Part 15 of 46
“Of the Upanishads, the Mandukya, by itself, is sufficient to enlighten.”
Adi Shankara
“Behold the chatushpat…the four layers of your being”
Mandukya Upanishad 1—1-4
Of all the great works of wisdom which collectively comprise the Vedanta, the Mandukya Upanishad is the smallest. With only 12 short verses, this phenomenal treatise fills up less than a quarter of an A4 page. Yet it ranks among the most potent.
Adi Shankara wrote a comprehensive treatise on it 21 centuries ago. His guru’s guru, Gaudapada also wrote a famous commentary. Every Indian mystic has commented on it, discussed it, been awed by it.
At the heart of the Mandukya is a vibrant model of your personal universe — the Chatushpat. The Sanskrit is easy enough to understand Chatur — four, Pat — way, layer, or quarter. The universe within, called ‘you’, has four layers. Grasp this scientifically, intuitively, emotionally and you are through to the first stage.
You are an entire universe, the roots of which go all the way to infinity. Since you live only on the surface, the waking state, you are unable to figure out the true quality of your being. Below the waking is your dreaming self,where you are vaguely aware of an internal being as images, feelings. Further below is the state of pure intelligence, which manages the 100 trillion cells of your body and knows everything that is happening to you at all times. This intelligence isn’t the brain or your IQ. It’s the stuff that designed your brain and manufactured it from the rice and dal your mom ate when she carried you.
From your waking state you cannot even begin to understand how powerful and complex it must be. The task it performs is truly mind boggling. If somehow you could touch this state of pure intelligence, you would intuitively grasp the extent of your real capability. But this is not all.
Behind this pure intelligence is the deep silence. The infinite. There is an intimate relationship between the two. The first is the deepest part of your finite being. The second is an indefinable part of infinity. It cannot be spoken of or described, but it is the ultimate source of your being. It is also the source of everything else in this universe. In that beautiful way everything and everybody is connected. This, in essence, is the model of your personal universe. Hold it as an abstraction in your mind for a while and let it grow on you.
To most of us the abstraction is as far as we can ever get. Acknowledging the intelligence and the silence is one thing while connecting with it is something else. Even though the intelligence is roaming everywhere, it is accessible nowhere. You cannot measure it, grasp it, or quantify it in any way. It remains till date, among the most elusive mysteries of science.
In fact some believe it is theoretically impossible to connect with because the mind is too small and insignificant to come to terms with an giant intelligence that created the mind in the first place.
The Mandukya Upanishad lays out a connection. A slender but strong lifeline to the deepest most hidden part of you. This is something we shall discuss next week.
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( Source: Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad 19th April 2009 )
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