In the supplied Māṇḍūkya material, ātman denotes the Self. The mūla (Mā. Up. 12) identifies the partless Fourth (caturtha) — peaceful, auspicious, non-dual (advaita) — with oṃkāra, declaring "thus oṃkāra is ātman itself" (oṃkāra ātmaiva); the knower "enters the ātman by the ātman" (saṃviśaty ātmanātmānam). Gauḍapāda's kārikās develop ātman as (a) the divine Self that, by its own māyā, fashions itself out of itself and cognizes the differences (KK 2.12), and (b) the substrate to which individual selves (jīva) stand in non-difference: just as jar-spaces dissolve into space when jars perish, jīvas dissolve into ātman (KK 3.4), and the jīva is not a modification or part of ātman any more than jar-space is of space (KK 3.7). The non-difference (ananyatva/abheda) of jīva and ātman is commended while plurality is censured (KK 3.13); any prior "separateness" of jīva and ātman is figurative (gauṇa), not primary (KK 3.14). The corpus thus treats ātman as the single non-dual reality, with the apparent individual self related to it by non-difference rather than by partition or modification.
Senses
The reading surface. A later ingestion attaches a locus to a settled sense, or proposes a new one (dashed) for human triage — it never rewrites settled prose.
1 · The Self identified with the partless Fourth and with oṃkāra; the ultimately real (paramār…settledadded v1
The Self identified with the partless Fourth and with oṃkāra; the ultimately real (paramārthika) reality, peaceful, auspicious, non-dual, entered 'by the Self alone' (ātmanātmānam).
2 · The divine Self (ātmā devaḥ) which, by its own māyā, fashions itself out of itself and cog…settledadded v1
The divine Self (ātmā devaḥ) which, by its own māyā, fashions itself out of itself and cognizes the differences — agent-substrate of apparent manifestation.
3 · The Self as the single substrate (likened to space, ākāśa) into which individual selves (j…settledadded v1
The Self as the single substrate (likened to space, ākāśa) into which individual selves (jīva) dissolve, of which the jīva is neither a modification nor a part.
4 · The Self in its non-difference (ananyatva, abheda) from jīva; jīva–ātman 'separateness' sp…settledadded v1
The Self in its non-difference (ananyatva, abheda) from jīva; jīva–ātman 'separateness' spoken of as prior to origination is figurative (gauṇa), not primary.
advaita-vedānta
mandukya.karika:3.13mandukya.karika:3.14
5 · The Self in its first quarter (pāda) as vaiśvānara, the cosmic person located in the wakin…proposedadded v2
The Self in its first quarter (pāda) as vaiśvānara, the cosmic person located in the waking state and the right eye, present in all beings (sarvabhūtastha) and identified with the first mātrā (akāra) of oṃkāra.
Śaṅkara (bhāṣya)
Why a new sense: These attestations specify the Self's waking-state quarter (vaiśvānara/viśva), a determinate pāda not captured by the existing senses, which address the Fourth, the māyā-agent, the ākāśa-substrate, or non-difference.
6 · The Self that becomes (ātmabhūta) and protects the very object/reality (bhāva) shown to th…proposedadded v2
The Self that becomes (ātmabhūta) and protects the very object/reality (bhāva) shown to the knower by a teacher as 'this is the truth' — the Self as that which is realized and which guards the realizer.
Śaṅkara (bhāṣya)
Why a new sense: The soteriological reciprocity of the realized bhāva becoming ātman and protecting the seer is a distinct aspect not represented among the existing senses.
mandukya.agamasastrabhasya:2.29
7 · The Self/self as the locus and aim of disciplined self-mastery: the one who 'possesses sel…proposedadded v3
The Self/self as the locus and aim of disciplined self-mastery: the one who 'possesses self' (ātmavān, ātmavantam), is self-controlled (vidheyātmā, ātma-vaśya, ātma-saṃyama), self-contented (ātma-tṛpta, ātma-rati), and steadies the lower self by the higher self (ātmānam ātmanā) — the empirical/psychological self as the field of yogic self-discipline.
Bhagavad Gītā (mūla)
Why a new sense: These verses use ātman for the self that is mastered, possessed, or restrained in yoga, a disciplinary/psychological sense absent from the existing metaphysical senses.
8 · The Self as the inner ground of contentment, vision, and realization: one rejoices, is sat…proposedadded v3
The Self as the inner ground of contentment, vision, and realization: one rejoices, is satisfied, and finds (vindati) within the self (ātmany eva, ātmani), and sees all beings in the self (ātmany ... drakṣyasi) — the Self experientially realized within.
Bhagavad Gītā (mūla)
Why a new sense: These attest the Self as the inward locus of contentment and realized vision, distinct from the cosmic/agent senses already listed.
9 · The self as individual person or ego understood pejoratively/qualified: acting for one's o…proposedadded v3
The self as individual person or ego understood pejoratively/qualified: acting for one's own sake (ātma-kāraṇāt), the doubt-ridden self (saṃśayātmā), the self whose doubt is cut by the sword of knowledge (jñānāsinātmanaḥ).
Bhagavad Gītā (mūla)
Why a new sense: Here ātman denotes the qualified individual self (selfish, doubting), a usage not represented among the existing senses.
10 · The reflective/spiritual self of inner renunciation: renouncing all actions in the Lord wi…proposedadded v3
The reflective/spiritual self of inner renunciation: renouncing all actions in the Lord with the mind fixed on the self (adhyātma-cetasā) — the self oriented toward the supreme through inward dedication.
Bhagavad Gītā (mūla)
Why a new sense: adhyātma-cetas denotes a spiritually focused self/mind in renunciation, not matching the existing glosses; kept distinct as adhyātma usage.
bhagavadgita:3.30
Commentary positions
Gauḍapāda: The Self (ātman, called ātmā devaḥ) fashions itself out of itself by its own māyā and itself cognizes the differences; this is presented as the settled conclusion of Vedānta (vedāntaniścaya). mandukya.karika:2.12
Gauḍapāda: The jīva stands to ātman as jar-space to space: it dissolves into ātman on the cessation of its limiting condition and is neither a modification (vikāra) nor a part (avayava) of ātman. mandukya.karika:3.4mandukya.karika:3.7
Gauḍapāda: Non-difference (abheda/ananyatva) of jīva and ātman is commended and plurality censured; any asserted pre-origination separateness of jīva and ātman is to be taken figuratively (gauṇa), since a primary sense cannot hold. mandukya.karika:3.13mandukya.karika:3.14
Attestation concordance — tier 2, every locus
Append-only. Grows by locus as texts arrive; stays one collapsed table so the senses remain the reading surface.
All 34 attestations ▾
Locus
Witness
Tradition
Stratum
Snippet
mandukya.upanisad:12
Māṇḍūkya (mūla)
upaniṣadic
mula
amātraś caturtho 'vyavahāryaḥ prapañcopaśamaḥ śivo 'dvaitaḥ | evam oṃkāra ātmaiva | saṃviśaty ātmanātmānaṃ ya evaṃ veda
mandukya.karika:2.12
Gauḍapāda (kārikā)
advaita-vedānta
karika
kalpayaty ātmanātmānam ātmā devaḥ svamāyayā / sa eva budhyate bhedān iti vedāntaniścayaḥ
v1Māṇḍūkya mūla + Gauḍapāda kārikā — +6 loci 4 sense(s) drafted from 6 loci.
v2Śaṅkara bhāṣya — +14 loci · 10 routed to existing · 2 new sense(s) proposed s1 covers the Fourth/turīya–oṃkāra–paramārthika cluster: loci 7 (turīya, tat tvam asi), 8 (Self correlated with akṣara oṃkāra, pādas/mātrās), and 12 (oṃkāra IS ātman, entering one's own paramārthika ātman) fit it directly. s2 covers the divine Self that by its own māyā fashions and cognizes differences (rajju–sarpa imagery): 1.6 (prabhava of viśva/taijasa/prājña differences via avidyā-māyā), 2.12 (svayaṃ svamāyayā svamātmānam... bhedākāraṃ kalpayati), 2.16 (śuddha ātmani jīvaṃ rajjau sarpaṃ kalpayate), 2.19 (māyaiṣā tasyātmano devasya), 2.28 (bhedā... ātmany avidyayā kalpitā), and 1.16 (saṃsārī jīva fashioned by māyā/dream) all belong here. 2.30 (prāṇādayo ātmano apṛthagbhūtāḥ, na ātmavyatirekeṇa santi) matches s3's non-difference/non-modification substrate framing. Two genuinely new aspects: the waking-quarter vaiśvānara (ns1) and the realized-bhāva-as-protector (ns2). (+40 bhāṣya loci beyond cap not routed)
v3Bhagavad Gītā (mūla) — +14 loci · 1 routed to existing · 4 new sense(s) proposed Only 4.6 (ātma-māyayā: the Lord fashioning manifestation by its own māyā) clearly matches an existing sense (s2). The remaining Gītā attestations express predominantly practical, psychological, and ethical senses of ātman (self-discipline, inner contentment/realization, the qualified individual self, and adhyātma-oriented self) that are absent from the existing upaniṣadic/advaita metaphysical senses, so they are conservatively grouped into four proposed senses by shared semantic function within the same witness. · gathered via aliases [ātma, adhyātm] (+55 Gītā loci beyond cap of 14 not routed)
Caveats
The corpus supplied is a single tradition: the Māṇḍūkya mūla together with Gauḍapāda's kārikās (Advaita/Māṇḍūkya stratum). No other texts or parallels were admissible.
No Śaṅkara commentary loci were supplied, so no position is attributed to that witness; the 'paramārthika' framing in the grounded gloss is not lexically present in the cited loci and was not relied upon as evidence.
The non-difference doctrine here is read directly from the cited kārikās (3.4, 3.7, 3.13, 3.14); no external Advaita doctrine has been imported.