The definition of Dharma is different for different people.
Action-oriented individuals always consider karma as their Dharma.
Religion-biased people always consider their religion as their Dharma.
Veda pundits consider VEDA AND PURANA as their Dharma.
An Army person will consider saving nation as his/her Dharma
A child considers taking care of parents as their Dharma.
In Bhagavad Gita , it is mentioned that Dharma is the side where Krishna stands. Henceforth, it becomes very easy to understand in every situation path which Krishna follows would be the righteous…
"Krishna was in support of Pandavas , so side of pandavas is the righteous path. Dharma is where Krishna is ..!!"
The consciousness has a Purush tatva and Prakriti. Be it a man or woman every one has Purusha and Prakriti in it .
Consciousness or Brahman was unmanifested matter, Prakriti helped it to manifest in it’s evolutes.
Tri Gunas i.e. Sattva, Rajas and Tamas are the evolutes of Prakriti
The ego ( self identity) is the evolute of Prakriti
The Cognitive Sense i.e. Jnanendriyas like hearing,touching,seeing tasting smelling is all evolutes of Prakriti.
The Active instruments i.e. karmendriyas i.e speaking, holding, moving, procreation,eliminating are evolutes of Prakriti.
Prakriti or Shakti allows us to exhale and inhale …. We usually think it’s the breath which is the prana. But, it’s the prakriti or Shakti that allows the air to fill the lungs. This is why we breathe.
Anything in motion, behind it is the Shakti. The voice from the throat is Shakti in various forms: Para, Prashanti, Madhyama, and Vaikhari. Behind sleep is Shakti which allows us to feel sleepy.
Behind thinking is Shakti which allows us to think.
Without Shakti the cosmos cannot operate … Anything in motion in this Universe is Shakti … If we follow the Shakti/Prakriti we will reach the Purusha or consciousness.
“Vedanta Nama Upanishad Pramana ~”. (Vedanta’s are the teachings of the Upanishads’s . The Philosophy based on the teaching of the Upanishads is Vedanta.
Most of you are familiar with the term Vedanta and the Upanishad to some extent . The Upanishad presents the highest philosophical teachings of the Vedas. These are among the most ancient text known to the mankind.
There is a long list of Upanishads . In fact , in one of the Upanishads called “Muktika Upanishads” we find a list of 108 Upanishads .
But among all of these Upanishads there are around 10 or 11 “major ” Upanishads .
Why major??? Because Adi Shankaracharya some 1200 or 1300 years ago chose these Upanishads to write his commentary (“Bhashyam”) on these Upanishads and since then these Upanishads have become the central text of “VEDANTA”
Adi Shankaracharya interpreted these Upanishads in a non-dualistic fashion , So his teaching are called as “Advaita Vedanta” .
Among all these Upanishad there is a one Upanishad which is the smallest and also regarded as the toughest and i.e. called as the “Mandukya Upanishad“.
There is a saying – ” mumukshunam vimuktaye Mandukyam ekam eva alam “
For the liberation of those who want spiritual Enlightenment ‘ for them Mandukya Upanishad alone is sufficient. In the ‘Atharva Veda’ this Upanishad can be found with 12 mantras.
In this Mandukya Upanishad the central Mantra is the 7th Mantra , which is the core mantra of the entire Upanishad which gives the highest possible and sophisticated answers.
Mandukya Upanishad was commented by “Gaudpadacharya ” and he wrote verses on the Mandukya Upanishads called Mandukya Karikas !!
Verse 1.13
द्वैतस्याग्रहणं तुल्यमुभयोः प्राज्ञतुर्ययोः ।
बीजनिद्रायुतः प्राज्ञः सा च तुर्ये न विद्यते ॥ १३ ॥
dvaitasyāgrahaṇaṃ tulyamubhayoḥ prājñaturyayoḥ |
bījanidrāyutaḥ prājñaḥ sā ca turye na vidyate || 13 ||
It means , “Dvaitam” a separate reality or Error is not seen by the ” prājñaḥ ” the deep sleeper and “Turiya” the pure consciousness. But, the ” prājñaḥ ” or the one who is in deep sleep is associated to Nidra (i.e Ignorance / blankness), where as, “Turiya” doesnot have ignorance (or deep sleep blankness) .
” prājñaḥ ” donot see dvaita (seperate reality) niether turiya see any seperate reality apart from it . But , ” prājñaḥ ” is covered in darnkness or blankness of deep sleep whereas , Turiya illumines everything!
Verse 1.12
नाऽऽत्मानं न परंश्चैव न सत्यं नापि चानृतम् ।
प्राज्ञः किंचन संवेत्ति तुर्यं तत्सर्वदृक्सदा ॥ १२ ॥
nā''tmānaṃ na paraṃścaiva na satyaṃ nāpi cānṛtam |
prājñaḥ kiṃcana saṃvetti turyaṃ tatsarvadṛksadā || 12 ||
The ‘prājñaḥ’ one who is in deep sleep does not know itself as an Atman..! It doesnot know the world (prapanch) also .. It doesnot know the truth that I am “Turiya”. It doesnot know the false world appearing infront of it (ānṛtam) चानृतम्.
किंचन संवेत्ति / prājñaḥ kiṃcana saṃvetti – The ‘prājñaḥ’ doesnot know anything i.e the state of deep sleeper !!.
and ,
How is Turiya different from It???the answer is – तुर्यं तत्सर्वदृक्सदा /turyaṃ tatsarvadṛksadā
i.e. It (Turiya) always illumines everything ! It is self illumined about itself and about the world . It is like the movie hall where the lights have come on with nothing on the screen …( blank screen) but the lights are on !
न अन्तःप्रज्ञम्। न वहिःप्रज्ञम्। न उभयतःप्रज्ञम्। न प्रज्ञानधनम्। न प्रज्ञम्। न अप्रज्ञम्। अदृष्टम् अव्यवहार्यम् अग्राह्यम् अलक्षणम् अचिन्त्यम् अव्यपदेश्यम् एकात्मप्रत्यसारं प्रपञ्चोपशमम् शान्तं शिवम् अद्वैतं चतुर्थं मन्यन्ते विवेकिनः । सः आत्मा सः विज्ञेयः ॥
Anvaya Transliteration
na antaḥprajñam | na vahiḥprajñam | na ubhayataḥprajñam| na prajñānadhanam| na prajñam| na aprajñam| adṛṣṭam avyavahāryam agrāhyam alakṣaṇam acintyam avyapadeśyam ekātmapratyasāraṁ prapañcopaśamam śāntaṁ śivam advaitaṁ caturthaṁ manyante ( vivekinaḥ )| saḥ ātmā saḥ vijñeyaḥ ||
Expanation of the Mantra
न अन्तःप्रज्ञम् / na antaḥprajñam – ‘YOU’ the ‘Turiya’ are not the dreamer
न वहिःप्रज्ञम् / na vahiḥprajñam – ‘YOU” the ‘Turiya’ are not the waker .
This means You are not the person named as Mr. SO & SO but “YOU” are the consciousness or Turiya illumining this temporary appearance of physcial body and mind in the waking state .
न उभयतःप्रज्ञम् / na ubhayataḥprajñam – ‘YOU’ the ‘TURIYA’ are not something in between waker or dreamer i.e state which is inbetween waking and dream .
न प्रज्ञानधनम् / na prajñānadhanam – ‘YOU’ the ‘TURIYA’ are not the Sleeper i.e. the person who is in a Deep Sleep or Sushupti state .
न प्रज्ञम्। न अप्रज्ञम् / na prajñam| na aprajñam – ‘YOU’ the ‘TURIYA” you are niether any kind of omniscient God ( Bhagwan or Ishwar) and niether you are Sentient ( जड़ वस्तु ) .
अदृष्टम् / adṛṣṭam – ‘YOU” the ‘TURIYA” is not an object of our five sense organs. It is not the subject of normal vision. You cannot see , smell , taste or hear the ‘TURIYA’
अव्यवहार्यम् / avyavahāryam – ‘YOU” the ‘TURIYA’ is not with in transaction. ( Transaction means usable)i.e. pure Consciousness is not an object which can be talked about , seen , felt and used . It is not transactable it is अव्यवहार्यम् . But, remember it is the ground source of all Vyavahar . Without this ‘Turiya’ none of this (touch, smell, see ,taste) can occur. In the light of Turiya everything is illumined.
अग्राह्यम् / agrāhyam – ‘YOU’ the ‘TURIYA” cannot be grasped . It is not the subject of the panch karma indriyas i.e You cannot hold ‘Turiya’ into your hands and you also cannot walk to a turiya just like you walk to pilgrimage . It is not possible to walk to Turiya.
अलक्षणम् / alakṣaṇam – ‘YOU’ the ‘TURIYA’ cannot be inferred.
For e.g if we say ‘the road is wet’ , then what do you infer that there was rain earlier thats why the road is wet . Similarly , There is fire on the hill because I could see smoke coming out of the hill . here there is a relation between smoke and fire .So, if i see smoke i can “infer” that there was fire earlier due to which there is smoke . But , it is not possible to infer TURIYA. Here ‘alakṣaṇam’ means there is no sign by which you can infer to TURIYA.
अचिन्त्यम् / acintyam – ‘YOU’ the ‘TURIYA’ cannot think about it . But, remember the opposite also holds – whatever you think about ,is illumined by the ‘TURIYA’.
अव्यपदेश्यम् / avyapadeśyam – It literally means you cannot name “TURIYA”. It cannot be named.
Shankarayacharya tried to explain this that why “TURIYA” cannot be named –
Where can we use language???there are 5 areas where language can be used but none of the 5 applies to the “TURIYA”. as mentioned below
We could use language if there is some species (जाति) .i.e if some object belongs to a class you could use language like e.g ‘COW’ as we know the characterstics of the cow we could match it with the set and say it belongs to that set . But there is NO class for “TURIYA” . it cannot be part of a class (जाति).
We could use language if there is some Quality (गुण): If you say ” Give me a Red flower ” you are distinguishing the other flowers from ‘Red Flower ‘ by the quality of its colour red. But You cannot say that ” TURIYA” is red or any other colour. “TURIYA” is beyond all quality it is supposed to be called as Nirgunam (निर्गुण).
We could use language if there is some Action (क्रिया) : For e.eg if you are saying ” Call the cook ” how did you use language , by the function of that person. But “TURIYA” has no activity , it is niShkriyaM (निष्क्रियं)
We could use language if there is some Relationship (संबंध) : e.g if you say call the teacher , that means there is a student teacher relation, here we are talking where we can address one as a student and another as teacher . But , with ‘TURIYA” there is no second apart from it , it is the only unchanging reality .
We could use language if there is Convention ( रूढि ) : e.g if you say ” this persons name is prakash”, to call somebody you have to point out to that person i.e. apart from all other objects this person is now on called as prakash . But you cannot point out “TURIYA” that way .
Hence ” LANGUAGE” cannot operate for “TURIYA”
एकात्मप्रत्यसारं / ekātmapratyasāraṁ – ‘Ek’ means one , ‘Atma’ means atma, ‘Prataya’ means congnition , ‘Saram’ means essence . The feeling of “Atmapratya” or I .
i.e. ” If you follow the essence of ‘I” ness (Conscious I in all states ) you shall reach “TURIYA”.
प्रपञ्चोपशमम् / prapañcopaśamam – “TURIYA” is completely untouched by the Jagrit Prapanch ( Waking state ), Swapna Prapanch ( dream state) and Sushupti ( deepsleep ) even though all these three states are illumined by the TURIYA.
शान्तं / śāntaṁ – TURIYA is absolutely Peaceful and ever undisturbed . There is no world to disturb the TURIYA. That is the reality of TURIYA.
शिवम् / śivam – Shivam here means TURIYA is anand swaroopam . It is full of Joy.
अद्वैतं / advaitaṁ – “Advaitam ” means non dual , because there is nothing apart from TURIYA , Just as GOLD is advaitam with respect to Bangle , necklace and Ring .
चतुर्थं मन्यन्ते विवेकिनः / caturthaṁ manyante ( vivekinaḥ ) : Foolish people think there is a 4th reality apart from remaining 3 but actually “TURIYA” is the only reality in whose light the entire game of the waking world ( Jagrit state ) , Dream world ( Swapna state ) and Deep Sleep ( Sushupti ) is illumined .
सः आत्मा सः विज्ञेयः / saḥ ātmā saḥ vijñeyaḥ :
“saḥ ātmā” means that, the answer to the question “who am i” is TURIYA .
“saḥ vijñeyaḥ” means it need to be realised . Just by listening about TURIYA wont work we need to realise it as well.
