Mandukya Upanishad – 1

 

Introduction & Shanthi Mantra

Upanishad means BrahmaVidya, knowledge of Brahman, the Cosmic Supreme.  The word Upanishad primarily refers to the knowledge of the Brahman, and secondarily to the book that contains the knowledge of Brahman.  Upanishads form the end portion of Vedas, Veda anta bhaga, and so are called Vedanta as well. Since this portion deals with the knowledge of Brahman and its realization and gives the knowledge of jiva, the individual, jagat, the universe and their relationship with each other and with Brahman, this is the philosophical portion of Vedas and is called the jnana khanda.  The earlier portion of Vedas, Veda purva bhaga, deals only with karmas and upasanas and is called the karma khanda.  So while karma khanda focusses on action, the end portion, Veda anta bhaga, called Jnana khanda focusses on knowledge.

Vedas are divided into sakhas.  Each sakha contains an Upanishad.  Originally the Vedas had 1180 sakhas, of which many are lost now.  So we are now having 108 Upanishads only instead of 1180.  Out of these 108, the ten Upanishads for which Sri Aadhi Sankara had written commentaries are referred to as mukhya Upanishads. Mandukya Upanishad is a mukhya Upanishad and belongs to Atharvana Veda and is named after the sage Manduka, with whom it is associated.  It is the shortest of the ten mukhya Upanishads with just 12 Mantras but “presents the quintessence of the entire Upanishadic teaching” according to Swami Chinmayananda.   Mukthika Upanishad states “Mandukya by itself is capable of leading an aspirant to Liberation (Mandukyam ekam kevalam mumukshunam vimuktaye)”.   For Mandukya Upanishad Sri Gaudapadacharya, guru of Sri Aadhi Sankara has written a detailed explanatory analysis called Mandukyakarika consisting of 215 karikas or verses of analysis.  The importance of Mandukyakarika can be seen from the fact that for a student of Vedanta, the study of this Upanishad is not deemed complete without the study of Mandukyakarika as well.  The 12 Mantras of the Upaishad plus the 215 karikas are divided into 4 chapters.  The first chapter is called Agamaprakaraṇam (Vedic text). This chapter contains the entire Upanishad and 29 karikas. The second chapter is called Vaitathyaprakaraṇam (unreality of the objective world) containing 38 karikas on the mithya nature of the universe. The third chapter is titled Advaitaprakaraṇam (non-dualism) containing 48 karikas dealing with the non-dual nature of Athma. The fourth chapter is called Alatasantiprakaraṇam (quenching the fire-brand) containing 100 karikas, which answers all the possible objections to the teaching contained in the Upanishad.  We will deal with the main Upanishad only in these blogs.

This Upanishad opens with the peace invocation (shanthi Mantra), which is unique to all upanishads belonging to Atharvana Veda. Through this peace invocation the student prays for 1) sound physical, intellectual and emotional health, 2) A full life of worshipful attitude to all devas and 3) freedom from all types of obstacles that may hinder successful completion of the study and understanding of the Upanishad.  Swami Vivekananda interprets the first two lines of this shanthi mantra as” Let positive strong helpful thoughts enter into our brain from childhood”

The shanthi Mantra, which is self-explanatory, runs as:

“Om bhadram karnebhih shrunuyaama devaah Bhadram pashyemaakshabhiryajatraah I Sthirairangaistushtuvaamsastanoobhih Vyashema devahitam yadaayuh I Swasti na indro vridhashravaah Swasti nah pooshaa vishwavedaah I Swasti nastaarkshyo arishtanemihSwasti no brihaspatir dadhaatu.II  Om shantih, shantih, shantih!  II” 

Om, O Devas, may our ears hear what is good and auspicious! May we see what is auspicious! May we sing your praise, live our allotted span of life in perfect health and strength! May Indra (who is) extolled in the scriptures, Surya, the all-knowing, Garuda, who saves from all harm, and Brihaspati who protects our spiritual lustre, vouchsafe prosperity in our study of the scriptures and the practice of the truths contained therein! Om peace, peace, peace!

The shanti Mantra ends with “Om shantih, shantih, shantih!”  where Om is the sound representation of Brahman and  ‘shantih’ stands for the peace that comes from the removal of obstacles to the successful pursuit of study of Upanishad.  The obstacles are classified into three types.  These are:

1. Adhyathmikam – Obstacles arising from within oneself like one’s personal ill-health, negative mood etc. 
2. Aadhi bauthikam – Obstacles arising from other known sources or external situations like ill-health of a family member, noisy neighbourhood etc.
3. Aadhi daivikam – obstacles arising from unseen sources like floods, storm etc.

Mantra 1 let us see in the next blog.

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