A Constructive Survey of Upanishadic Philosophy c9.s2.3

c9.s2.3

as well as with the fourth dimension of metaphysics, namely the Ātman. The Vaiśvānara is the enjoyer of gross things, as the Taijasa is the enjoyer of the subtle. The Prājña is described as the equivalent of what philosophy calls God, “the Lord of all, the all-knowing, the inner controller of all, the origin and end of all beings.” Contrasted with these stands the Ātman, which is the Māṇḍukyan equivalent of what philosophy calls the Absolute. It is described as “neither inwardly nor outwardly cognitive, nor yet on both sides together. It is not a cognition-mass, and is neither knower nor not-knower. It is invisible, impractiable, incomprehensible, indescribable, unthinkable, and unpointable. Its essence is the knowledge of its own self. It negates the whole expanse of the universe, and is tranquil and blissful and without a second” (S. 12). The spiritual significance of the psycho-metaphysical correspondence of the parts of Om lies in the great help that is supposed to be given by meditation on it in intuiting the Ātman in the Turyā state of consciousness after a negation of the other kinds of Soul in the other states of consciousness. Nowhere else as in the Māṇḍukya Upanishad do we find such an exaltation of Om, and the great value for spiritual life of meditation by means of that symbol.