Gau@dapâda does not indicate his preference one way or the other, but describes the fourth state of the self as unseen (ad@r@s@ta), unrelationable (avyavahâryam), ungraspable (agrâhyam), indefinable (alak@sa@na), unthinkable (acintyam), unspeakable (avyapades'ya), the essence as oneness with the self (ekâtmapratyayasâra), as the extinction of the appearance (prapañcopas'ama), the quiescent (s'ântam), the good (s'ivam), the one (advaita) [Footnote ref 1]. The world-appearance (prapañca) would have ceased if it had existed, but all this duality is mere mâyâ (magic or illusion), the one is the ultimately real (paramârthata@h). In the second chapter Gau@dapâda says that what is meant by calling the world a dream is that all existence is unreal. That which neither exists in the beginning nor in the end cannot be said to exist in the present. Being like unreal it appears as real. The appearance has a beginning and an end and is therefore false. In dreams things are imagined internally, and in the experience that we have when we are awake things are imagined as if existing outside, but both of them are but illusory creations of the self. What is perceived in the mind is perceived as existing at the moment of perception only; external objects are supposed to have two moments of existence (namely before they are perceived, and when they begin to be perceived), but this is all mere imagination. That which is unmanifested in the mind and that which appears as distinct and manifest outside are all imaginary productions in association with the sense faculties. There is first the imagination of a perceiver or soul (jîva) and then along with it the imaginary creations of diverse inner states and the external world. Just as in darkness the rope is imagined to be a snake, so the self is also imagined by its own illusion in diverse forms. There is neither any production nor any destruction (na nirodho, na cotpatti@h), there is no one who is enchained, no one who is striving, no one who wants to be released [Footnote ref 2]. Imagination finds itself realized in the non-existent existents and also in the sense
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[Footnote 1: Compare in Nâgârjuna's first kârikâ the idea of prapañcopas'amam s'ivam. Anirodhamanutpâdamanucchedamas'âs'vatam anekârthamanânârthamanâgamamanirgamam ya@h pratîtyasamutpâdam prapañcopas'amam s'ivam des'ayâmâva sambuddhastam vande vadatâmvaram. Compare also Nâgârjuna's Chapter on Nirvâ@naparîk@sâ, Pûrvopalambhopas'ama@h prapañcopas'ama@h s'iva@h na kvacit kasyacit kas'cit dharmmo buddhenades'ita@h. So far as I know the Buddhists were the first to use the words prapañcopas'aman s'ivam.]
[Footnote 2: Compare Nâgârjuna's k@arikâ, "anirodhamanutpâdam" in Mâdhyamikav@rtti, B.T.S., p. 3.]
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of unity; all imagination either as the many or the one (advaya) is false; it is only the oneness (advayatâ) that is good. There is no many, nor are things different or non-different (na nânedam …na p@rthag nâp@rthak) [Footnote ref 1]. The sages who have transcended attachment, fear, and anger and have gone beyond the depths of the Vedas have perceived it as the imaginationless cessation of all appearance (nirvikalpa@h prapañcopas'ama@h_), the one [Footnote ref 2].
In the third chapter Gau@dapâda says that truth is like the void(âkâs'a) which is falsely concieved as taking part in birth and death, coming and going and as existing in all bodies; but howsoever it be conceived, it is all the while not different from âkâs'a. All things that appear as compounded are but dreams (svapna) and mâyâ (magic). Duality is a distinction imposed upon the one (advaita) by mâyâ. The truth is immortal, it cannot therefore by its own nature suffer change. It has no birth. All birth and death, all this manifold is but the result of an imposition of mâyâ upon it [Footnote ref 3]. One mind appears as many in the dream, as also in the waking state one appears as many, but when the mind activity of the Togins (sages) is stopped arises this fearless state, the extinction of all sorrow, final ceasation. Thinking everything to be misery (du@hkham sarvam anusm@rtya) one should stop all desires and enjoyments, and thinking that nothing has any birth he should not see any production at all. He should awaken the mind (citta) into its final dissolution (laya) and pacify it when distracted; he should not move it towards diverse objects when it stops. He should not taste any pleasure (sukham) and by wisdom remain unattached, by strong effort making it motionless and still. When he neither passes into dissolution nor into distraction; when there is no sign, no appearance that is the perfect Brahman. When there is no object of knowledge to come into being, the unproduced is then called the omniscent (sarvajña).
In the fourth chapter, called the Alats'ânti, Gau@dapâda further
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[Footnote 1: Compare _Mâdhyamikakârikâ, B.T.S., p.3 anekârtham anânârtham, etc.]