Volume 2 : Lights on the Teachings (2), Lights on the Ancients (2), Lights on the Fundamentals, Flame of White Light, The way of the Light
Volume 2 includes multiple books : Lights on the Teachings (2), Lights on the Ancients (2), Lights on the Fundamentals, Flame of White Light, The way of the Light.
Q: In the Mandukya Upanishad there is the description of the Atma as being fourfold. Verse 5 relating to the third part runs:
susuptasthana ekibhutah prajnanaghana evanandamayo hyanandabhuk cetomukhah prajnastrtiyah padah.
What is the meaning of cetomukhah?
A: The straight reading of cetomukhah in the context seems to be this:
Let us not translate cetah into Mind; it represents the intelligent principle or the principle of Knowledge. Mukha is mouth or facet, it means figuratively dvara, door or passage. The compound is an attribute to prajnah. It means, then, that the Purusha of the third state, susuptasthana, is one who has cetas for the passage, dvaram, towards the dream-state and other states of consciousness. This explanation can fit in with Shankara’s so far, without entering the question of reality or unreality of the world of objects in the dream-state or waking states of consciousness. It can fit in with Sri Aurobindo’s system also in this way. The other states of consciousness are in a seed-state in this third and so this susupta consciousness is the causal which has the cetah for its face, turned to the other states.
14 September 1948
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