नान्तःप्रज्ञं न बहिःप्रज्ञं नोभयतःप्रज्ञं न प्रज्ञानघनं न प्रज्ञं नाप्रज्ञम् ।
अदृष्टम् अव्यवहार्यम् अग्राह्यम् अलक्षणम् अचिन्त्यम् अव्यपदेश्यम् एकात्मप्रत्ययसारं प्रपञ्चोपशमं शान्तं शिवम् अद्वैतं चतुर्थं मन्यन्ते ।
स आत्मा स विज्ञेयः
nāntaḥprajñaṃ na bahiḥprajñaṃ nobhayataḥprajñaṃ na prajñānaghanaṃ na prajñaṃ nāprajñam |
adṛṣṭam avyavahāryam agrāhyam alakṣaṇam acintyam avyapadeśyam ekātmapratyayasāraṃ prapañcopaśamaṃ śāntaṃ śivam advaitaṃ caturthaṃ manyante |
sa ātmā sa vijñeyaḥ
Not inwardly conscious, not outwardly conscious, not conscious both ways, not a mass of consciousness, neither conscious nor unconscious; unseen, beyond transaction, ungraspable, without marks, unthinkable, indefinable; its essence is the certitude of the one Ātman; the stilling of the unfolded world, tranquil, auspicious, non-dual — such do they consider the Fourth. He is the Ātman, He is to be known.
ce3a19fc6a0f · प्रकाशित 26 जुल॰ 2026, 7:21:18 pm UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
The most celebrated mantra of the Māṇḍūkya — on Turīya, "the Fourth". First the ladder of states is taken away: not antaḥ-prajña (not dream), not bahiḥ-prajña (not waking), not "both ways" (not the border of drowsiness), not prajñāna-ghana (not deep sleep), na prajñaṁ nāprajñam — "neither cognising [objects] nor unconscious": the Fourth is not a fourth rung in the series but that which lies outside the series: the screen is not one of the frames. Then the grip of the mind is taken away: unseen, ungraspable, without marks (a-lakṣaṇa), unthinkable, indefinable: every definition turns its object into a thing — and the Ground is not a thing.
Yet the Upaniṣad does not leave us in a void of negations — it gives affirmations too: ekātma-pratyaya-sāram — "its very being is the certitude of the one Ātman": the Fourth is recognised as the indubitable "I AM" beneath all states — that self-evidence which needs no proof; prapañcopaśamam — "the stilling of the unfolded" (prapañca — the world as expansion, motley multiplicity): not the destruction of the world but the quieting of its tyranny; śāntam — tranquil; śivam — auspicious, gracious (!); advaitam — "without a second": there is no second, rival reality — all that is, is His.
Note: the Fourth is not a "fourth state" but sa ātmā — "He is the Ātman", the very one of whom mantra 6 said: the Lord of all, the Inner Ruler. advaita here is not the effacing of persons (the Upaniṣad has just given Him four personal titles!) but the absence of anything whatever outside Him: the Bhāgavatam (11.15.16) calls the Lord turīya — "the Fourth, transcending the three [guṇas and states]". sa vijñeyaḥ — "He is to be known": the command for whose sake all the rest was said — not to be understood but to be known, to be entered as one enters light.