Consciousness as per Mandukya Upanishad

Mandukya Upanishad is an important Upanishad. Some people also consider it as the most important one. It's said "Mandukyam ekam eva alam mumukshunam vimuktaye" - For the sake of the liberation of the soul, one Upanishad is sufficient, the Mandukya Upanishad, provided it is understood properly in its deep connotations.

The Mandukya Upanishad explains our true nature in very logical way. The vivid explainations given by this upanishad tempted me to convert these concepts in mathematical form as follows -

Human individual is a microscopic specimen of entire creative process of the cosmos. The layers or degrees of reality which constitute the composition of the universe of creation are also found in the human individual. They are called as Koshas. There are five koshas which are called as Annamaya Kosh, Pranomaya Kosh, Manomaya Kosh, Vijnanamaya Kosh and Anandamaya Kosh in the Sanskrit. In english they are called physical, vital, mental, intellectual and causal sheaths.

Each of these sheaths have particular functionalities. For example Annamaya Kosh (Physical Sheath) has functions of sensory perceptions, motor actions, generative and excretive actions. Pranomaya Kosh has functions of breathing, swallowing food etc. So let's represent these functions as f1, f2, f3..fn. Then each of the sheath can be represented by set of these functions.

Annamaya Kosh - set A = {f1,f2,...,fa}
Pranomaya Kosh - set P = {fa+1,...,fb}
Manomaya Kosh - set M = {fb+1,...fc}
Vijnanamaya Kosh - V = {fc+1..,fd}
Anandamaya Kosh - N = {fd+1..,fn}

When we are awake, all the senses are very active, physically and mentally. The Mandukya Upanishad tells us that we enjoy, experience and contact things in nineteen ways in the waking state. So it's said that the Consicouness has 19 mouths. They can be considered as funcions f1...f19 given above. Briefly, they are as follows

Five sense of knowledge (Jnanya Indriyas) - seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching : f1,f2...,f5

Five organs of action (Karma Indriyas) - grabbing, locomotion, speech, excretion, reproduction : f6,f7...f10

Five functions of life energies (Pranas) - inhalation (Apana), exhalation (Prana), blood circulation (Vyana), intake of food automatically through esophagus (Udana), digestion (Samana): f11,f12...f15

Four functions of mind - manas (overall indeterminate awareness or thinking), buddhi (intellect process of decision making), Ahamkara (self-consciousness), Chitta (subconscious mind and memory) : f16...f19

We in our life experience three states-
1. We are awake
2. We are in a dream state during sleep
3. We are in deep dreamless sleep

Now, In waking state all five sheaths are active. All functions are working together so we can define consciousness 'I' as


I = { A U P U M U V U N }


In dream state all other sheaths except Annamaya Kosh are active. Our mind (Manomaya Kosh) actually projects the effect of real physical world. We eat in out dreams, we also breath in our dreams. So Pranomaya kosh is also active. However, The intellectual sheath (Vijnanamaya Kosh) is in little diminished state. All it's functionalities are not available in dream state. So lets define a set SV as subset of V.

Although physical senses and actions are absent, we have our dream legs, dream hands, dream tongue dream nose. We hear, smell and also taste in our dreams. So, in dream state also all the nineteen mouths are operating ! But they are actually projected purely by mind and physical senses are closed. So that means 'I' essentially is not our physical body. That means we can deduct Annamaya Kosh from our original definition of 'I'. So we can redefine 'I' as -


I = { P U M U SV U N }


Now the main point of Mandukya Upanishad comes-

The third state is of deep sleep which we can call as absence of everything.. that means there is nothing. It's truly nothing because in that state we are not even aware of that nothingness. So deep sleep S = {}. Can we say that it is really a null set ?

Ok, let's look at it in following way. There is nothing in deep sleep... so then what is happening there ? are we dead ? No. Then who tells us that we exist during that state ? When we get up, we ourselves conclude, "I am the same person now that I was before I slept yesterday." Therefore by deductive reasoning, we can conclude that I must have been existing in deep sleep also ! Then am I the same person that existed before I went to sleep or am I different one ? I am the same person ! That means Consciousness maintains continuity between yesterday's and today's experience. So, again by applying deductive reasoning, we can say that consciousness must have existed in state of deep sleep also. During the deep sleep we did not exist as a body, mind, intellect, or anything else. We did not even know that we were breathing at that time. But we did exist as Consciousness alone. If we can exist without all these appurtenances like Manas, Buddhi, Chitta and even Ahamkar then that means we are not our mind, our intellect or even not our self-consciousness (Ahamkar) ! So what we are really ? We are pure Consciousness (Shuddha Chaitanya). Because if I can exist minus something, then that thing from which I am withdrawn is not me, really speaking. So in deep sleep we exist in form of pure Consciousness or Anandamaya Kosh. So we can redefine 'I' as only Anandamaya Kosh or Pure Consciousness


I = AN

To be Continued in next blog....