II   The Mathematics of Infinity — The Correct Sense of "Immutable" —  The Two Hemispheres — The Vedic Vedanta   The followers of Shankara argue that if the condition of absolute existence is that of an infinite divine oneness, there can be no room for our ordinary human ignorance, avidyā, which we have to outgrow by means of God-realisation. In other words, they ask how God can fully remain God, an infinite divine being, if the Ignorance is not an illusory but a real state produced by the Self as the creator; for a real Ignorance would seem to mean that God is not everything and therefore no

ENGLISH VERSION   1. Here is an unfolding1 of the Immutable who is all and whose name is OM.2 Whatsoever has been, is now and is yet to be is OM. Even that which is other than all this and beyond time is no other than OM.   2. All this is Brahman3 the Supreme, and the Supreme is Atman4 the true Self of all and this Self is fourfold.5   3. Seven-limbed, nineteen-mouthed, conscious of the external, the enjoyer of the gross whose field is the waking life — the first is Vaishwanara the Male Universal.6   4. Seven-limbed, nineteen-mouthed, conscious of the internal, the reveller in the subtle whose native dwelling is in Dream — the second is Taijasa the Ever-radia

    MANDUKYA UPANISHAD   MANDUKYA UPANISHAD   English Version, Notes and Commentary   K.D. SETHNA     Introduction by Dr. Robert Kleinman               The Integral Life Foundation P.O. Box 239 Waterford CT. 06385 USA First published 1995   (Typeset in 10.5/13 Palatino)               © Amal Kiran (K.D. Sethna) Published by The Integral Life Foundation, U.S.A. Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry PRINTED IN INDIA

-008_The Fourfold Atman-The Individual in the Eternal-Brahman as Brahmaloka-The Mandukya^s Pointers Towards an Integral Spirituality IV   The Fourfold Atman — The Individual in the Eternal — Brahman as Brahmaloka — The Mandukya's Pointers Towards an Integral Spirituality   In order to realise the fourfold Atman, the soul of man must be divinely able to possess the lower hemisphere. At present the ego-sense which is our first insistent experience hinders us from achieving with full wakefulness, in Space and Time, the divine status of our soul-existence. In Its spaceless and timeless being, Atman is always thus conscious but in Its frontal action here in self-conceptive extension and duration I

        COMMENTARY         I   The Right Setting and the True Implications   The Mandukya Upanishad, like the Isha, is a quintessence of all the Upanishads. No improvement can be made on Sri Aurobindo's remarkable translation of the Isha, nor can anything be added to his masterly exposition of it. What we may do with profit is to point out how the Mandukya, though belonging to a later and more Vedantic period than the earlier and more Vedic peroid of Indian spiritual experience, confirms and corroborates in general the main lines laid down in the Isha.1   The fundamental intuition of the Upanishads is that

III   The Vedic-Vedantic Truth of the Mandukya   It is a capital error, vitiating the original sense of the Upanishads no less than the Vedas, to regard the former scripture as a revolt against the latter. No doubt the sages of Vedanta inveighed in no mild expletives against the crude popular restriction of the Vedic images to their ritualistic surface-significance. But even in the Mundaka where the condemnation is at its most ruthless an undertone of deep reverence is discernible for the ancient forefathers who saw in their visions the path of divine works leading to Immortality. The fact that the true Yogi is said by the Mundaka to pass "through t

-007_Appendix—Sri Aurobindo^s Translation of the Hymn to vishnu—Rig Veda I.154 Appendix   Sri Aurobindo's translation of the Hymn to Vishnu — Rig Veda, I. 154   1. Of Vishnu now I declare the mighty works, who has measured out the earthly worlds and that higher seat of our self-accomplishing he supports, he the wide-moving, in the threefold steps of his universal movement.   2. That Vishnu affirms on high by his mightiness and he is like a terrible lion that ranges in the difficult places, yea, his lair is on the mountain tops, he in whose three wide movements all the worlds find their dwelling-place.   3. Let our strength and our thought go forward to Vishnu the all-pervadin

NOTES   1. Upavyākhyānam: Meaning an exposition which brings out the hidden significance. The term may be taken as a link-word indicating the apposition of the second to the first thought in the same verse. For what is implicit in His unmanifest being, the Divine makes explicit in the movement of the universe in Space and Time.   2. OM is spoken of as akṣara which means "immutable" as well as "fixed letter or sound"; the double sense, implied also in verse 8, seems intended to convey that this cosmic movement bears in its very play of variations the suggestion of a supracosmic Constant of which it is an expression.   3. Brahman. The term meant in the Vedas the sacred Word of Insp

INTRODUCTION   There have been numerous English translations of the Upanishads, especially the Mandukya which is short and exceedingly profound. The majority of these translations, however, have been made from the point of view of the traditional Indian systems of philosophy. In most cases, the translator has followed the commentaries of Shankara, the chief exponent of Adwaita Vedanta. This has produced an unfortunate imbalance in the Western student's understanding of the Upanishads, since Shankara's interpretation depends heavily on the illusionism commonly associated with the concept of māyā. It has not generally been realized that the teachings of the Upanishads are open to alterna