Mandukya_Upanishad

symbolic, as the comparison of Brahman to the rope andthe world to the snake seen in the rope, in the analogy ofthe snake-in-the-rope, is symbolic. When you say,Brahman is like the rope, it does not mean that Brahman islong like the rope. The analogy is limited to the symbologyintended; and likewise we have to take this comparison as asymbology to help meditation on the unity of all names andforms, comprehended in the unity of Omkāra with theĀtman in all its phases. Thus, ukāra being elevated aboveakāra, existing midway between akāra and makāra, iscomparable with the dreaming state, which is elevatedabove the waking state as an effect of it, and exists betweenthe waking and the deep sleep states. Utkarṣhati ha vaijñāna-santatim: And one who meditates in this manner,rises in his status of knowledge. As ‘U’ is raised over ‘A’,and dream is raised over waking, the knowledge of themeditator rises above all the ordinary informativeunderstanding of the schools of thought. He becomes a realknower, a jñānin, by a meditation on the unity of ukārawith the taijasa. Samānasca bhavati: Just as there is anequilibrating effect of taijasa in relation to the waking andsleep states, in the sense that it is conscious like waking, andyet not externally conscious in the same sense, just as thereis an equalising effect of ukāra between akāra and makāra,one who meditates thus becomes an equalising factor insociety and in all creation. One becomes a harmonisingelement everywhere. There is no conflict in one’s mind,then, and one does not create conflict in society whenestablished in this meditation. One has peace withinoneself, and creates peace outside, too, on account of the115