Mandukya Upanishad Shankara Bhashya

Mandukya Karika, verse 4.26 Text चित्तं न संस्पृशत्यर्थं नार्थाभासं तथैव च । अभूतो हि यतश्चार्थो नार्थाभासस्ततः पृथक् ॥ २६ ॥ cittaṃ na saṃspṛśatyarthaṃ nārthābhāsaṃ tathaiva ca | abhūto hi yataścārtho nārthābhāsastataḥ pṛthak || 26 || 26. The mind is not related to the (external) object Nor are the ideas which appear as external objects, reflections upon the mind. It is so because the objects are non-existent and the ideas (which appear as external objects) are not separate from the mind....

Mandukya Karika, verse 4.27 Text निमित्तं न सदा चित्तं संस्पृशत्यध्वसु त्रिषु । अनिमित्तो विपर्यासः कथं तस्य भविष्यति ॥ २७ ॥ nimittaṃ na sadā cittaṃ saṃspṛśatyadhvasu triṣu | animitto viparyāsaḥ kathaṃ tasya bhaviṣyati || 27 || 27. The mind does not enter into causal relation in any of the three periods of time. How can the mind be ever subject to delusion, as there is no cause for any suck delusion? Shankara Bhashya (commentary)

Mandukya Karika, verse 4.28 Text तस्मान्न जायते चित्तं चित्तदृश्यं न जायते । तस्य पश्यन्ति ये जातिं खे वै पश्यन्ति ते पदम् ॥ २८ ॥ tasmānna jāyate cittaṃ cittadṛśyaṃ na jāyate | tasya paśyanti ye jātiṃ khe vai paśyanti te padam || 28 || 28. Therefore neither the mind nor the objects perceived by the mind are ever born. Those who perceive such birth may as well discover the foot-prints (of the birds) in the sky....

Mandukya Karika, verse 4.29 Text अजातं जायते यस्मात् अजातिः प्रकृतिस्ततः । प्रकृतेरन्यथाभावो न कथंचिद्भविष्यति ॥ २९ ॥ ajātaṃ jāyate yasmāt ajātiḥ prakṛtistataḥ | prakṛteranyathābhāvo na kathaṃcidbhaviṣyati || 29 || 29. (In the opinion of the disputants) that which is unborn is said to be born. For, its very nature is to be ever unborn. It is never possible for a thing to be other than what it is. Shankara Bhashya (commentary) For reasons already stated it is established that Brahman is one and unborn....

Mandukya Karika, verse 4.30 Text अनादेरन्तवत्त्वं च संसारस्य न सेत्स्यति । अनन्तता चाऽऽदिमतो मोक्षस्य न भविष्यति ॥ ३० ॥ anāderantavattvaṃ ca saṃsārasya na setsyati | anantatā cā''dimato mokṣasya na bhaviṣyati || 30 || 30. If the world be admitted to be beginningless (as some disputants assert), then it cannot be non-eternal. Mokṣa or liberation cannot have a beginning and be eternal. Shankara Bhashya (commentary) Here is another defect in the arguments of those who maintain that the Ātman is, in reality, subject1 to both bondage and liberation....

Mandukya Karika, verse 4.31-32 Text आदावन्ते च यन्नास्ति वर्तमानेऽपि तत्तथा । वितथैः सदृशाः सन्तोऽवितथा इव लक्षिताः ॥ ३१ ॥ सप्रयोजनता तेषां स्वप्ने विप्रतिपद्यते । तस्मादाद्यन्तवत्त्वेन मिथ्यैव खलु ते स्मृताः ॥ ३२ ॥ ādāvante ca yannāsti vartamāne'pi tattathā | vitathaiḥ sadṛśāḥ santo'vitathā iva lakṣitāḥ || 31 || saprayojanatā teṣāṃ svapne vipratipadyate | tasmādādyantavattvena mithyaiva khalu te smṛtāḥ || 32 || 31. That which is non-existent at the beginning and in the end, is necessarily so (non-existent) in the middle....

Mandukya Karika, verse 4.33 Text सर्वे धर्मा मृषा स्वप्ने कायस्यान्तनिदर्शनात् । संवृत्तेऽस्मिन्प्रदेशे वै भूतानां दर्शनं कुतः ॥ ३३ ॥ sarve dharmā mṛṣā svapne kāyasyāntanidarśanāt | saṃvṛtte'sminpradeśe vai bhūtānāṃ darśanaṃ kutaḥ || 33 || 33. All objects cognised in dream are unreal, because they are seen within the body. How is it possible for things, that are perceived to exist, to be really in Brahman which is indivisible and homogeneous. Shankara Bhashya (commentary) This and the following verses are meant to explain in detail one of the previous Kārikās which states that the (so-called) cause (of the opponent) is, really speaking, no cause at all....

Mandukya Karika, verse 4.34 Text न युक्तं दर्शनं गत्वा कालस्यानियमाद्गतौ । प्रतिबुद्धश्च वै सर्वस्तस्मिन्देशे न विद्यते ॥ ३४ ॥ na yuktaṃ darśanaṃ gatvā kālasyāniyamādgatau | pratibuddhaśca vai sarvastasmindeśe na vidyate || 34 || 34. It is not possible for a dreamer to go out in order to experience the (dream) objects on account of the discrepancy of the time involved in such journey. Again, on being awake, the dreamer does not find himself in the place (where he dreamed himself to be)....

Mandukya Karika, verse 4.35 Text मित्राद्यैः सह संमन्त्र्य संबुद्धौ न प्रपद्यते । गृहीतं चापि यत्किंचित् प्रतिबुद्धो न पश्यति ॥ ३५ ॥ mitrādyaiḥ saha saṃmantrya saṃbuddhau na prapadyate | gṛhītaṃ cāpi yatkiṃcit pratibuddho na paśyati || 35 || 35. The dreamer on being awake, realises as illusory all the conversation he had had with friends, etc., during the dream state. Further, he does not possess, in the waking state, anything which he had acquired in dream....

Mandukya Karika, verse 4.36-37 Text स्वप्ने चावस्तुकः कायः पृथगन्यस्य दर्शनात् । यथा कायस्तथा सर्वं चित्तदृश्यमवस्तुकम् ॥ ३६ ॥ svapne cāvastukaḥ kāyaḥ pṛthaganyasya darśanāt | yathā kāyastathā sarvaṃ cittadṛśyamavastukam || 36 || 36. The body active in dream is unreal as the other body, quite distinct from it, is perceived. Like the body, everything, cognised by the mind, is unreal. ग्रहणाज्जागरितवत्तद्धेतुः स्वप्न इष्यते । तद्धेतुत्वात्तु तस्यैव सज्जागरितमिष्यते ॥ ३७ ॥ grahaṇājjāgaritavattaddhetuḥ svapna iṣyate | taddhetutvāttu tasyaiva sajjāgaritamiṣyate || 37 ||...

Mandukya Karika, verse 4.38 Text उत्पादस्याप्रसिद्धत्वादजं सर्वमुदाहृतम् । न च भूतादभूतस्य संभवो'स्ति कथंचन ॥ ३८ ॥ utpādasyāprasiddhatvādajaṃ sarvamudāhṛtam | na ca bhūtādabhūtasya saṃbhavo'sti kathaṃcana || 38 || 38. All these are known as unborn, as their creation or evolution cannot be established as a fact. It is ever impossible for the unreal to be born of the real. Shankara Bhashya (commentary) (Objection)—Though the waking experiences are the cause of the dream ones, still the former cannot be unreal like the latter....

Mandukya Karika, verse 4.39 Text असज्जागरिते दृष्ट्वा स्वप्ने पश्यति तन्मयः । असत्स्वप्नेऽपि दृष्ट्वा च प्रतिबुद्धौ न पश्यति ॥ ३९ ॥ asajjāgarite dṛṣṭvā svapne paśyati tanmayaḥ | asatsvapne'pi dṛṣṭvā ca pratibuddhau na paśyati || 39 || 39. Being deeply impressed with the (reality of the) unreal objects which a man sees in the waking state, he sees those very things in dream as well. Moreover the unreal objects cognised in the dream are not seen again in the waking state....

Mandukya Karika, verse 4.40 Text नास्त्यसद्धेतुकमसत् सदसद्धेतुकं तथा । सच्च सद्धेतुकं नास्ति सद्धेतुकमसत्कुतः ॥ ४० ॥ nāstyasaddhetukamasat sadasaddhetukaṃ tathā | sacca saddhetukaṃ nāsti saddhetukamasatkutaḥ || 40 || 40. The unreal cannot have the unreal as its cause, nor can the real be produced from the unreal. The real cannot be the cause of the real. And it is much more impossible for the real to be the cause of the unreal....

Mandukya Karika, verse 4.41 Text विपर्यासाद्यथा जाग्रदचिन्त्यान्भूतवत्स्पृशेत् । तथा स्वप्ने विपर्यासात् धर्मास्तत्रैव पश्यति ॥ ४१ ॥ viparyāsādyathā jāgradacintyānbhūtavatspṛśet | tathā svapne viparyāsāt dharmāstatraiva paśyati || 41 || 41. As one in the waking state, through false knowledge, handles, as real, objects whose nature cannot be described; similarly; in dream also, one perceives, through false knowledge, objects whose existence is possible in that condition alone. Shankara Bhashya (commentary) This verse intends to remove the slightest possibility of the causal relation between the waking and the dream States, though both are unreal....

Mandukya Karika, verse 4.42 Text उपलम्भात्समाचारात् अस्तिवस्तुत्ववादिनाम् । जातिस्तु देशिता बुद्धैर् अजातेस्त्रसतां सदा ॥ ४२ ॥ upalambhātsamācārāt astivastutvavādinām | jātistu deśitā buddhair ajātestrasatāṃ sadā || 42 || 42. Wise men support causality only for the sake of those who, being afraid of absolute non-manifestation (of things), stick to the (apparent) reality of (external) objects on account of their perception (of such objects) and their faith in religious observances. Shankara Bhashya (commentary) Wise men, i....