The Living Mandukya Upanishad

The Mandukya Upanishad By Jayaram V	The Living Mandukya Upanishad By The Man Who Saw God Face To Face
The Mandukya Upanishad belongs to the Atharvaveda. Although it contains only 12 verses, the Mandukya Upanishad occupies an important place in the development of Indian philosophical thought, following a commentary or Karika on it by Gaudapada, who is believed to be a teacher of Adi Shankaracharya's teacher. Gaudapada's Karika on the Upanishad became the basis for the emergence of the Advaita Vedanta or the philosophy of monism, according to which Brahman alone is the truth and the rest is an illusion. The Upanishad deals with the symbolic significance of the sacred syllable Aum and its correlation with the four states of consciousness, namely the wakeful consciousness, dream state, the state of deep sleep or dreamless sleep and the state of transcendental consciousness in which all divisions and duality disappears and the self alone exists in its pure state, all by itself.	God is truth. He is spirit. Everything is a manifestation of the same God. But not everything is God. For example, the car is not God, but it manifests what God can do.
1. This syllable AUM is verily all this This is the explanation about AUM:	1. God is spirit. Spirit is all there is. The same spirit pervades the entire universe and is still separate from the universe, just as an electric bulb is outside the insects that swarm about it and still all the insects are within the bulb’s light.
The past, the present and the future are AUM, And That beyond these three is also AUM.	The past, present and future form the eternity. What people call Eternity is the Eternal Now. Tie does not exist. Only now exists. This now is everlasting. Hence, God sees all things and knows all things at the same time. It like you would have a very large circle. When you look at it in terms of time, you see a circle (i.e. past, present and future). When you look at the same time in terms of now, you see only a line. In other words, time does not exist. Time is an illusion caused by sequence of events. God is not time. Time is not God. God is. Time is not.
2. Brahman is indeed all this. This self in us is also Brahman. And this self has four planes.	2. The same one God pervades the entire universe, just as the sun pervades the environment by its sunlight. The sun is outside the earth, controlling the earth by revolution. The same sun, as light, is inside the earth’s atmosphere, sustaining life, and is inside the ground, as heat, empowering reaction. The sun, its heat, flame and light are one and inseparable.
3. Vaisvanara is the first stage. Wakeful, outwardly conscious, With seven limbs and nineteen mouths, He is the enjoyer of the gross objects.	3. Being mindful of physical objects. This is where problem starts for many people. They mistake their bodies as their real selves. You are not the body. You are not flesh. You are spirit, which indwells, wears and drives the body about. The body is just like a dress, a garment, a mobile house. Your life at this stage is expected to be very temporary, just for a while. The problem is that many refuse to leave this stage of life and advance to higher stages of life, the higher stages of consciousness. Majority of mankind are at this level of awareness, despite their claims of being believers or worshippers of God.
4. Taijasa is the second stage. Dreaming, inwardly conscious, With seven limbs and nineteen mouths, He is the enjoyer of the subtle objects.	4. The next stage is seeking for the truth by meditation, by inward thinking and inquiry. It is unfortunate that majority do not spend time to think about God and life. Therefore, they fail to know the things they should know about God and life.
5. In deep sleep, seeking no desires, Dreaming no dreams, unified into The mass of greater consciousness, Full of bliss, enjoying bliss only, Face turned towards Chetasa, Is Pragna the third stage.	6. the stage of bliss, the ability to separate yourself from the world and experience inner peace, joy and contentment which the world cannot give. It is the stage of detachment or non-possessiveness.
6. This is the Master of All, the Omniscient, The Inmost Dweller and source of Creation and destruction of all beings.	6. the stage at which you begin to attain God: to see Him, hear Him, touch Him, know Him and experience Him.
7. Conscious neither internally nor externally, Nor either ways, neither ordinary consciousness, Nor the greater and the deeper consciousness, Invisible, otherworldly,	7. the stage at which you experience the Invisible, that becomes visible; otherworldly,
incomprehensible,	comprehensible but inexhaustible,
Without qualities,	With unmanifest qualities and can express diverse qualities
beyond all thoughts,	beyond all thoughts, far more than what have ever imagined, and yet glorious.
Indescribable,	Spiritually describable, but physically Indescribable,
the unified soul in essence,	the Supreme Being, undivided
Peaceful, auspicious, without duality, Is the fourth stage, that self, that is to be known.	Peaceful, auspicious, without duality, Is the fourth stage, that self, that is to be known. The ultimate knowledge, when one becomes on e with God.
8. The same Atman is AUM among the syllables, Each syllable in the word AUM is a stage. They Are the letter A, the letter U and the letter M.	There is only one true God. He Is The First, The Only And The Last. The Beginning and The End.
9. The wakeful Vaishwanara is the First letter "A", being the first letter and All pervasive. He who knows thus realizes All his desires and becomes foremost too.	9. Begin to seek the knowledge of the truth, and continue to seek until you find.
10. The dreaming Taizasa is the second Letter "U", being superior and situated in The middle. He who knows thus attains Knowledge and children equally and none In his family would be ignorant of Brahman	10. If you experience health problem or confusion, stop for a while.
11. In the world of deep sleep, Pragna, is the Third letter "M", being the limit and the end of All diversity. He who knows thus is free from All diversity and becomes one with the Self.	11. God is the ultimate. He who knows thus is free from All diversity and becomes one with the Self.
12. The fourth state is without parts and entanglements, Not bound to this world, It is auspicious and non-dual. Thus the form of AUM is verily the Self itself. He who knows thus enters into his own Self by himself.	12. The highest and ultimate stage is to attain God. You attain God by seeking Him alone, seeing Him, hearing Him, touching, knowing Him, experiencing Him and becoming one with Him. Remark the word alone. This is the thread that prevents people from attaining God, because they combine other things with God and therefore fail in the spiritual endeavour. The other things are idols, sacramental, Virgin Mary, saints, desires etc. You can only find God when you seek Him alone. The scriptures are very clear on this condition. “13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13 Jesus confirmed it, saying, “37 Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' ” Matthew 22:37 When you love God with all your heart, you love all because God is in all. When you love God with all your heart, you have no worship for any other thing, because there is no other god to be worshipped. The truth is that spirit does things by intention and attention. Likewise, you as a spirit do things by intention and attention. The moment your intention or attention is diverted, you are left behind. You may ask, “Why does God answer prayer when a person prays to the Angels or saints?” The answer is very simple. God answers out of mercy and consideration, knowing that majority are ignorant, and cannot distinguish between their right and left hands. That is what is called divine grace. In the same way a parent supplies the need of a baby, even though the baby cannot correctly pronounce the name of what its wants.