Makara
Makāra (IAST)Translation: "the letter M"
From Mandukya Upanishad (Verse 8, 11)
Mundaka and Mandukya Upanishads (Swami Sharvananda)
Sanskrit: मकार
Transliteration: Makāra
Translation: "the letter M"
Commentary: "it marks the completion of the three relative states of consciousness even as M completes the sound Om. So, in one sense, it determines the other two states."
The Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad (Swami Krishnananda)
Sanskrit: मकार
Transliteration: Makāra
Commentary: "There is, then, the comparison between Makāra and the deep sleep state of consciousness. Suṣupta-Sthānaḥ Prājño Makāras-Tṛtīya Mātrā: Makāra is the third Mātrā of Om, and it is comparable with Prājña, the third state, causal, of the Ātman. Miter-Apīter-Vā: It is the measure of all things, and it is the dissolver of all things. When we chant Om, Akāra and Ukāra merge in Makāra, as all the impressions of waking and dream merge in Prājña, deep sleep, the causal state. Just as you end the chant with Makāra, you end all experience in deep sleep; and as you can repeat the chant subsequent to the closure of the recitation by Makāra, waking life commences once again as an offshoot of the deep sleep state, which is the cause of waking. Deep sleep can be called the cause of waking in one sense, the effect of it in another sense. The waking is due to the agitation of the unfulfilled impressions lying buried in the deep sleep state. In this sense we may say that waking is an effect of the state of deep sleep. Deep sleep is the cause, and all experiences in waking and dream are its effects. As Īśvara is the cause of all things, the deep sleep state seems to be the cause of our waking and dreaming, in one sense, namely, that we wake up from sleep on account of unfulfilled desires. If all our desires are fulfilled, we would not be waking up from sleep, at all. Why should we wake up? What is the purpose? There is something unfulfilled, unexecuted, and therefore we wake up. The Prārabdha-Karma agitates, urges us into activity, and wakes us up into the world of objects. Thus, in one sense, Prājña (sleep) is the cause of experience through Viśva (waking) and Taijasa (dreaming). But, in another sense, Prājña may be regarded as the effect, because Prājña is nothing but that state of consciousness where all the impressions, unfulfilled, unmanifested, lie latent, and these impressions are nothing but the consequences of perception and experience in the waking state. In that sense, the condition of deep sleep is an effect of waking. Makāra is of that nature in Om. We may say that the chant commences with Makāra or closes with Makāra, as in the series of chants of Om. Just as we can have a series of chants or recitations of Praṇava, we have a series of waking and sleeping, and waking and sleeping. The sleep state measures (Miteḥ) all things in the sense that the waking and dreaming experiences are determined by the impressions that are there as Sañcita-Karma in the Ānandamaya-Kośa (causal state), manifesting itself in the sleep state. The Sañcita-Karma are those group of unfulfilled Saṃskāra and Vāsanas which are there in the state of deep sleep, Prājña, and which sprout forth shoots in the form of experiences in waking and dream. In this sense we measure our experiences in terms of tendencies present in the deep sleep state. The dream and the waking experiences are measured by the potencies already present in the state of sleep, as unfulfilled Vāsanas and Saṃskāra. It is, therefore, the measure (Miti) of experience. And so is Makāra regarded as the container of the processes of chants. Just as the contained is supported by the container, Akāra and Ukāra seem to be contained in Makāra with which one closes the chant. Just as all experiences get submerged in the deep sleep state, even as all our efforts cease when we go to sleep, the recitation of Praṇava ceases when Makāra commences. ‘A’ and ‘U’, merge themselves in ‘M’. Minoti Ha Vā Idaṃ Sarvaṃ: One, who meditates thus, has the capacity to measure all things, that is, to know everything – he becomes Sarvajña. He becomes Īśvara Himself. He becomes the measure of all things; he becomes the yardstick for the cognition of everything in creation. Everything is referred to him; he does not refer himself to other things. He becomes the reference for the whole of creation, the center of all experience in the cosmos. Apītiś-Ca Bhavati: Everything merges in him; as the verse in the second chapter of the Bhagavad Gītā says, everything enters into him, as rivers enter the ocean. Īśvara is the Merger of all creation, and when you become Īśvara, the whole creation merges in you. You realize this state by this meditation on the unity of Makāra and Prājña, the causal state of Praṇava and the causal state of Consciousness, both individually and cosmically."
References:
- 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. 95-97.
