The Philosophy of the Upanishads c11.s3.t2: 2. The Waking State

The Philosophy of the Upanishads c11.s3.t2

Language: English

2. The Waking State

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“The *Vais’vânara*, that exists in a waking condition, recognising external objects, with seven limbs and nineteen mouths, enjoying that which is material, is his first quarter.”¹ The âtman in the first of the four states, that of waking, is said to be “seven-limbed” because, according to Chând. 5. 18. 2, whence the name *vais’vânara* is derived, it consists of sky, sun, wind, ether, water, earth and (sacrificial) fire, and recognises this its cosmical being by means of its “nineteen-mouthed” (ten indriyas, five prâṇas, manas, buddhi, ahaṅkâra, c’ittam) psychical being. Thus it enjoys the world of “material” objects. Kaivalya 12 may be quoted in explanation:—

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¹ Mâṇḍ. 3.

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When his soul is blinded by mâyâ,
It inhabits the body and accomplishes actions;
By women, food, drink, and many enjoyments,
It obtains satisfaction in a waking condition.

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As these passages already indicate, it is his own being alone which in the waking state the *vais’vânara* evolves out of himself and enjoys as the world of material objects. On this the relation of waking and dreaming depends, which is already indicated in Ait. 1. 3. 12 there are ascribed to the âtman “three dream-states” (*trayaḥ svapnāḥ*), by which, according to the commentators, waking, dreaming and deep sleep are to be understood. Even waking is a dream-state, because in it, as Śaṅkara remarks on this passage, “a waking of one’s own real self does not occur, and a false reality is contemplated, just as in a dream.”¹ This connection of waking with the dream-state is discussed in great detail by Gauḍapāda in the Mâṇḍûkya-kârikâ. Waking, like dreaming, is a delusion, since it reflects for us a manifold universe;² the perceptions of waking, just like those of a dream, have their origin solely within us,³ and have no other existence than in the mind of him who is awake.⁴ And as the reality of the dream is dissipated on awakening, so, on the other hand, the waking reality is dissipated by the oblivion of the dream.⁵ The same thought may perhaps be traced as early as Bṛh. 4. 3. 7, where the knowledge and initiative of the âtman are first explained as merely apparent, and then the reason for this is assigned, that the âtman in the dream transcends the unreal phenomena of waking:—“it is as though he meditated, it is as though he moved about; for⁶ in sleep he transcends this world and the forms of death.” Just as a fish swims between two banks without touching them, so the âtman between the states of waking and dreaming;⁷ from waking he hastens to dreaming, and from this again “back to the waking state; but by nothing which he sees therein is he affected; for nothing cleaves to this spirit.”⁸