Upanishads

Mandukya Upanishad

Atharvaveda
group of Upanishads – 10 main Upanishads, pure Vedanta

1. Om! This sound is all this. Here is its explanation: The past, the present, the future – all this is the sound Om (Aum). And everything else that is beyond the three times - also the sound Om.

2. For all this is Brahman. This Atman is Brahman. This Atman has four feet.

3. [In] the waking state, cognizing the external, of the seven members, of the nineteen mouths, tasting the gross, Vaisvanara [is] the first foot.

4. [In] the state of sleep, cognizing the inner, of the seven limbs, of the nineteen mouths, tasting the subtle, taijasa – [this is] the second foot.

5. When one who has fallen asleep has no desire, does not see any dream – this is deep sleep. [In] the state of deep sleep, having become one, permeated only by knowledge, consisting of bliss, tasting bliss, whose face is thought, prajna – [this is] the third foot.

6. This is the universal ruler, this is the all-knowing, this is the inner ruler, this is the source of everything, the beginning and the end of beings.

7. Not cognizing the internal, not cognizing the external, not cognizing both, not permeated [by] knowledge alone, [being] neither knowledge nor non-knowledge, invisible, ineffable, elusive, indistinguishable, inconceivable, indicable, the essence of comprehension of the one Atman, the dissolution of the manifested world, calmed, bringing happiness, non-dual – they consider the fourth [foot]. This is Atman, this must be recognized.

8. This is Atman in relation to sounds, the sound Om (Aum) in relation to the parts. The feet [of Atman] are the parts, and the parts are the feet: the sound "a", the sound "u", the sound "m".

9. The waking state, vaisvanara, is the sound "a", the first part is due to achievement or – primacy. Verily, he who knows this, attains [the fulfillment] of all desires and is first.

10. The state of sleep, taijasa, is the sound "u", the second part is due to elevation or - mutuality. Verily, he who knows this, elevates the continuity of knowledge, is equal, in his family there is no one who does not know Brahman.

11. The state of deep sleep, prajna, is the sound "m", the third part is due to change or – absorption. Verily, he who knows this, measures all that exists and absorbs [it in himself].

12. The fourth [state] has no parts – the ineffable, the dissolution of the manifested world, bringing happiness, non-dual. Thus the sound Om is Atman. He who knows this penetrates [his] Atman into the [supreme] Atman.