is: ‘without prior, without interior or exterior, without posterior, changeless’.

Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad also says:

‘Brahman is without prior or posterior, without interior or exterior’ (2.5.19).

Śaṅkara, in his commentary says that the words without prior or posterior mean that praṇava is without cause and without effect. Praṇava is the beginning (ādi) of all, the middle (madhya) of all, the (anta) end of all.^[12] All beings have their origin in it, are sustained by it and ultimately merge in it. They proceed from it like a magic elephant originates from a magician, a snake out of a rope, a mirage-water from desert. Such is the status of the world phenomena from the ether of space to earth. When man knows praṇava, that is the ātman, the Self, of all, he becomes unified with it.^[13] Praṇava is ‘the pervader of all things’, ‘the Lord abiding in the heart of all beings’.^[14] Realising praṇava in this way, the wise man does not grieve. Gauḍapāda here refers to the Lord (Īśvara) as the apara Brahman who is to be identified with the manifest sound of aum. In his commentary Śaṅkara says: One should know praṇava as Īśvara residing in the heart of all creatures–the heart which is the seat of memory and cognition. A wise man (dhīraḥ) knowing praṇava (aum) to be all pervasive (sarvavyāpinam [sarvavyāpina]) like the ether of space also knows that it is the Self which is beyond the worldly state. Such a person does not grieve as there remains no cause for grief. ‘The knower of the Self’, says the Chāndogya Upaniṣad (7.1.3) ‘crosses all sorrow’.

Gauḍapāda in the last kārikā 29 describes the amātra of aum, referring to the para Brahman and he says: “One who has known Aum which is soundless and of infinite sounds and which is ever-peaceful on account of negation of duality is the (real) sage and none other”. In this kārikā Gauḍapāda further reiterates the teaching of the mantra 12 of the Upaniş ad, combining the two expressions of the same mantra- ‘the cessation of the phenomenal world’ (prapañcopaśama) and ‘non-dual’ (advaita), into a single statement: cessation of duality (dvaitasyopaśama).

Śaṅkara in his commentary explains that amātra or soundless aum signifies Turīya. Mātrā literally means measure/limitation. The non-lettered aum (amātra) has no such measuring units of sound. The amātra aum has infinite dimension (anantamātraḥ) as its extension cannot be determined. It is auspicious as it is the state of negation of all duality. He who knows aum in this way, is a muni, a sage. He alone meditates on the Supreme Reality and no one else. Any other person, even though he may be an expert in the knowledge of scripture is not a sage.

An objective analysis of this chapter reveals that the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad establishes the identity of the sacred syllable aum with the phenomenal world, Brahman and the Self (ātman). The Upaniṣad proceeds to reveal the true nature of the Self, as Brahman, by means of an investigation of the three states of common human experience namely wakeful, dream and deep sleep.

The commonness of experience about the world around us is the main feature of the wakeful state. As discussed above, all human perception, ideation, reasoning and anticipation about the external world are considered as the output of this state. The mind and the senses which function in this state aided by physical light and consciousness are the instruments through which one experiences every kind of external object. When consciousness is directed through the mind and sense-organs to the external world, one experiences his physical body along with external world. The consciousness in the wakeful state indicates that the external world is solid, rigid, tangible set in its laws completely oriented towards exteriority of objects and loses the opportunity to know itself. Wrong identification with the world seemingly causes bondage and the ātman appears to be bound.The identification is only apparent, not real.

A review of the dream state amplifies the fact that in this state one experiences internal objects through internal light aided by consciousness. In the dream state, when consciousness withdraws itself from the outside world and illumines only the mind, one becomes unaware of the external world and his own physical body, but experiences within himself a subtle world and subtle body. Like the wakeful state, the dream state also seems to possess the factors of subject and object and the characteristics of externality and internality. The dream objects, however, real they may appear in that state it get falsified when one wakes up.

As revealed in the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad, in the deep sleep state, senses and the entire antaḥkaraṇa comprising of intellect, mind, ego and memory remains non-operative. This state is shorn off all desires, dreams and erroneous cognition. The Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad refers to this state as Prajñānaghana-a mass of undivided, uniform consciousness. This state is free from both knowledge as well as ignorance owing to the absence of above antaḥkaraṇa. The consciousness therefore remains blissful and peaceful (ānadamaya). The continuity of Consciousness is established when one wakes from deep sleep. It is only then one is able to explain recollection of the experience such as “I slept happily and I did not know anything”. This recollection is possible because of presence of Consciousness in that state. The deep sleep state is the source for wakeful and dream states.

The three states alternate and differ from one another. But the Self/Consciousness that underlies them is unchanging. The Self remains unaffected and unattached to them. The Self is non-dual and pervasive in all the three states of experience and is conceived in three ways. Though the states are essentially one, they differ because of the difference in the conditioning factors. The Self is the same though it is seen in three different states (eka eva tridhāsmṛtaḥ).

One of the significant findings of Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad is the description of the absolute Self as Turīya, the Fourth (Caturtha) in order to distinguish it from the other three changing states namely wakeful, dream and deep sleep. Turīya is the invariable substrata of the three states.

Turīya is indescribable (anabhidheya) because it is devoid of every characteristic that can make the use of words possible. It can only be expressed through negation. Negation of all attributes does not mean that Turīya is śunya, viz. a mere void, as all illusory appearances have a real substratum. Turīya is the substratum for all appearances including the body and the phenomenal world.

The fact is that the three states, wakeful, dream and deep sleep are all adjuncts (upādhis) falsely superimposed on the Self. When these illusory appearances are removed by means of right knowledge, the knowledge of Turīya becomes available. The revelation of the Turīya and the falsification of the three states are simultaneous and not successive in time. The Turīya is ever present. There is no possibility of considering Turīya as a new emerging result (phala) due to the falsification of the three states. No means of empirical knowledge can establish Turīya because of its non-dual and non-relational nature.

Thus unraveling the nature of Turīya on the basis of a careful analysis of the text it has been established that Turīya is not an object of knowledge, as it is free from all conditioning adjuncts (upādhis). It has neither generic nor specific characteristics because it is one without a second. Turīya is not known by any activity, but is the eternal and all pervasive ground from which all activities seem to emerge. It is the essence of the knowledge of one’s Self (ekātmapratyasāra). It is peaceful (śānta), the auspicious (śiva), and the non-dual (advaita) Self, which is to be known (sa vijñeyaḥ). When the Upaniṣad says that Turīya is to be known, knowing in this case is not only discovering the Self, but also remaining as the silent immutable Self, remaining in one’s own nature (svarupa-sthiti). The knowledge of Turīya can destroy misery. The Turīyaātman is unchanging (avyayah) which means that It does not become anything different from its own nature. This is so because there is nothing other than the Turīya.

It is not possible to comprehend the Self directly. Hence, one proceeds from the known to the unknown. Accordingly, the Upaniṣad first identifies the three states of experience and their corresponding macrocosms with the Self, and then it negates the three microcosms along with their macrocosms in order to reveal the absolute nature of the Self. The three states viz. wakeful, dream and deep sleep together with their corresponding macrocosms are finally to be seen as superimpositions upon the Self. The states are the apparently limiting conditions (upādhi) of the Self. The Self as such is intrinsically free from the superimposed limiting conditions (nirupādhika).

Whatever is superimposed does not exist apart from its substratum, therefore in essence the states are not different from the Self.

Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad and Gauḍapāda’s Kārikā exhorts the contemplation upon aum as a means for the realisation of Turīya. Contemplation upon aum simply does not involve the repetition of the syllable aum. It is not a meditation in the yogic sense having the total suspension of cognition (cittavṛttinirodha). It rather adopts a method wherein the contemplator (sādhaka) has the knowledge of the equivalence of the three syllables of aum and the three states of experience. He also knows the identity of the silent source of the three syllables called, ‘amātra’ with Turīya which is the source, support and point of resolution of the three states. Such a contemplation functions as a means to help the direct understanding that: ‘I am the Turīya’. So, the Upaniṣad says: ‘aum is indeed the Self’. In this respect, both the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad and Gauḍapāda’s Kārikā discovers a new and unique stage/phase in the development of the teaching as well as in the technique for its experiential realization.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Pāda Mātrāmātrā ś ca pādaḥ, MāṇḍūkyaUpaniṣad 8.

[2]:

Māṇḍūkyakārikā I.19.

[3]:

MāṇḍūkyaUpaniṣad 9, Gauḍapādakārikā, 1.19.

[4]:

Som Raj Gupta, The Word Speaks to the Faustian Man, 239.

[5]:

Ibid.

[6]:

MāṇḍūkyaUpaniṣad, 10; Gauḍapādakārikā, I, 20.

[7]:

MāṇḍūkyaUpaniṣad, 11; Gauḍapādakārikā. 1.21.

[8]:

MāṇḍūkyaUpaniṣad ‹, 12.

[9]:

Gauḍapādakārikā. 1.24: It is said in the Bhagvadgita: ‘having centred the mind on the Self, one should not think of anything else’ (6.25).

[10]:

Gauḍapādakārikā. 1.25.

[11]:

Gauḍapādakārikā. 1.26.

[12]:

Gauḍapādakārikā. 1.27.

[13]:

The magician, the rope, the desert etc. appear as the elephant, the snake, the mirage etc., without undergoing any change in themselves. Similarly aum also, from the relative standpoint, appears to have become the entire manifested manifold without undergoing any change in itself. But from the standpoint of soundless aum, there is no manifested manifold. It is not the cause of anything nor does it appear in any way other than itself.

[14]:

Gauḍapāda’s expression, ‘the Lord residing in the heart of all creatures’ is also in the Bhagavadgita where Krishna says, ‘I am seated in the heart of all’ (15.15). The expression ‘Having known…a wise person does not grieve’ occurs in Kaṭha Upaniş ad (1.2.22,2.1.4,2.3.6).