Advaita Prakaranam of Mandukya Upanishad (Chapter 3) Part 5

घटादिषु प्रलीनेषु घटाकाशादयो यथा ।
आकाशे संप्रलीयन्ते तद्वज्जीवा इहात्मनि ॥ ४ ॥

Ghatadishu pralineshu ghatakasadayo yatha
Akase sampraliyante tadvajjiva ihatmani ॥ 4 ॥

In the previous sloka he said when the pot is born, pot space is also appearing to be born. Ghata utpauttau ghata-akasa utpattih iva bhati. Here he extends the same when the pot is destroyed pot space appears to be destroyed. Ghata nase ghata akasa nasah iva bhati. We also use the idiom that pot space has merged into total space. Merge means like rivers flow and merge into ocean similarly we think pot space travels and travels and reach akasa sagar and merges in total space. It is not so. Nothing takes place. Previously also one indivisible space alone was and now also that alone is. But there is a misconception that pot space has merged.

We should remember that to use the verb merge some action must take place. Go and come etc. It is a verb. So When merge we say, what action takes place? Nothing. Why do we use such words then?

Where no action has taken place, we falsely attribute an action. Previously in my mind, the word pot space existed and now the word pot space is removed from my mind. The origination of pot space is not an action but an introduction of a new word pot space. So too merger of pot space is not an action but taking away the word pot space from the mind. Nothing is happening in space but only something is happening in the mind.

Here also Gaudapada is saying that jiva utpatti is nothing but a word. When body is born I introduce the new word called jiv caitanyam and when the body is gone I take away the word jiva caitanyam. Utpatti and merger are just words and there is no event has taken place in caitanyam. If caitanyam writes a autobiography, nothing of this sort will be mentioned.

So acahrya says - when pot etc. (various containers) are resolved or dissolved, ghata akasadayah -pot space etc. (meaning contents) merge in (seeming merge) into the total space. Seemingly means there is no action or event. In the same way, we talk of pralaya kalam and during the pralayam all the jivas merge into isvara. No such thing. So in the same way all jivatmas (seemingly merge) into atma or paramatma. When? When the containers or bodies are destroyed, Thus jiva utpattih and jiva’s merger (layam) are both words alone and there is no such thing as utpatti and nasah.