64 Mandukya Upanisad Chapter 01 Mantra 07

Title

Mandukya Upanishad Mantra 7 | Epistemology, Pramāṇa & Mokṣa | Śaṅkara Bhāṣya Explained

Description

In this in-depth discourse on Mandukya Upanishad Mantra 7, Śaṅkarācārya’s profound teaching is unfolded through the lens of Vedāntic epistemology (pramāṇa-vicāra).

The class examines how different philosophical schools define mokṣa, sādhana, and jīva-svarūpa, and why Vedānta insists that śravaṇa alone is sufficient for liberation, without the necessity of samādhi, japa, or additional practices.

Using the classical rope–snake (rajju–sarpa) illustration, the discourse clarifies:

How knowledge removes ignorance without producing anything new

Why Brahman is self-evident (svataḥ-siddha)

The distinction between aparokṣa and parokṣa jñāna

Why no knowledge is ever “created” in Vedānta

How ignorance (avidyā) alone accounts for bondage

A detailed analysis of waking, dream, and deep sleep states shows that Ātman (Turiya) is the invariable reality underlying all experiences, untouched by the states themselves.

This teaching removes the deeply rooted notion that liberation requires experience, practice, or retention, firmly establishing that mokṣa is nothing but the recognition of what is already the case.

Timestamps

00:00 – Opening invocation & introduction to Mantra 7
00:14 – Philosophical differences: mokṣa, sādhana, jīva-svarūpa
03:06 – Epistemology (Pramāṇa-vicāra) across schools
04:12 – Śravaṇa alone as the means to mokṣa
05:42 – Rope–snake example: adhyāsa and negation
07:28 – No additional pramāṇa needed to know the rope
09:00 – Why japa and repetition do not produce knowledge
10:21 – Self-evident Ātman and the problem of ignorance
11:32 – Presence of “I” in waking, dream, and deep sleep
13:24 – Invariable Ātman vs incidental states
15:05 – Negation does not destroy reality
16:50 – Turiya as the reality behind all states
18:33 – Mahāvākya and recognition, not experience
19:46 – Parokṣa vs aparokṣa jñāna clarified
21:25 – Defective pramāṇa and correction of error
22:56 – Knowledge removes ignorance; nothing else is required
24:22 – Consciousness and mind: qualified vs unqualified
26:13 – Mass of consciousness in deep sleep
28:35 – Knowledge as removal of ignorance, not creation
30:49 – Ghaṭa-jñāna: how object knowledge arises
33:01 – Vedānta’s rejection of “knowledge generation”
36:21 – Īśvara, māyā, and all knowledge being ever-present
38:29 – Why mokṣa cannot be something newly produced
41:59 – Retention fallacy: why nothing needs to be retained
45:33 – Why created knowledge would make mokṣa impermanent
48:22 – “How to retain realization?”—the misunderstanding
52:19 – Seeing non-duality in every experience
55:13 – Freedom as self-existing, timeless reality
58:04 – Introduction to Bhāṣyakāra’s forthcoming argument

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