Mandukya_Upanishad

peaceful. But the peace of the Ātman is eternal, and mostblessed is that state. It is śivam: It is the only thing that canbe called really auspicious, designated by the most blessedterms, ‘Om’ and ‘Atha’. Praṇava is its designation, in itsSelf-comprehensiveness. Advaitam: Non-dual is that state.We cannot even call it as the One. It is ‘Not-two’ – that isall; because, to say that it is one, would be to denote it by anumerical figure. It is not one, because there is nothingother than it. We can only say, ‘it is not-two’ – advaita. TheUpanishad, after having said that it is eka (One), now saysthat it is advaita (Non-dual). We should not call it as one,or eka, because ‘one’ has a relation to ‘two’, ‘three’, ‘four’,etc. It is non-relational; therefore, we should not describe iteven as one. It is ‘not-this, not-this’ – ‘neti, neti’. It is notthis, and not that; not anything that we can think, orunderstand.Caturtham manyante, sa ātmā: This is the fourth stateof Consciousness, which is called the Ātman. It is called thefourth, not numerically, but in comparison with the threerelative states of waking, dream and sleep. When you go tothis fourth state, you do not feel that you are in a ‘fourthstate’. You are, then, in the only possible state. It is thetranscendence of the three, not in a fourth, but in anumberless, figureless, quantityless, immeasurable Being.This is the Ātman. This is our essential nature, and theessential nature of all things. We are the Ātman, which doesnot wake, dream or sleep which does not restrict itself tothe outer or the inner. The Ātman is the sole Being of allbeings, Existence of all existences, ‘sat’ of all ‘sat’, ‘chit’ of107