Mandukya Upanishad (4)

The fourth in the series of five sessions on the Mandukya Upanishad given at Mandala Yoga Ashram in 2002. Here we continue further with the text from the third verse.

Continuing verse three, Swamiji talks of the four quarters represented by the A, U and M of AUM and the fourth being a circle which encompasses the first three. The first quarter, Vaishwanara, the waking state, is symbolised by the ‘A’ of AUM. This is the waking state; the material world as it appears to the ego.

The most part of this recording is taken up by Swamiji’s explanation of the seven limbs and nineteen mouths which are mentioned in the text as the means by which the embodied being in the waking state communicates and acts in the waking world. This explanation has been omitted from some other published texts, so this is maybe one of the few places where you can find such an explanation.

In this verse, and also verse four, we come across the idea of this state of being having ‘seven limbs and nineteen mouths’. I erroneously stated that Swamiji gave no explanation in the recording, however in this recording we DO hear Swamiji’s explanation as follows:
the seven limbs being the six chakras plus Sahasrara,
and the nineteen mouths being
– the five gyana Indriyas (senses)
– the five karma Indriyas (organs of action)
– the five pranas (prana, apana etc)
– the Ahamkara (ego-sense)
– the Manas (functional mind, concerned with organising the body)
– the Chitta (subconscious) 
– the Buddhi (faculty of access to Awareness)

Following the discourse there is a guided meditation on the 4 levels our being symbolised by the glyph of OM (or AUM).

please enjoy…