Mandukya_Upanishad

What is the first state of the Ātman? It is Vaiśvānara.The Vaiśvānara, or Viśva, is the first manifestation of theĀtman, which can be compared with the first manifestationof the three-syllabled Praṇava, or Omkāra. Thejāgaritasthāna, or the waking condition of the Vaiśvānara,is the prathamapāda, or the first foot, of Praṇava or Om.Jāgaritasthāno vaisvanar-okarah prathama matra: Thejāgaritasthāna, or the waking condition of the Ātman,called the Viśva, or Vaiśvānara, is the first syllable of Om –akāra. Āpterādimatvadvā: ‘A’ is comparable, in a verypeculiar way, with the first phase of the Ātman. All states ofconsciousness, relatively speaking at least, begin with thewaking state, in which the other states, viz. dream andsleep, may be said to be comprehended. From the point ofview of the jīva – not from the point of view of Īsvara – thewaking condition is the cause, and dream and sleep may beregarded as its effects. If dream is the effect of impressionsof perceptions in the waking state, sleep is a condition inwhich all the unfulfilled impressions are wound up into alatent state, ready for manifestation, subsequently. In thissense, we may say that the waking state is the beginning ofthe other states. Likewise, ‘A’ is the beginning of all letters,the first syllable in the series of letters in the alphabet; andin this akāra all other word-formations are said to becontained, because the moment you open your mouth tospeak, the sensation is towards the utterance of ‘A’. And,thus, it is regarded by the Upanishad as the beginning ofword-formation. This beginning of word-formation iscompared with the beginning of experiences inconsciousness, which is the waking state. This condition of112