Oam, Bhadram Karnephryanahhyahah, Bhadram Pasha Bhirya jatra.

Stirae, Rangay, tushhtwagum, shashthya, bhajahya,hyahyahhu, Svastin Indra Vridhhrabaha,

Svastina fushaw Vhawedhhhhhāhāhāhārhthyahāhāhāhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh So we have been studying the fourth chapter of Gaudapada's Mandukya Karika, which is his verse commentary on the Mandukya Upanishan.

And of course there is a Sanskrit commentary by Shankaracharya on Gowda's Mandukya Karika.

Now the fourth chapter, the Alata Shanti Prakarana, it's called the quenching of the firebrand.

The firebrand example is like this. If you take a firebrand, like a, you know, we used to call them Huljaddy or sparklers,

if you swing them around, swing the firebrand around, you'll get patterns.

You see patterns in the darkness, like patterns of light.

You can do that if you take a flashlight and swing it around also, you can get those patterns in the darkness.

Now just like that, what Godapad is proposing is that

Turya, consciousness itself, because of that consciousness, like those patterns,

emerges the waker and the waking experience, the dreamer and the dream experience, these experiences

are like those patterns and they emerge because of consciousness.

And really speaking, Gaurapal, they are saying they do not emerge.

There's nothing there except that consciousness itself.

So that is the example of the firebrand.

And the quenching of the firebrand, Alata Shanti, the quenching of the firebrand is just recognizing that in all our varied experiences of life, all these are like those patterns emerging because of swinging the firebrand around.

Similarly, all these varied experiences of life are nothing but the consciousness.

So all these varied experiences are merged back into the consciousness, so to say.

This is the quietening or the cessation or the quenching of the firebrand.

It's not that you actually put the firebrand out. You cannot. Consciousness is ever there.

And that's what you are.

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