The Mandukya Upanishad 2.1 : Swami Krishnananda

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05/03/2019
The Mandukya Upanishad 2.1 : Swami Krishnananda

The quintessential teaching of the Mandukya Upanishad of the Atharva Veda unfolded with lucidity. A profound analysis of the waking, dream and deep sleep states by the seer and sage of deep insight.

Section 2 : The Individual and the Absolute 1.

The first Mantra of the Mandukya Upanishad describes the nature of Omkara and its connotation in relation to the whole universe. Now, it also denotes some object, as was pointed out earlier. It is a Universal Name which refers to a Universal Form in such a manner that the Name and the Form coalesce to constitute one Being. As the Name is Universal and the Form also is Universal, they have naturally to blend into a single existence, because we cannot have two Universals standing apart from each other.

There is, therefore, the Universal Name coalescing with the Universal Form; Nama and Rupa become one in this experience-whole. That experience is neither Nama nor Rupa, by itself. It is both, and yet neither. God is not merely a form denoted by a name, nor is He an object that can be described by any person. As all persons are included within the body of God, there is no naming God by any other entity outside it. Hence, in a sense, we may say that God is nameless.

Who can call Him by a name? Where is that person who can call Him by a name! As there is, therefore, essentially, no name, in the ordinary sense of the term, that can designate God, He cannot also be regarded as a Rupa or a form which corresponds to a Nama or a name. There is an indescribable something which is designated ultimately by Omkara or Pranava, and, being indescribable, it is visualised by a name that conveys the best of possible meanings.

Though it may itself have no name, and it cannot also be said to have any particular form, we, as Jivas, individuals here on earth, cannot envisage it in that transcendent nature. We have to conceive it in our minds before we can contemplate or meditate upon it for the sake of realisation.

This meaningful and suggestive designation of that indescribable, transcendent something, is Brahman, the Absolute.

To be continued ..


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