Chatushpat
Catuṣpāt (IAST)Translation: "four quarters"
From Mandukya Upanishad (Verse 2)
A Sanskrit-English Dictionary (Monier-Williams)
Sanskrit: चातुष्पद्
Transliteration: Catuṣpad
Translation: "divided into four parts"
Mundaka and Mandukya Upanishads (Swami Sharvananda)
Sanskrit: चतुष्पात्
Transliteration: Catuṣpāt
Translation: "four-footed"
The Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad (Swami Krishnananda)
Commentary: "The four quarters of the Ātman described in the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad are the four aspects in the study of the Ātman, and not four distinguishable, partitioned quarters of the Ātman. These quarters, these four aspects in the study of the nature of the Ātman, which are the main subject of the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad, are also a process of self-transcendence. The whole scheme is one of analysis and synthesis and also transcendence of the lower by the higher. This Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad itself is an exhaustive study of the Vedānta, because, in a few words, phrases or sentences, it states what our primary duty in life is – a transcendence of the lower by the higher by way of analysis, excluding nothing, but including everything, is the way to synthesis. We enter into an analytical process by self-transcendence, because synthesis, by itself alone, is not sufficient. If you total up all particulars into a synthesis of unity, you may get the vast physical cosmos. You may think: this is Brahman. To remove this misconception, the Upaniṣad introduces the subject of self-transcendence. You have not only to total up the entire visible universe into a single unity and take it as one substance, but also transcend the nature of this total unity, because the physical character of the universe is not the essential nature of Brahman. Brahman is not physical, not even the universal physical which is the cosmos. So, we have to transcend it, step by step. Four steps are stated. These are the four feet referred to in the Upaniṣad, the four stages of self-transcendence.
We have attained to a unity by bringing together all particulars into the universal. Now we transcend even the universal physical for the sake of the attainment of the universal psychic or the astral; transcend that also, later, and then reach the universal causal; and transcend that, too, further, and reach the Universal Spiritual, the Spiritual which we cannot designate even as the universal. We have only to call it the Absolute. So, we have the physical, the subtle, the causal and the Spiritual. These are the four feet of the Ātman, or rather, four aspects of the study of the nature of the Ātman, four stages of self-transcendence described in the Upaniṣad. These four stages are called Jāgrat, Svapna, Suṣupti and Turīya – the waking state, the dreaming state, the sleeping state, and the transcendent spiritual state. There are the four states of Consciousness, and a study of Consciousness is the same as the study of the Absolute or Brahman, because Brahman is Consciousness."
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. 38-39.
