Summary:
Gaudapada Karika, CH3, V7: Just as pot-space is neither a modification nor a part of total space, the individual is neither a modification nor a part of Atman. Space is undivided – pot walls create no real division. Likewise, individuality is only incidental to the body-mind enclosure, not real. Awareness has no attributes, so it cannot differ from any other awareness, was never created by a larger Awareness, and requires no purification or merging to be free.
Gaudapada Karika, CH3, V9: Just as space is never contaminated by successive cups it dwells in, Consciousness is untouched by birth, death, travel, or any experience across lifetimes. Consciousness is already an accomplished, immortal fact – not something attained. When the body moves or hurts, it produces the sensation of Awareness moving or hurting, but this is belief born from non-inquiry, not reality, since Awareness is already everywhere and cannot travel.
Gaudapada Karika, CH3, V12: The microcosm is the macrocosm – whatever is in the wave is in the ocean. All apparent differences, whether between same-kind, different-kind, or internal, are ultimately forms with names, like ice structures all referring to H₂O. The space in your stomach is identical to the space accommodating distant stars. Similarly, no holy Awareness needs to descend upon you – Brahman is already the very awareness you are, requiring no travel, no transmission, and no future arrival.
Gaudapada Karika, CH3, V16: Upāsanā is prescribed out of compassion for three types of seekers, not as an end but as a means to prepare the mind for non-dual knowledge. The basic seeker needs karma and worship to reduce mental agitation; the intermediate seeker receives teachings but cannot retain them, and upāsanā integrates their mind and intellect; the advanced seeker has purity and focus and connects directly with statements like “Awareness never changes.” Upāsanā is only criticized when mistaken for the final goal rather than a stepping stone toward it.
Gaudapada Karika – CH3, Verse 7
Modifications or Parts are Many, Atman is One
न आकाशस्य घट-आकाशः विकार-अवयवौ यथा । न एव आत्मनः सदा जीवः विकार-अवयवौ तथा ॥७॥
na ākāśasya ghaṭa-ākāśaḥ vikāra-avayavau yathā | na eva ātmanaḥ sadā jīvaḥ vikāra-avayavau tathā ||7||
As the [empirical] pot space is neither a modification nor a part of akasa (total space), so the jiva is never a modification nor a part of atman.
Cup-space:
- Can you say total space has modified itself to become cup-space? No.
- Can you say cup-space is part of total space? No.
- Is there a cause-effect relationship between pot-space and total-space (as if total space created pot-space)? No. Space is undivided. Thus don’t let your mind create internal images how space is divided just because of the pot wall.
- If pot-space wants to be enlightened – does it need to reach, modify, purify, create something? No. Cup-space needs to remove notion, “I am as big as the cup, I am affected by what’s in the cup”.
Applying to Atman:
Suppose in the beginning was only you (the all-pervasive one). Then two bodies go born. And suddenly you experienced yourself from two standpoints.
Put another way, like pot-space, you were present before body-mind-enclosure appeared (as awareness is all-pervasive), and you are not changed by its presence or absence — otherwise your awareness would have an attribute, in which case it would be self-evident all the time; but no attribute is self-evident all the time.
Sense of individuality is only because of body-mind-enclosure. “Individuality” isn't real, it's incidental.
Since your awareness doesn’t have attributes, it cannot be different from any other awareness. Otherwise, if you state your awareness has an attribute (is different from mine), then you're forcing me to say my awareness also has an attribute different from your attribute.
Additionally, your awareness isn’t an effect or creation of some bigger Awareness. You, as awareness, were never created by some other entity.
Otherwise, if you think your awareness is part of some bigger awareness, you continue to do actions to fix a non-existent problem, ie: that you are away and need to merge with a bigger awareness – or that the reality is found in the future, and that you are broken.
NEXT VERSE: Simile expands…
Gaudapada Karika – CH3, Verse 9
The Value of the “Space” Simile
मरणे सम्भवे च एव गति-आगमनयोः अपि । स्थितौ सर्व-शरीरेषु आकाशेन अविलक्षणः ॥९॥
maraṇe sambhave ca eva gati-āgamanayoḥ api | sthitau sarva-śarīreṣu ākāśena avilakṣaṇaḥ ||9||
Atman is not in any way different from space with reference to its birth and death, as well as its going and coming [travelling to lokas and coming back] and Its existence in all bodies.
Never contaminated by stuff in previous, present, future cups:
So far, we’ve see the contents in the cup don’t contaminate the space.
When cup breaks, and new cup gets born – does the space get contaminated by the stuff in the new cup? No. Meaning it also never took on attributes of the infinite cups it dwelled in previously.
In same way, when you say “my son is born” or “I am dying”, or “I am travelling” – these experiences don’t touch all-pervasive, non-travelling, eternal, unborn Consciousness.
You need to realize Consciousness is already an accomplished fact; you didn’t go to school to learn how to switch on Consciousness. And that very Consciousness is already immortal, free, everywhere. Then from empirical standpoint, live from that understanding.
Space never moves:
When cup moves, what’s moving; the total space, or the cup? Cup.
Total space can’t move because it’s already occupying everywhere.
Similarly, when body moves, it produces sensation of Awareness moving. When body hurts, produces sensation of Awareness hurting. Awareness moving/hurting are your beliefs due to non-inquiry.
Gaudapada Karika – CH3, Verse 12
Brhadaranyaka Upanishad
द्वयोः द्वयोः मधु-ज्ञाने परम् ब्रह्म प्रकाशितम् । पृथिव्याम् उदरे च एव यथा आकाशः प्रकाशितः ॥१२॥
dvayoḥ dvayoḥ madhu-jñāne param brahma prakāśitam | pṛthivyām udare ca eva yathā ākāśaḥ prakāśitaḥ ||12||
As it is shown that space in the earth and the stomach are the same, similarly, in the Madhu-Brahmana [portion of Brhadaranyaka Upanishad] Brahman is shown to be the same with reference to the pairs [using Adhidaiva, Adhyātma, Adhibhūta standpoints].
The Pairing: Individual and Cosmic
The Upaniṣad describes everything in pairs: subjective and objective – because you start out by thinking me vs. world.
However, microcosm is the macrocosm, and macrocosm is the microcosm. For instance, whatever you'll find the small wave (ie: water), you'll find in the entire ocean.
Not knowing this due to avidya, one starts out with dualistic thinking.
Duality is putting attention on 3 kinds of differences:
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- same-kind difference (sajātīya-bheda)
- different-kind difference (vijātīya-bheda)
- internal difference (svagata-bheda)
Ultimately, all differences are forms with names; like thousands of ice structures all referring to H2O. So there’s nothing “out there” to discover, except more H2O.
Interestingly, nobody needs ice, but everyone needs water, yet both are water. Similarly, we discard some things, use others, but all are param-brahma.
The Analogy of Space: Undivided Here and There
The Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad points out that the space available in your stomach is the very same space that accommodates the stars trillions of kilometres away. It is equally undivided and attributeless — here, and there.
The far-away space will not come to you, nor can it come to you, because it is the same space already obtaining in your stomach.
Applying the Analogy to Awareness
In the same way, do not imagine that there is some holy Awareness protected by Īśvara, which will one day be released to come and bless your awareness.
Just as space need not travel from the cosmos into your body – because it is already the same space – so too, Brahman need not descend upon you, because it is already the very awareness that you are.
This also means there is no real travel for all-pervading Ātman.
When person dies, and they travel to heaven, or a tunnel, and they believe they’re being taken – that shows their “I” is in the subtle-body.
NEXT VERSE: If Upanishads reject upāsanā (as said in Gauḍapāda Kārikā CH3.1) – why are they prescribing it? For example, Chandogya Upanishads CH1-5 are all upāsanās, only CH6 is self-knowledge.
Gaudapada Karika – CH3, Verse 16
Catering for Three Stages of Understanding
आश्रमः त्रि-विधाः हीन-मध्य-उत्कृष्ट-दृष्टयः । उपासना उपदिष्टा इयम् तत्-अर्थम् अनुकम्पया ॥१६॥
āśramaḥ tri-vidhāḥ hīna-madhya-utkṛṣṭa-dṛṣṭayaḥ | upāsanā upadiṣṭā iyam tat-artham anukampayā ||16||
There are three types of people [in terms of their capacity to know]: inferior, intermediate and superior. This upasana is prescribed for their benefit [by Sruti], out of compassion.
The Need for Upāsanā
The purpose of the Upanishads is to reveal your limitless nature. However, the mind often carries deeply held beliefs such as “I'm not good enough” or “I don't deserve this.”
A mind burdened by such notions cannot readily connect with the teaching of wholeness. This is why Upāsanā is prescribed – it prepares the mind to receive what the Upanishad ultimately wishes to reveal.
The Wise Wave and the Struggling Wave
Consider a wise wave who encounters a struggling wave. The wise wave will not immediately begin speaking about the nature of water – that would fall on deaf ears.
Instead the wise wave will first help the struggling wave see that it is not separate from the Ocean, that it has never been rejected by the Ocean. The wise wave does this because it too was once in that very position.
The purpose of Upāsanā, then, is to help the struggling wave recognise that it is already part of the Ocean. The wave is asked to reorient its entire being in light of this understanding – to align one's life with the laws of the Ocean and to release the psychological afflictions born from a false sense of isolation.
Before the jiva can grasp the deeper truth, it first needs to see that everything is a manifestation of Īśvara, and to let go of the unhelpful stories it has been telling itself.
Upāsanā as a Means, Not an End
Kārikā addresses an objection: if the Vedas contain karma, upāsanā, creation, worship, meditation, and non-dual knowledge, why should the Upaniṣadic non-dual teaching alone be treated as final?
Kārikā says that dualistic teachings — such as worshipper and worshipped, jīva and Īśvara, creation and created beings — are not false in the sense of being useless. They are provisional teachings. They serve seekers who are not yet ready for direct non-dual knowledge. Then your upasana is a means, instead of expression of ignorance.
Thus when Upanishads criticize those doing Upasanas (such as in Gauḍapāda Kārikā Chapter 3, verse 1) – it’s done only towards those who treat Upasana as the end goal, rather than means.
The Three Types of Seekers
The Kārikā identifies three types of people for whom Upāsanā is prescribed. They’re rated based on their capacity to understand, discern, and receive the final teaching in the spiritual ladder (towards non-duality):
- Hīna (the basic seeker) — The hīna seeker has not yet gained purity or focus of mind. Their mind is often occupied by likes, dislikes, agitation, imagination, and worldly pressure. Because of this, when Vedānta is taught, reception itself does not take place. This seeker primarily wants relief from difficulties of life. Their spiritual life begins with karma, dharma, proper conduct, and worship because these gradually reduce disturbance.
- Madhya (the intermediate seeker) — The madhya seeker has some purity of mind, often through karma-yoga, but lacks steadiness and focus. In class, reception takes place, but retention does not. The teaching is understood while listening, but it disappears afterward. Upāsanā is especially important here because it integrates mind and intellect.
- Utkṛṣṭa (the advanced seeker) — The utkṛṣṭa seeker has purity and focus. Their mind easily absorbs the teaching. They have recognized that comfort, relief, and heavenly results are not the goal; mokṣa alone is the real pursuit. They don’t want gradual explanations of non-duality, beating around the bush, hearing about creation theories, worshipping things out there. They click with direct statements like, “Awareness is the highest reality”, “Awareness never changes”, or satya-mithya teaching.
NEXT SESSION: We'll summarize most important points since the first video…
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Recorded 9 July, 2026