Akara
Akāra (IAST)Translation: the letter "A"
From Mandukya Upanishad (Verse 8, Verse 9)
A Sanskrit-English Dictionary (Monier-Williams)
Sanskrit: अकार
Transliteration: A-kāra
Translation: "the letter or sound a"
Mundaka and Mandukya Upanishads (Swami Sharvananda)
Sanskrit: अकार
Transliteration: Akāra
Translation: "the letter A"
Definition: "According to the Sanskrit orthography, A is the primal sound, which is included in all other sounds or letters utterable by man. It is produced by the wind striking the larynx, the very first part of the sounding board of the mouth, as it were. And hence, all other sounds produced by other parts of the mouth must necessarily include this primal note. In this sense, the blessed Lord says in the Gītā that of all letters, he is the letter A."
The Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad (Swami Krishnananda)
Sanskrit: अकार
Transliteration: Akāra
Commentary: "What is the first state of the Ātman? It is Vaiśvānara. The Vaiśvānara, or Viśva, is the first manifestation of the Ātman, which can be compared with the first manifestation of the three-syllable Praṇava, or Oṃkāra. The Jāgarita-Sthāna, or the waking condition of the Vaiśvānara, is the Prathamā Pāda, or the first foot, of Praṇava or Om. Jāgarita-Sthāna Vaiśvānaro’kāraḥ Prathamā Mātrā: The Jāgarita-Sthāna, or the waking condition of the Ātman, called the Viśva, or Vaiśvānara, is the first syllable of Om – Akāra. Āpterādimattvādvā: ‘A’ is comparable, in a very peculiar way, with the first phase of the Ātman. All states of consciousness, relatively speaking at least, begin with the waking state, in which the other states, viz. dream and sleep, may be said to be comprehended. From the point of view of the Jīva – not from the point of view of Īśvara – the waking condition is the cause, and dream and sleep may be regarded as its effects. If dream is the effect of impressions of perceptions in the waking state, sleep is a condition in which all the unfulfilled impressions are wound up into a latent state, ready for manifestation, subsequently. In this sense, we may say that the waking state is the beginning of the other states. Likewise, ‘A’ is the beginning of all letters, the first syllable in the series of letters in the alphabet; and in this Akāra, all other word-formations are said to be contained, because the moment you open your mouth to speak, the sensation is towards the utterance of ‘A’. And, thus, it is regarded by the Upaniṣad as the beginning of word-formation. This beginning of word-formation is compared with the beginning of experiences in consciousness, which is the waking state. This condition of the Ātman in the waking state is comparable, therefore, with Akāra, the first syllable of Oṃkāra. And the Upaniṣad also says that by meditation on this harmony between Akāra of Om and the waking state of the Ātman, one achieves the fulfillment of all desires – Āpnoti Ha Vai Sarvān Kāmān. One becomes, also, the foremost among all persons, and almost the beginning of all things in the sense that everything comes to that person, even uncalled for – Ādiś-Ca Bhavati. This achievement of the Yogi by meditation is described, also, in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad in the context of the description of a technique called the Vaiśvānara Vidyā. Though the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad is very brief in its description of Vaiśvānara, the Chāndogya Upaniṣad goes into great detail by way of a clarification of the Vidyā, or meditation, on the Vaiśvānara. By a meditation on this Cosmic State of the Ātman, called Vaiśvānara, the Yogi achieves a power which cannot be faced by anything else in the world, and everything comes to him without his asking for them. Real power is that which summons things even without expressing it in words. You do not tell a person, ‘do it’; he simply does it. And that is the height of all power. This is achieved by meditation on the Vaiśvānara. Ya Evaṃ Veda: One who knows this secret of meditation on the harmony between Akāra and the waking state of the Ātman, who meditates on the Vaiśvānara-Ātman as designated by the first phase, or syllable of Oṃkāra, becomes a master over all things, a perfected Siddha does he become, and he is an adept in Yoga. This is in relation to the waking state, Jāgarita-Sthāna which is Vaiśvānara, Prathamā Pāda, Akāra, which brings about a result of this nature, when one resorts to meditation in this manner."
References:
- Monier-Williams, Monier (1899). A Sanskrit-English Dictionary: Etymologically and Philologically Arranged with Special Reference to Cognate Indo-European languages. Oxford: Clarendon Press
- Sharvananda, Swami (1920). Mundaka and Mandukya Upanishads: With Sanskrit Text; Paraphrase with Word-For-Word Literal Translation, English, Rendering and Comments. Mylapore, Madras: Sri Ramakrishna Math
- Krishnananda, Swami (1996). The Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad. Retrieved from https://www.swami-krishnananda.org/mand_0.html. p. 91-93.
