The Māndūkya Upaniṣad

By Victor M Fontane

The Māndūkya Upaniṣad belongs to the Atharvaveda and contains only twelve verses. It is an exposition of the principal of Aum as consisting of three elements, a, u, m, which symbolically refers to the three states of wakefulness, dream and dreamless sleep. This Supreme Reality, Aum, is the very Self. The Upaniṣad by itself, it is said, is enough to lead one to liberation by establishing the Self in the symbolic state of dreamless sleep all the time.

1. Everything is Aum. All that is the past, the present and the future, all this is only Aum. And whatever else there is beyond the threefold time, that too is only Aum. (The syllable Aum, which is the symbol of Brahman, stands for the manifested world, the past, the present and the future, as well as the un-manifested absolute.) - Verse 1

2. All this is Brahman and Brahman is the Self. - Verse 2

3. It is the lord of all, it knows all beings and it is the inner controller; it is the inner controller; it is the beginning and end of all beings. - Verse 6

4. It is the Self, which is the nature of the syllable Aum. It is the deepest essence of all beings. - Verse 8

5. Vaiśvānara, whose sphere of activity is the state of wakefulness is the letter a, the first element. He who knows this, obtains all desires; also, he becomes first. (It is called Vaiśvānara because it leads all creature of the universe in diverse ways to the enjoyment of various sense objects. Waking state is the normal condition of the natural man, who without reflection accepts the universe as he find it.) - Verse 9

6. Taijasa, whose sphere of activity is the dream state, is the letter u, is the second element. He who knows this exalts the continuity of knowledge. (Taijasa is the conscious of the internal or mental state. While the Vaiśvānara cognises material objects in the state of wakefulness, the Taijasa experiences the mental states dependent on the disposition left by the state of wakefulness. In this state the being fashions its own world in the imagining of the dreams.) - Verse 10

7. Prajña, whose sphere of activity is the state of deep sleep, is the letter m, to measure. He who knows this knows everything. (Where one, being fast asleep, does not desire any desire whatsoever and does not see any dream, that is deep sleep. The name given to this state is Prajña. It is a state of knowledge. In deep sleep no derise, no thought is left, all impressions have become one, only knowledge and bliss remain.) - Verse 11

8. Thus the syllable Aum is the very self. He who knows this, thus establishes the self in the Self through the self. - Verse 12

This means that one must strive to attain the state of dreamless sleep all the time, even in the state of wakefulness and dreaming. In the waking state we are bound by the fetters of sense-perception and desire. In the dream state we have a greater freedom, as the self makes a world of its own, out of the materials of the walking world. In dreamless sleep the Self is liberated from the empirical world and from the individuality as a self-contained unit.

This state, in which one is free from all phenomenal relationships, must be attained. One must strive to establish the Self in a dreamless sleep like state all the time and under all circumstances. By doing this, man becomes one with Aum.