Intro upa

 

Ten Upanishads are the foundation.
These ten are:

 the Isavasya Upanishad,

 the Kena Upanishad, 

the Katha Upani- shad,

  the Prasna Upanishad, 

the Mundaka Upanishad, 

the Mandukya Upanishad, 

the Taittiriya Upanishad,

 the Aitareya Upanishad,

 the Chhandogya Upanishad and 

the Brihad- aranyaka Upanishad

Commentary

Krishnananda on upanishads

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Isa upanishad

 The Isha Upanishad (Sanskrit: ईशोपनिषद्, IAST: Īśopaniṣad), also known as Shri Ishopanishad, Ishavasya Upanishad, or Vajasaneyi Samhita Upanishad, is one of the shortest Upanishads, embedded as the final chapter (adhyāya) of the Shukla Yajurveda. It is a Mukhya (primary, principal) Upanishad,

 The Upanishad is a brief poem, consisting of 17 or 18 verses, depending on the recension.

The name of the text derives from its incipit, īśā vāsyam, "enveloped by the Lord",or "hidden in the Lord (Self)".

The text discusses the Atman (Self) theory of Hinduism.

Adi Shankara, in his Bhasya (review and commentary) noted that the mantras and hymns of Isha Upanishad are not used in rituals, because their purpose is to enlighten the reader as to "what is the nature of Self (Atman)?";

Enveloped by the Lord must be This All — each thing that moves on earth. With that renounced, enjoy thyself. Covet no wealth of any man.

— Isha Upanishad, Hymn 1[20]

in hymns 2–6, the Upanishad acknowledges the contrasting tension between the empirical life of householder and action (karma) and the spiritual life of renunciation and knowledge (jnana).

Should one wish to live a hundred years on this earth, he should live doing Karma. 

While (thus, as man,) you live, there is no way other than this by which Karma will not cling to you. 

Those who partake the nature of the Asuras [evil], are enveloped in blind darkness, and that is where they (also) reside who ignore their Atman [Self]. 

For liberation, know your Atman, which is motionless yet faster than mind, it is distant, it is near, it is within all, it is without all this. It is all pervading. 

he who beholds all beings in the Self, and the Self in all beings, he never turns away from it [the Self].

— Isha Upanishad, Hymns 2-6[18]

The Isha Upanishad suggests that one root of sorrow and suffering is considering one's Self as distinct and conflicted with the Self of others, assuming that the nature of existence is a conflicted duality where one's happiness and suffering is viewed as different from another living being's happiness and suffering. Such sorrow and suffering cannot exist, suggests the Upanishad, if an individual realizes that the Self is in all things, understands the Oneness in all of existence, focuses beyond individual egos and in the pursuit of Universal values, the Self and Real Knowledge

The hymns 12 through 14 of Isha Upanishad, caution against the pursuit of only manifested cause or only spiritual cause of anything, stating that one sided pursuits lead to darkness. To be enlightened, seek both (उभय सह, ubhayam saha), suggests the Upanishad.It asserts that he who knows both the Real and the Perishable, both the manifested not-True cause and the hidden True cause, is the one who is liberated unto immortality

In final hymns 15 through 18, the Upanishad asserts a longing for Knowledge, asserting that it is hidden behind the golden disc of light, but a light that one seeks. It reminds one's own mind to remember one's deeds, and accept its consequences.[18] The Madhyandina recension and Kanva recension vary in relative sequencing of the hymns, but both assert the introspective precept, "O Agni (fire) and mind, lead me towards a life of virtues, guide me away from a life of vices", and thus unto the good path and the enjoyment of wealth (of both karma's honey and Self-realization).[19][22] The final hymns of Isha Upanishad also declare the foundational premise, "I am He", equating one Self's oneness with cosmic Self.[18][30]

पुरुषः सोऽहमस्मि

I am He, the Purusha within thee.

— Isha Upanishad, Hymn 16 Abridged[25]

Keno upanishad

 

 The Kena Upanishad is a collection of philosophical poems discussing the attributes of Brahman: the unchanging, infinite universal spirit. Brahman is further proposed as the cause for all the forces of nature, symbolized as Gods. 

This commentary by Shankara focuses on ‘Advaita Vedanta’, or non-dualism: one of the classical orthodox philosophies of Hinduism.

1.1

ओं केनेषितं पतति प्रेषितं मनः केन प्राणः प्रथमः प्रैति युक्तः ।
केनेषितां वाचमिमां वदन्ति चक्षुः श्रोत्रं क उ देवो युनक्ति ॥ १ ॥ 

oṃ keneṣitaṃ patati preṣitaṃ manaḥ kena prāṇaḥ prathamaḥ praiti yuktaḥ | 
keneṣitāṃ vācamimāṃ vadanti cakṣuḥ śrotraṃ ka u devo yunakti || 1 || 

1. By whom willed and directed does the mind light on its subjects 

By whom commanded does prana,the first, move? 

By whose will do men speak this speech? 

What Intelligence directs the eye and the ear?

 

Shankara’s Commentary:

the question is asked by one who is disgusted with the ephemeral conglomeration of causes and effects, such as the body, etc., and who seeks to know something other than that—something unchangeable and eternal.

I-1. By whom is the mind directed to focus on its objects? By whom does the foremost vital air move? By whom is this speech desired, which the people utter? Who is the radiant being that brings together the eye and the ear with their objects?

The Upanishad does not go into the detail of the meaning that is hidden behind this question. In the very first two mantras the whole of its significance is summed up, wherein it states that there is positively some superior principle surpassing the operations of the sense organs, mind, intellect, and the like. 

While the Upanishad is a revelation and can proclaim this certainty with confidence—the truth of there being a transcending principle superior to the operational activities of the senses and the mind—the sadhaka, the student of the Upanishad, is taken slowly by a teaching that takes the mind from the visible to the gradually realised invisible.

I-2. Because He is the ear of the ear, the mind of the mind, the speech of speech, the vital air of the vital air, and the eye of the eye, the wise attain immortality by freeing themselves from identification with the senses and renouncing the world.

I-3. The eye does not reach there, nor does speech or mind. We do not fully understand it, and therefore, we are unable to provide instruction about it. It is distinct from the known and distinct from the unknown. We have learned this from the ancient sages who explained it to us.

I-4. That which is not expressed by speech, but by which the word is expressed, recognise that alone to be Brahman, and not this non-Brahman that is being worshipped.

I-5. That which cannot be thought by the mind, but by which, they say, the mind is capable of thinking, recognise that alone to be Brahman, and not this non-Brahman that is being worshipped.

I-6. That which cannot be seen with the eye, but by which one sees the activities of the eye, recognise that alone to be Brahman, and not this non-Brahman that is being worshipped.

I-7. That which cannot be heard with the ear, but by which one hears the ear’s hearing, recognise that alone to be Brahman, and not this non-Brahman that is being worshipped.

I-8. That which cannot be smelled with the sense of smell, but by which the sense of smell is attracted to its objects, recognise that alone to be Brahman, and not this non-Brahman that is being worshipped.

II-1. If you think, ‘I know Brahman correctly,’ you have only a limited understanding of Brahman’s true nature. Your knowledge of His form and the forms of the gods is also limited. Therefore, Brahman is still to be explored by you. I believe I know Brahman.

II-2. I do not claim to know Brahman correctly, nor do I claim it is completely unknown. I both know and do not know. Among us, those who truly know, know Brahman; it is neither completely unknown nor fully known.

II-3. To those who do not know, it is known; to those who think they know, it remains unknown. Those who truly know recognise that it is unknown, and those who think they know do not truly know.

II-4. When Brahman is realised as the inner essence of cognition in every state of consciousness, it is truly known, for in that realisation, one attains immortality. Through one’s own Self, strength is gained, and through knowledge, immortality is attained.

II-5. If one has realised this, there is fulfillment. If one has not realised it, there is a complete loss. By realising Brahman in all beings and withdrawing from this world, the wise attain immortality.

IV-4. The instruction regarding meditation is as follows. It is comparable to a flash of lightning or the blink of an eye. This analogy represents the divine aspect of Brahman.

IV-5. Then follows the instruction through analogy concerning the individual self. It is widely understood that the mind seems to attain It, that the mind constantly remembers It, and that the mind possesses thoughts about It.

IV-6. That Brahman is known as Tadvana (adorable to all beings). That is to be worshipped as Tadvana. Those who know It in this manner are revered by all beings.

IV-7. The disciple said, “Respected sir, please teach me the Upanishad.” The teacher replied, “I have taught you the Upanishad. It is indeed about Brahman that I have spoken.”

IV-8. In this knowledge, austerity, self-restraint, and action serve as the foundation, the Vedas represent all the limbs, and truth is its abode.

IV-9. One who comprehends this, with their sins eradicated, becomes firmly established in the infinite, blissful, and supreme Brahman. They become firmly established in Brahman.

End of the Kenopanishad 

Mundaka 3.2.3

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नायमात्मा प्रवचनेन लभ्यो न मेधया न बहुना श्रुतेन । 
यमेवैष वृणुते तेन लभ्यस्तस्यैष आत्मा विवृणुते तनूं स्वाम् ॥ ३ ॥

nāyamātmā pravacanena labhyo na medhayā na bahunā śrutena | 
yamevaiṣa vṛṇute tena labhyastasyaiṣa ātmā vivṛṇute tanūṃ svām || 3 ||

3. This Atman cannot be attained by dint of study or intelligence or much hearing—whom he wishes to attain—by that it can be attained. To him this Atman reveals its true nature. 

Shankara’s Commentary:

Com.—If  the realisation of the atman is the greatest gain of all, it may be thought that means such as study, etc., should be largely employed for its attainment. This text is intended to dispel that notion.

 This atman which has been explained and whose realisation is the highest object of human desire cannot be attained by means of much study of the Vedas and the Sastras. 

Similarly not by intelligence, i.e., by a retentive memory of the purport of writings; nor by much heard, i.e., by much hearing.

 By what then could the Atman be attained is explained.

 The Paramatman whom this knower wishes to attain, by that seeking alone can that Brahman be attained; not by any other means, because his nature is always attained. 

What is the nature of this knower’s attainment of the Atman is explained. 

As pot, etc., reveals its form where there is light, so does the Atman concealed by ignorance reveal his true nature when there is knowledge. 

The drift is the wish for the realisation of the Atman after renouncing all others is alone the means to the attainment of the Atman.

Mundaka some verses

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3.1. 5.This Atman within the body, resplendent and pure, can be reached by truth and tapas, by sound knowledge and by abstinence from sexual pleasures constantly practised; he is within the body, resplendent and pure; him, assiduous Sanyasins see, their faults removed.

3.1. 8. He is not grasped by the eye; nor by speech; nor by other senses; nor by tapas; nor by karma; when one’s mind is purified by the clearness of knowledge, then alone he sees the indivisible (Brahman) by contemplation.

3.1.2. He, who broods on and longs for objects of desire, is born there and there with such desires; but of him whose desires have been fulfilled and who has realised, the Atman, the desires end even here (in this world).

 Shankara’s Commentary:

Com.—This text shows that the primary help to him who is desirous of emancipation is the renunciation of all desire. He who covets visible or invisible objects of desire, brooding on their virtues is born again and again with those desires of external objects which are incentive to the performance of good and bad deeds. Wherever his desires direct him to perform karma for the realisation of their objects, he is born with those self-same desires in those objects.

 But of him who from a sound knowledge of the absolute truth has all his desires fulfilled, because the Atman is the object of his desire and whose Atman through knowledge has been made to assume its highest, i.e., true form by the removal of the lower form imposed on it by ignorance, all desires impelling him to do meritorious and sinful deeds are destroyed even while his body lasts.

 The drift is that desires do not spring up, because the causes of their rising are destroyed.

Mundaka 3.1.2

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2. On the self same tree, the Jiva drowned as it were and perplexed, grieves owing to helplessness. Hut when he sees the other, the lord who is worshipped by all, and his glory, lie becomes absolved from grief.

 

Shankara’s Commentary:

Com.—In this state of things, the Jiva, i.e., the enjoyer occupying the body as above described, under the heavy load of ignorance, desire and thirst for the fruits of Karma, etc., sinks down like a bottle-gourd in the waters of the sea, is convinced beyond doubt that the body is the atman and thinking that he is the son of this man or the great-grandson of that, lean or stout, with or without good qualities, is enjoying or suffering, and that there is none but him, is born, dies, is united with and parted from relations and kinsmen; therefore, he grieves from helplessness thus: “I am good for nothing; I have lost my son; my wife is dead; what avails my life” and so forth and is subject to anxiety from ignorance owing to numerous kinds of troubles; but when thus constantly degenerating in births, of pretas, beasts, men and the like, he happens, owing to the result of pure deeds stored up in many (previous) births to be instructed in the path of Yoga by some preceptor surpassingly compassionate and being qualified by abstinence from giving pain, truth speaking, continence, complete renunciation and control over the internal and external senses and with his mind concentrated, finds by dint of meditation, the other who is approached by different paths of Yoga and by the followers of Karma distinct from him, conditioned in the body, not subject to the bondage of Samsara, unaffected by hunger, thirst, grief, ignorance, decay and death and lord over all the universe and thinks thus: “I am the atman, alike in all, seated in every living thing and not the other, the illusory atman, enclosed under conditions created by ignorance and this glory—this universe is mine, the lord of all,” then he becomes absolved from grief, i.e., is released entirely from the ocean of grief, i.e., his object is accomplished.

Mundaka 3.1.1

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Verse 3.1.1

द्वा सुपर्णा सयुजा सखाया समानं वृक्षं परिषस्वजाते । 
तयोरन्यः पिप्पलं स्वाद्वत्त्यनश्नन्नन्यो अभिचाकशीति ॥ १ ॥

dvā suparṇā sayujā sakhāyā samānaṃ vṛkṣaṃ pariṣasvajāte | 
tayoranyaḥ pippalaṃ svādvattyanaśnannanyo abhicākaśīti || 1 ||

1. Two inseparable companions of fine plumage perch on the self-same tree. One of the two feeds on the delicious fruit. The other not tasting of it looks on.

 

Shankara’s Commentary:

 Here, a mantra(brief) as an aphorism is introduced for the purpose of ascertaining the absolute entity. 

Tree’ here means ‘body;’ because of the similitude in their liability to be cut or destroyed. Parishasvajate, embraced; just as birds go to the same tree for tasting the fruits. 

This tree as is well known has its root high up (i.e., in Brahman) and its branches (prana, etc..) downwards; it is transitory and has its source in Avyakta (maya).

 It is named Kshetra and in it hang the fruits of the karma of all living things.

 It is here that the Atman, conditioned in the subtle body to which ignorance, desire, karma and their unmanifested tendencies cling, and Isvara are perched like birds. 

Of these two so perched, one, i.e., kshetrajna occupying the subtle body eats, i.e., tastes from ignorance the fruits of karma marked as happiness and misery, palatable in many and diversified modes; 

the other, i.e., tbe lord, eternal, pure, intelligent and free in his nature, omniscient and conditioned by maya does not eat; for, lie is the director of both the eater and the thing eaten, by the fact of Ids mere existence as the eternal witness (of all); not tasting, he merely looks on; for, his mere witnessing is direction, as in the case of a king.

Mandukhya

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 The Mandukya Upanishad is a short, just twelve verses, description of the material manifestation and the eventual return to unmanifest form of the Universe.

The First Section of the discourses expounds the meaning of the great mystical symbol, Om, or Praṇava, as a connotation as well as denotation of the Absolute.

1. OM! - This Imperishable Word is the whole of this phenomenal universe. Its explanation is as follows,  What has become,  what is becoming,  what will become,  - verily,  all of this is OM. And what is beyond these three states of the world of time,  - that too,  verily,  is OM.

The Second Section explains the nature of the Universal Being, Vaiśvānara, or Virāt, as delineated in the Upanishad.

The Third Section propounds the mystery of Dream and Sleep, as also the cosmic counterpart of this state, namely, Hiranyagarbha, the Divine Immanent Being.

5.  The third quarter is Prajna,  where one asleep neither desires anything nor beholds any dream: that is deep sleep.  In this field of dreamless sleep,  one becomes undivided,  an undifferentiated mass of consciousness,  consisting of bliss and sustained by bliss.  His mouth is consciousness.

The Fourth Section is an exposition of the profound significance of Sleep in the interpretation of the nature of the Spirit in man.

7.  That is known as the fourth quarter: neither inward-turned nor outward-turned consciousness,  nor the two together; not an undifferentiated mass of consciousness; neither knowing,  nor unknowing; invisible,  ineffable,  intangible,  devoid of characteristics, inconceivable,  indefinable,  its sole essence being the consciousness of its own Self; the coming to rest of all relative existence; utterly quiet; peaceful; blissful; non dual; this is the Atman,  the Self; this is to be realised.

1.  The wise speak of the unreality of all entities in dream,  verily,   on account of the entities having their location within,  owing to their being enclosed.

"The wise speak of the unreality of all entities in dream"

  All entities experienced in a dream are unreal.  This statement is uncomplicated and logical.  In fact ordinary common sense tempts one to protest that this is only obvious.
But,  Gaudapada wishes us to be aware of our process of reason for deciding the reality of our worldly experiences.
In particular Gaudapada is highlighting the fact that the error of dream entities appearing real is only obvious after leaving the delusional state of dream for the higher  (albeit delusional also)  waking state.

"on account of the entities having their location within,  owing to their being enclosed".

Gaudapada goes on to offer a practical reason why entities experienced within dreams are unreal.  This reason being that things like mountains,  cars and seas or even other persons would not fit inside the person dreaming of such entities.
But, it should be seen that the original error of perception was due to being enclosed within the dream state itself.  That is,  being "within a state",  as it were,  is being within unreality,  as it were,  (Turiya or the "fourth" represents the only reality).
The reasoning that proved the entities to be unreal due to their physical size in comparison to the dreaming person took place only after leaving that "state"

The Fifth Section is centred round the great theme, the nature of Īsvara, the Supreme God of the Universe.

The Sixth Section concerns itself with the majestic character of Reality as such, the Absolute, the Absolute, as the Transcendent Presence.

The Seventh Section is the concluding summary, devoted to an explanation of the harmony between the constituents of Om, or Pranava, and the four states of Consciousness. which forms the subiect of the Upanishad.

Mundaka upanishad krishnananda

Mundakam 3-1-1.     3-1-2.                3-2-3.         some others

The Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 

 

FOREWORD

Among the Upanishads, the Mundaka Upanishad is regarded as one the most

important. It throws a flood of light on the Jnana Marga (the path of Knowledge) and

leads the aspirant to the highest rung in the ladder of Jnana-Brahmavid Brahmaiva

Bhavati.

That this Upanishad was meant for the Sannyasin (and hence the significant name

Mundaka Upanishad) is itself the highest tribute that can be paid to its sacredness. The

truth that this Supreme Knowledge which the Upanishad imparts is to be had through

inspirational initiation direct from a Guru who is well versed in the Brahma Vidya and

who has at the same time had the Brahma Anubhava, is brought out very clearly in this

Upanishad.

At the very commencement, the Upanishad throws out a challenge to all finite (and

therefore imperfect) sciences. Real Knowledge does not consist in the mastery of

cartloads of mere verbiage, but in the immediate experience of the Self. Without this

Self-Knowledge, it is futile to try to know anything else! Mans knowledge of an object is

clouded by the ignorance that shrouds his own Self; and minus this unifying force of

Self-Knowledge, all knowledge is reduced to mere conjecture and, therefore, it is

arbitrary. Knowledge of the Self instantly means true knowledge of everything.

How is this Knowledge to be attained? 

   While yet engaged in the performance of daily duties the aspirant should carefully and minutely analyse the nature of the world, and  grasp the transience of all objects.

  If everything is transient, what, then, is Eternal  and     therefore, worth aspiring for? 

This question cannot be answered by the aspirants

intellect, for the intellect itself is a finite and frail instrument and one amongst the

transient objects in this evanescent world. But the emergence in the aspirants mind of

such a Query is itself the signal that the heart-strands that bound him to Samsara have

got loosened, and that 

with the sword of Jnana he can easily cut them asunder.

 This sword is in the Gurus sheath and has to be acquired by direct personal initiation. 

In the

Gurus holy presence, the disciples intellect ceases to function. Like the gushing waters

of a mountain torrent, when the obstructing dam is broken, Divine Wisdom floods the

heart of the aspirant: he knows. He realises that in essence he is that Knowledge Itself!

That is the Supreme Knowledge in which the distinction between knowledge, the

knower and the known vanishes. And, that is the reason why the Upanishad alludes to It

with a series of negations.

The Upanishad gives graphic descriptions of the effects of desire-prompted actions and

shows how the wrong performance of these actions brings on evil consequences and

even the correct performance, while conferring temporary affluence and happiness,

terminates in the reincarnation of the Jiva in even lower births. Desire is condemned in

unequivocal terms.

Practice of truth is one of the foremost Sadhanas for the purpose of Self-realisation. And the powerfully reassuring

 Mantra Satyameva jayate na anritam occurs in this Upanishad. 

Practice of Truth, penance, Brahm- acharya and the acquirement of correct

knowledge are the practices that bestow strength on the aspirant-physical, mental,

moral, intellectual and spiritual strength; and an aspirant endowed with this strength

alone can reach the Goal-not a weakling, says the Upanishad.

These are all preparatory practices. These are excellent aids for self-purification. But

these actions cannot by themselves achieve That which is not the product of any

action-the Supreme Brahman. Utter annihilation of the ego is called for; and the

Upanishad again and again stresses the Truth that the Atman is all-pervading and is the

Self of all. Failure to perceive this Truth alone results in egocentric personality. The

Upanishad forbids one from talking of anything other than this all-pervading Self. The

austerity of speech (and of the inner Bhava that prompts speech itself) is hidden in this!

Just reflect for a moment. If you really and sincerely recognise the presence of the

Atman in every being, no contemptuous expression would escape from your lips, no

falsehood will be uttered by you; your speech would be sweet, truthful and loving.

Universal love will reside in your heart; and cosmic love is synonymous with supreme

self-sacrifice, or egolessness. That cosmic love is the threshold to the limitless domain of

Brahmic Bliss.

The Upanishad has given very apt and illuminating illustrations to make clear the subtle

Truth propounded in it. 

 

AUTHORS PREFACE

The translations and explanatory notes of the Mantras given here are meant not so

much to provide a word-to-word translation and a commentary of every word thereof,

but to give the essential purport of the Mantras and the central meaning they convey to

the spiritual aspirant. The notes given here are mainly intended for the Sadhaka who is

not very particular about a theological, ritualistic or formal traditional explanation of

the Upanishads, but is interested in knowing their philosophical implications directly

bearing upon the practice of the Yoga of Knowledge.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

FIRSTMUNDAKA

THE GLORY OF KNOWLEDGE

Knowledge is attained not so much by the effort of the individual as through the Sages

who hand down this Knowledge. The characteristics of the ancient disciples were very

marked. The aspiration, the sincere perseverance and the devotion they had to the ideal

of Knowledge was exceptional. They attained the Knowledge with much difficulty,

undergoing many hardships in the forms of austerity, service of the preceptor and

practice of meditation. Knowledge is the ripe fruit of the fine flower of virtue.

Righteousness practised without exceptions, to the very law, gives rise to the state of

introversion and contemplation of consciousness. It is absolutely necessary that the

aspirant or the disciple should be a contemplative so that he may be receptive to the

Knowledge imparted to him. Knowledge is received by the internal nature and, hence, it

is not properly received by extroverts.

In this Upanishad it is said that Knowledge was originally imparted by the Creator

Himself to the representatives of Knowledge, the Sages and the Divine Beings.

Though everyone has the right for Knowledge, it is Knowledge that is connected with

renunciation that becomes the means to liberation. Renunciation is the necessary

implication of the attempt at an expansion into universality of nature. Knowledge

cannot be expected to be co-existent with worldly activity. Love for the world is not

consistent with love for the Absolute. Therefore, true spiritual Knowledge is found only

in those who find no value in anything that is objective.

FIRST KHANDA 1/6

Mantra No. 1: Brahma was the first among the divine beings. 

This Lord of all, the protector of all,imparted to his eldest son Atharva this Brahma-Vidya which is the basis of all sciences.

Brahma-Vidya is the fundamental science because it is the explanation and the very

substance of all knowledge, the different aspects and branches of which are all lower

forms of knowledge.

Mantra No. 2: What Atharva was told by Brahma, Atharva told to Angi. Angi transmitted

Brahma-Vidya to Satyavaha, the son of Bharadvaja, who gave this great science to Angiras.

Mantra No. 3: Saunaka, the great sacrificer, approached Angiras duly and with respect and

asked: What is that, O Bhagavan, through the knowledge of which everything becomes

known?

The knowledge of everything through the knowledge of one thing means that everything

is made up of that same thing. Ordinarily the knowledge of one thing does not imply the

knowledge of another thing. But Brahma-Vidya is not a knowledge which excludes other

kinds of knowledge, but that which transmutes into itself all kinds of knowledge.

Spiritual knowledge means the direct experience arrived at through the fusion of the

essence of the object of knowledge into the essence of the subject of knowledge. Hence

spiritual knowledge is indivisible experience, not divisible like intellectual knowledge. It

is intuition which does not function on the basis of duality, but is essentially a self 

identical, integral experience. Spiritual Knowledge means the essence of the knowledge

of everything that exists in generality as well as in particularity. It is the Knowledge of

the highest cause, the knowledge of which means the knowledge of all its effects also.

Mantra No. 4: To him he said: Two kinds of knowledge have to be acquired: thus the Knowers

of Brahman have declared. These are (i) the lower and (ii) the higher.

Mantra No. 5: Of these the lower one consists of the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda,

the Atharva Veda, phonetics, rituals, grammar, etymology, prosody and astronomy. But the

higher one is that through which the Imperishable is attained.

Angiras tries to explain the lower Vidya in the beginning, though the question of

Saunaka is regarding the higher Vidya. There may be a general doubt in the mind of the

aspirant as to whether the lower Vidya has got any value or not. Angiras anticipates such

doubts likely to be experienced by the disciple and says that the lower one is an

insufficient means to the realisation of Brahman. The lower Vidya pertains to the

divinities, their worship and the different methods of attaining excellent regions through

the performance of meritorious deeds, like prayer, sacrifice, etc., offered to the divinities

concerned. The prima facie view is rejected and the final judgment, viz., that the

Imperishable Being is reached through another kind of knowledge, is established.

The great difference between the lower and the higher Vidyas is that in the former case

knowledge gives rise to the performance of actions, whereas, in the latter case, all action

ceases before the attainment of Knowledge. 

In the lower Vidya, when the knowledge of a

divinity is gained, efforts should be put forth afterwards in order to attain that divinity.

But in the higher Vidya, Knowledge does not mean the knowledge of any particular

divinity and it is not knowledge in the ordinary sense at all. Higher Knowledge means

not the connection between the knower and the known, but the knowledge of the

Knower himself without any relation or medium between the knower and the known in

the form of cognition or awareness. Further, the attainment of a divinity means the

taking of a special form by an individual, befitting the nature of that particular divinity.

But higher Knowledge means the renunciation of all forms of experience and existing as

an absolutely attributeless being which is not in relation to any thing external.

The higher Vidya is the Knowledge propounded in the Upanishads. Upanishat means

the Knowledge that destroys ignorance or that which leads to perfection or the means of

attuning oneself with the true Existence. Brahma-Vidya is the technique or the science

enabling one to reach Absolute Experience. This Knowledge is attained through great

effort in the forms of Viveka, Vichara, Vairagya and Abhyasa.xxxxxx

Dharma and Jnana are different in their natures. Virtuous actions no doubt conform to

Dharma. But, the nature of Dharma is to goad one to action. When there is a knowledge

of Dharma which is the same as lower Vidya, a person is incited to perform actions in

terms of Dharma. Knowledge of merely Dharma does not mean perfection, because it is

the sense of imperfection involved in it that prompts a person to do further action. But

the higher Knowledge is self-sufficient and does not require one to perform anything

after the attainment of It.

Mantra No. 6: That which is imperceptible, ungraspable, without lineage, colourless, eyeless

and earless, handless and footless, eternal and all-pervading, existing in the heart of all, very

subtle, imperishable and the source of all beings, is beheld by men of wisdom.

The Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 8

This indestructible being does not come within the purview of the powers and the

functions of the body, the vital energy, the senses of knowledge and action, the mind,

the subconscious, the intellect, and the ego, whatever be the form into which their

functions are modified. The relative values and the ideas of connections or relations that

are seen in the world of experience hold good only when there is cognition and

perception of the external. Attributes do not inhere in this Ultimate Substance, and they

are neither identical with It nor different from It. If they are different, they have no

connection with It; if they are identical, they do not exist at all. Hence, all attributes are

denied in the transcendental Being. The negation of the functions of hearing and seeing

imply the non-existence of name and form which are connected with these two

functions. Name and form do not mean the ordinary name and form which are

understood by the mind. Name means the potentiality of form and form is the

materialisation of name. Name is the subtle power which is the factor working as the

principle or constitution of individuality which expresses itself as a form situated in

space. Thus name stands for that individualistic principle which does not change until

the attainment of the highest knowledge. But the form changes itself at the time of death

and at the beginning of birth. Hence, Nama and Rupa are not valid in the Absolute.

Further, the senses and the other organs are necessary only when there is the need for

the knowledge of anything or for doing anything. Absoluteness does not stand in the

need of either knowing anything or doing anything, because of its secondlessness. It is

able to know more and do more without any functional organ, as these organs are not

helps but real obstructions to the consciousness of the perfection of spirit. This Spirit

does not suffer diminution either in the form of decay of organs or loss of possessions or

change of attributes, because it has neither organs, nor properties, nor qualities which

are subject to change; nor is it affected by increase as in it everything is included. The

Spirit is experienced as existent everywhere, without distinctions, by those who have

risen to the level of spiritual consciousness. This is the object of higher knowledge, or

Para Vidya.

Mantra No. 7: As a spider projects forth and absorbs back (the threads), as plants grow on

earth, as hairs grow on the body, the universe emerges from the Imperishable Being.

The first example shows that even the material cause of the universe is the Divine Being

Itself, i.e., the Universe is non-different in nature from its cause. The second illustration

shows that what is manifested is only an appearance of the form of the original cause.

The third example shows that even apparently inanimate beings also find their origin in

the conscious cause. In short, whatever is, similar or dissimilar-everything is

essentially the highest causeless Cause, viz., the Divine Principle.

Mantra No. 8: Brahman distends through austerity; then the primordial matter is produced; from

that the Prana, the mind, truth, the regions and the effects of actions.

The austerity of Brahman consists in Knowledge. It is not a means to purification as in

the case of the individual, but it is the metaphorical explanation of the nature of the

Primal Wish which is considered to exist as the background of the appearance of the

universe. The cause of the world is described here as the general potentiality which

dilates in order to give rise to appearances. This cause accounts for the existence of the

original essence of matter which is in the state fit for manifestation. This matter is called

here as Anna or food, because it is the object of experience by the spirit internally as well

The Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 9

as externally. The co-existence of matter and spirit makes possible the appearance of the

cosmic life, or Hiranyagarbha. Prana, objectively and enlivened by consciousness, is the

same as the Creator, Hiranyagarbha, but, subjectively, the energy that vibrates the body

and influences the mind. This Hiranyagarbha is the peculiar combination of allknowledge

and all-power. He is all-knowledge because he is based on the Absolute and

he is all-power because he is the cause of the world. The mind, which is of the nature of

the thought and doubt together with the intellect with a capacity to discriminate and

determine, is produced as an effect from this primordial matter itself. From this the

mind comes out. Satyam, or truth, is the continuity or existence of the different forms of

experience. Truth means the truth of experience. The experiences of the mind are

considered as true, because the mind gives rise to the expression of its own forms. These

forms, though they are not continuous or truly existent, appear to be continuous and

true because the mind reflects through itself the consciousness which is continuous and

true. The creation of the mind implies also the projection of the external fields or

regions which provide the necessary atmosphere for the experiences of the mind. The

moment the mind is ejected, the impulse to action, which is the nature of the mind, is

also produced. The impulse to action results in the performance of action. As every

action has got its own reaction or result, the fruits of action always exist as inseparable

from their causes. The fruit of action is called here as Amrita, or indestructible, because

these fruits of actions can never be destroyed until the attainment of Self-Knowledge.

Mantra No. 9: Who is Omniscient and all-Knowing, whose penance consists in knowledge, from

Him do proceed Hiranyagarbha, name, form and matter.

Omniscience stands for the knowledge of the general essence of everything. Allknowingness

is the knowledge of everything in particular also. His power consists in

knowledge. Wherever there is knowledge, there is power also. Power is the form taken

by knowledge. True power cannot be had as long as ones knowledge is imperfect. The

greater the knowledge, the greater is the power. Hence, Omniscience is Omnipotence

also. Power is not actually the idea of superiority and control over another, but the result

of becoming the Self of another. One cannot have power over another as long as one is

different from another, because the relation between two things is always artificial.

Genuine relationship is identity of nature, which is the same as true power. Real power

is not the effect of effort or toil, but a spontaneous experience of Self-perfection which

does not depend upon anything external. This Supreme Perfection, whose power is

knowledge, manifests as the Cosmic Creator, who becomes the cause of the names and

the forms of the universe and also the matter of names and forms.

SECONDKHANDA

The object of the lower Vidya is connected with the doer, the instrument of doing, the

action, and the result thereof. The path of the lower Vidya is one of Samsara, whose

beginning and end cannot be known. It is of the form of pain and, therefore, it has to be

rejected by all intelligent beings. The experience of Samsara is continuous like the flow

of waters in a river. The cessation of this flow is called emancipation which is the object

of the higher Knowledge, which is beginningless and endless, decayless, deathless,

immortal, fearless, pure and calm, of the nature of establishment in the Self, non-dual

and Supreme Bliss. The experience of Samsara is not a constant or steady experience

The Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 10

but a constant movement or a free flow of mental experiences. It is not existence, but

change. Change is another name for Samsara. This change is the involuntary urge

caused by the sense of imperfection and desire for perfection. It is this great discontent

present in life that never allows anything to be what it is for more than a moment.

Everything has to transform itself, for nothing is perfect. Whatever is in space or in time

comes under the law of causation and, therefore, is bound to be imperfect. This section

of the Upanishad deals with the nature of lower Vidya and its criticism is intended to

make one conscious of the imperfect state and then go beyond it. Vairagya is the result

of the perception of defects and the consciousness of perfection. It is necessary that

there should be a consciousness of suffering so that one can know what he actually is

through the sense of limitation and the aspiration given rise to by this consciousness.

Mantra No. 1: The effects of Karmas which were glorified in the Mantras of the Vedas and which

were known by the sages were diversely explained and put into practice in the Treta Yuga.

(Treta may also mean the threefold Veda consisting of the Rik, the Yajus and the Saman.) O

men! Observe these always, having the desire for the fruits of actions based on truth or

righteousness. This is your path of good action in this world.

Mantra No. 2: When in the flaming-fire the flames begin to shake, then oblations of ghee should

be offered in the middle of the two previous oblations of Darsa and Paurnamasa.

Mantra No. 3: Whose performance of Agnihotra is without the Darsa and the Paurnamasa,

without the sacrifice of Chaturmasya, without the offering of the autumnal season, without

feeding and worshipping the guest, without proper performance, without the Vaishva-Deva

offering and which is not done according to rules-that Agnihotra shall destroy the seven worlds

of the performer.

Mantra No. 4: The seven flames of fire are Kaali, Karali, Manojava, Sulohita, Sudhumravarna,

Sphulingini and Vishvaruchi.

Mantra No. 5: Who performs the sacrifice when these flames are brilliant, offering oblations at

the right time, him the rays of the sun guide and take to where the ruler of the gods reigns

supreme.

Mantra No. 6: The oblations offered appear in conscious forms and invite the sacrificer, saying

Come, Come. They speak to him in sweet words and worship him and through the passage of

the rays of the sun lead him up to the celestial region and say, This is your auspicious heavenly

world, the effect of meritorious deeds.

Actions performed without knowledge bind the performer to the particular results of

those actions. These actions are infected by ignorance, desire and the impulse to act and,

therefore, they are essenceless and the source of sorrow. Hence, such actions are

criticised in the following Mantras.

Mantra No. 7: All the sacrifices performed by the eighteen people connected with them are

transient and unsafe boats in crossing this Samsara. These actions are inferior. Those ignorant

ones who glorify and consider as good these actions go to birth and death again and again.

Plava is boat or a floating bubble. These actions are called bubbles, because their effects

break like bubbles together with the potencies of actions. No action leads a person to

something which is not conditioned by space or time, because all actions are in space

and time.

Mantra No. 8: Drowned in the midst of ignorance, but thinking themselves great and learned,

the deluded ones, attacked from all sides by decay, disease and death and several other

The Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 11

miseries, turn round and round in the wheel of Samsara like blind men guided by blind men.

Mantra No. 9: Controlled by the diverse forms of ignorance, children without intelligence

arrogantly feel: We have achieved our purpose. Because of the desires present within their

minds, these performers of selfish actions fall down miserably to the field of action and sorrow

from the region of enjoyment on the exhaustion of the effects of their meritorious deeds.

Actions, good or bad, give rise to limited results and, therefore, there is an end of the

experience of the fruits of all actions. Though a person is really ignorant, he is made to

feel that he is wise because of the semblance of consciousness that is reflected through

his intellect. The fruits of actions are not powerful enough to give the performer of the

actions lasting happiness. There is a threefold defect in the experience of the fruits of

actions. An action is generally performed with the expectation that it will bring the

desired end. But inasmuch as desires do not have connections with anything

permanently and because they shift their centres quickly, at the time of experience of the

fruit of the previous action it is no more the desired end. Not only this, it becomes a

source of sorrow. This is one defect. Secondly, the experience of happiness through the

fruits of actions is not real happiness, but only an excitement of the mind temporarily

caused by the desired contact with the object which appeared to give the promise of true

happiness. Hence, it is more a deluded state of the mind than an experience of real

happiness. Thirdly, because it may not be possible always to fulfil all desires and reap

the fruits of all actions in one birth, the individual may have to take several more births

for the sake of experiencing them. Thus, all desires and actions lead to bondage. It is

sheer ignorance and delusion that make one believe that one can become perfect and

happy through his intellect, mind and the senses, as all these instruments of knowledge

and action function in the relative plane alone.

For the sake of acting according to his own interests, man takes the advice of only such

other people as are conducive to the fulfilment of those personal interests. This is

illustrated by the saying of blind men being led by the blind. People full of desires

cannot appreciate the advice given by men of wisdom, as wisdom is contrary to desire.

Rejecting the precepts of wisdom, people take to their own methods of action and

through self-conceit and vanity think that they have achieved their ends. Their

experiences, however, shall result in intense grief and they will be made to repent for

their actions. Because of heedlessness and pride they constantly fall back into the

experiences of phenomenal suffering and never really attain to what they actually longed

for, inasmuch as what is really desired is unrestricted happiness and as this cannot be

had through desires and actions.

Mantra No. 10: Thinking that external sacrifices and charities are all, i.e., the best, these

deluded ones do not know of anything better. Enjoying in heaven the fruits of meritorious deeds,

at the end of it, they fall down to this world or even to a lower world.

Because of the lack of proper knowledge, ordinary people do not have the consciousness

of the fact that there is a higher state of emancipation. Their lot is suffering alone

because wherever there is lack of knowledge, there pain is the experience. A meritorious

deed temporarily raises an individual to a region of enjoyment, because the effect of a

deed is temporary. At the end of the momentum of the meritorious deed, the individual

reverts to his native condition of imperfection and desire for action, i.e., he once again

becomes what he was previously. No deed can permanently raise an individual to a high

The Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 12

and glorious state, as every deed is only a phenomenon. And, further, due to the

presence of passion and greed, the individual may even fall down to lower regions.

Mantra No. 11: Those people who have faith and practise austerity, who live in forests with

calmness of mind and full with knowledge, living on alms, being freed from all desires, pass

through the passage of the sun to where is that immortal and imperishable Purusha.

The Mantra refers to Krama-Mukti, or gradual liberation, attained by the Upasakas of

Saguna Brahman. These Upasakas are the Vanaprasthas living in forests a life of

austerity and devotion.

Mantra No. 12: Examining the nature of the regions attained through action and finding out their

worthlessness, a wise person should get totally disgusted with them, because that which is not

made cannot be attained through what is made or done. For the sake of the knowledge of that

(which is not made), one should approach, with Samit in his hand, a preceptor who is wellversed

in scriptures and also established in Brahman.

The efforts of an individual are generally stained by ignorance, selfish desires and

actions connected with those desires. Karmas are enjoined only on such people as

cannot extricate themselves from the clutches of these fetters. The different regions and

experiences which are accessible to these people, are also of the same nature as their

causes. They give rise to such unpleasant experiences as rise and fall in different states.

They are also dependent on and affected by the defects consequent upon the nonperformance

of what is enjoined and the performance of what is prohibited. People who

revel in mere phenomenal selfish actions alone, get such births as those of beasts,

demons, etc. These experiences should be properly analysed with the help of such proofs

of knowledge as perception, inference, verbal testimony and comparison. The true

nature of these experiences in the different worlds should be known in its essential

form. These experiences are the different roads to Samsara. They extend from the

unmanifest potentiality of beings to the lowest inanimate matter. They are either

manifested or unmanifested, physical, astral or mental, objective or subjective. They are

interdependent like the seed and the tree. They are the sources of extreme misery and

are absolutely essenceless. They are illusory like a jugglers trick or water in the mirage

or a city in the clouds or like objects in dream or like a breaking bubble. They are now

seen and now not seen. Such experiences should be known to be the results of desires

and actions belonging to the mind and senses. An aspirant should turn his back to all

these and should come to the conclusion that the whole universe is produced by

nescience and its undesirable consequences. The network of this universe is kept intact

in the forms of pleasure and pain, virtue and vice, good and evil, etc.

A wise aspirant, therefore, should get disgusted with all these experiences beginning

from Brahman down to a blade of grass. That which is not produced or created, is not

attained through that which is produced or created. There can be relationship only

between similar things, and not between two dissimilar things. A product has got noneternal

characteristics and, therefore, it will not be able to know the eternal as long as it

is bound to such lower characteristics. Moreover, all effects or produced things can

relate themselves to another thing only through a change or modification or an action. It

is obvious that self-transformation is not the way of attaining true knowledge of any

object. Since a transformation is transitory in nature, the knowledge that is effected by it

would also be transitory. In this universe of manifestation, there is nothing that is not

The Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 13

produced. Brahman is not something that is produced. Hence, the attainment of the

knowledge of Brahman is not possible through a transitory process, which is the

characteristic of produced things alone. Everything that is done leads only to what is

done or produced. That which is eternal and not produced, is attained only through pure

Knowledge which is not non-eternal or produced. Brahman is not subject to either

producing or creating or obtaining or purifying or modifying in any way.

The highest Bliss which an aspirant seeks is found only in the immutable eternal Being.

In the aspirant there is a consciousness of the difference between all non-eternal

appearances and the eternal Being. This consciousness is called Viveka, which gives rise

to Vairagya or the abandonment of the non-eternal. The aspirant begins to perceive the

worthless nature of things and the possibility of the existence of a higher glorious being.

For the sake of the knowledge of the Supreme Being, he approaches a spiritual preceptor

who is rooted in the consciousness of Brahman. This Mantra points out that one will not

be able to have intuitive knowledge without the help of an experienced teacher, even

though one may be a very learned person.

Mantra No. 13: To him who has duly approached (the Preceptor), who is of tranquil mind, whose

mind is completely controlled, the wise Preceptor duly imparts the knowledge of Truth, the

Brahma-Vidya, through which one is enabled to know the Imperishable Being.

The disciple should approach the teacher in a manner suited to the reception of the

Knowledge of Brahman. The most important of all qualifications required of the disciple

is thorough desirelessness. The forms of desires, whatever their nature or condition be,

cover the purity of the mind and prevent the reception of the knowledge which is the

opposite of any kind of desire. Even desire for life in the body should be got rid of when

one approaches a preceptor for the sake of Knowledge. The disciple should have

intelligently combined in himself the qualities of the head and the heart. He should have

purity of feeling within coupled with subtle intelligence. The nature of Knowledge is first

understood through the purified intellect and then felt within the purified heart. Viveka

and Vairagya are respectively the qualities of the head and the heart, i.e., of the intellect

and feeling. The preparations which an aspirant should make before receiving spiritual

knowledge consist in the practice of the canons laid down in the Sadhana-Chatushtaya.

The Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 14

SECONDMUNDAKA

The objects and the natures of lower Vidya have been explained. They end in the

experience of Samsara. In this Section of the Upanishad, all experiences are traced back

to their ultimate cause from which they proceed, in which they subsist and into which

they return. The knowledge of this ultimate Cause means the knowledge of everything

that exists. This ultimate Cause is the object of higher Knowledge, Para Vidya or Brahma

Vidya, which is the subject matter of the following Mantras.

FIRSTKHANDA

Mantra No. 1: This is the truth: Even as from a blazing fire countless sparks of various kinds but

similar form are shot forth, similarly, from the Imperishable Being, various kinds of beings

emerge forth, and return to it later on.

The individuals that emerge out of the Supreme partake of the nature of the Supreme in

addition to their own special individualities. In every individual, there is a special nature

of existence and permanency which are eternal values, and there are also such relative

values as experiences of qualities. That which is real in every individual is of the same

nature in all, but that which is special to the individual is peculiar to itself alone. The

illustration of sparks shooting forth from fire is not meant to show that individuals exist

independent of their cause, as sparks are separate from their cause which is fire, but to

prove that effects have got a nature which is identical with that of the cause. All are one

in their essential Selfhood, but all are different in their modes of thinking. Even as the

roots of all trees are in the earth and the trees are fed by the earth alone and all trees live

upon the same essence of food extracted from the earth, but the branches do not touch

the earth, and the trees differ from one another in their forms or external growth, the

different individuals are rooted in the common essence of the universal Self, but their

superficial natures are peculiar to their individualities which are the effects of their

different ways of thinking. The freedom of the individual, therefore, consists in the

absorption of the consciousness of the nature peculiar to itself into the consciousness of

the general essence underlying all individualities. It is only the breaking of the barrier of

limited consciousness that constitutes the movement towards perfection. Even as the air

that is in different vessels may give different smells, different minds have different

natures; but, even as the space within different vessels is not affected by the odour

which is in the air within the vessel, the Absolute Self in all individuals is unaffected by

the modes of thinking in different individuals. The factors which create distinction are

the vessel and the odour. Without these two, there is no distinction at all. Similarly, it is

the body and the mind that create differences in existence and without them there is no

experience of difference. Moksha, therefore, is the removal of the mind and the

consequent transcending of the body-consciousness. All individuals proceed from,

subsist in, and return to the one Cause of all causes, viz., the one Self in all. Life is made

possible because of the dependence of individuals on this Self. It is this Self that gives

the very existence which is the main value necessary for every individual; without it

individuals have no existence, even as without space there is no universe at all. As all

created objects ultimately vanish into space, all individuals finally return to their source,

viz., the Self. All are distinctionless in that Source of all beings. All special characteristics

The Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 15

of the individuals are cast off and everyone is reduced to a uniform state, even as in deep

sleep everyone experiences the same condition. Nama and Rupa, or name and form,

constitute the universe of appearance, whereas Satchidananda constitutes Reality.

Names and forms appear to be real because of the reflection of Satchidananda in them.

The whole value of things is, therefore, Satchidananda, and without it they are nothing.

Mantra No. 2: The Purusha is Divine, formless, existing inside and outside, unborn, free from

Prana and mind, pure, and greater than the great unmanifest.

Purusha is one who fills all space or who resides in the cavity of the heart. The Purusha

is immaterial and, therefore, divine in nature. For the same reason, it is inside and

outside. It is unborn because it is causeless. It does not undergo any process such as of

life and its experiences.

The Universal Self knows without the ordinary Pramanas, or proofs of knowledge. Its

knowledge does not consist in perception, inference, verbal testimony or any kind of

commonly known proof. Worldly knowledge is relative and mediate. There is no

necessity for the cognitive or perceptive organs in the highest Self, because in it

knowledge consists in Self-realisation, or realisation of Itself. Even the distinction which

is ordinarily made between the sheaths of a person cannot be made in the true Self.

Virat, Hiranyagarbha and Isvara are of the nature of Pure Consciousness. The apparent

distinction which is seen to exist among these three aspects of the Divine Being is more

the result of a convention or habit of the mind to find objectively what it experiences in

itself. Logically this distinction cannot be proved, though it is simply believed in. Hence,

the Upanishad says that the Divine Being is without Prana or mind. The Pranas and the

mind are limiting factors and, therefore, they have no basis in the unlimited Divine

Being. The Mantras of the Vedas and the declarations of the Upanishads which describe

the Divine Being as having heads, eyes, feet, etc., are only figurative, meant to convey its

universal nature. There is neither the vibration of Iccha Sakti nor of Kriya Sakti in the

Divine Being; therefore, there are no sense-organs also. In short, there is nothing in It

which belongs to the special characteristic of the individual.

This Purusha is superior to the unmanifested being which is the source of the possibility

of all causes and effects which constitute the very pith of phenomena. In this Divinity of

the Purusha, the mind, the Pranas, etc., are said to come to a complete cessation as they

are simply modes of relative existence, i.e., the manner in which the relations between

the subject and the object are kept up. These functions of the mind, etc., are not selfexistent,

because they are the special forms manifested by the consciousness for a

definite purpose. Their value is, therefore, only in relation to the passing modes of

consciousness. As there is no mode in the Divine Being, there are no functional organs

in It.

Mantra No. 3: From this Being proceed the vital energy, the mind, the senses, ether, air, fire,

water and the all-supporting earth.

All the appearances are based on the different phases of consciousness, or Vishaya-

Chaitanya. Appearances are possible only on the reality of consciousness. That which is

real in all forms of experience, is common to both the experiences and the experiencer.

Matter is not a substance but a condition of experience differing in the various stages of

evolution. Hence, all forms of matter, gross or subtle, external or internal, are certain

states which are peculiar to the respective modes of the experiencing consciousness.

The Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 16

Therefore, the universe, including all subjects and all objects, is only a condition

supported by the Absolute, on the basis of which appearances are experienced by the

cognising individual and without which the universe has no reality. In fact, what is real

in the universe is nothing more and nothing less than Existence-Consciousness-Bliss.

The names and the forms are not existent substances.

Mantra No. 4: THE NATURE OF THE VIRAT-PURUSHA AND THE UNIVERSE:

The Virat is the Chaitanya, or the Consciousness, which animates the universe of gross

experience. The following Mantra describes the universal character of the Virat, which is

the name given to the materialised state of the subtle, universal, creative power called

Hiranyagarbha. Even this Virat has one character belonging to the Absolute, which

makes the Virat the centre of all-knowledge and all-power. This character is universality

of nature. No distinction can be made between Hiranyagarbha and Virat except in the

sense that the latter is the way in which the former exists as the universe of objective

experience. In other words, Virat is Chaitanyamaya. The ascription of certain characters

and forms to the Virat is only to facilitate the clear understanding of the universal

nature which an individual will not be able to understand with his limited knowledge

and his impotent sense-organs.

This is the universal Self, the Virat; his head is the shining region of the heavens; his eyes are

the sun and the moon; his ears are the quarters of space, his speech is the Veda full of

knowledge; his vital energy is the universal air; the whole universe is his heart; his feet are the

lowest earth.

The description of the form of Virat as extending from the highest region to the lowest,

to the right and to the left and to every quarter of space, is a metaphorical illustration of

the all-inclusive nature of this universal being. In this Mantra, all objects and states of

experience are unified with the subject of all experience, whereby duality is denied. The

whole mass of experience is understood by an individual only in terms of the manner in

which it is presented to it. The same universal vibration, which has no special character

at all, is experienced as sound by the ear, as touch by the skin, as form by the eye, as

taste by the tongue and as smell by the nose. The very same universal vibration is

subjectively experienced by the Pranas as heat and cold, hunger and thirst. The

psychological organs experience this universal nature as the respective counterparts of

their own individual conditions. Thus, the whole universe is ideal in its nature.

This ideal nature is conceived of and experienced in relation to the subject. Subjectively,

all experiences are explained as manifestations or expressions of the forms of the mind

within. The necessity for the explanation of the objective reality of experiences is

demanded by the fact that the individual seems to have no control over the objective

nature. Thus, experience is explained as being the result of the interaction of the subject

and the object. But, this explanation gives rise to the question as to how consciousness

of experience, if it is only the result of an interaction, is produced at all when it is only a

factor different from both the subject and the object. Consciousness cannot simply hang

in the air without belonging either to the subject or the object. If it belongs to the

subject, it means that a conscious subject is capable of knowing an unconscious object.

If, on the other hand, consciousness belongs to the object, the subject would be

controlled by the object. No complete knowledge of anything would be possible if the

subject is entirely dependent on the object. If complete knowledge is a possibility at all,

The Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 17

the object of knowledge should be ingrained in the essential constitution of the subject

itself. The experience of Self-realisation, where infinitude becomes the centre of reality,

denies all possibilities of any value of any object distinct from the subject. Thus also the

ideal nature of the universe is established.

Moreover, the Absolute, which includes all subjects and all objects, cannot be said to

give rise to either itself or something other than itself. Both hypotheses would frustrate

the very meaning of Absoluteness. Hence, experience is essentially limitless. The

distinctions in experiences are only the different stages in and the different ways of the

knowledge of the Absolute by Itself in the forms of individual natures.

This, in essence, is the meaning of the explanation of the appearance of the Virat as the

universe of experience. This Virat-Consciousness is the real seer, hearer, thinker and

understander in all beings. All functions are made possible by this general

consciousness in all beings.

Mantras No. 5 to 9: From Him, the heavenly region which is illuminated by the sun, the moon,

the showers of rain, all vegetation on earth, do proceed. Earth is the essence of food. Food

produces energy, and from energy all beings are produced. From Him come forth the Rig Veda,

the Sama Veda, the Yajurveda, the austerities connected with sacrifices, the sacrifices

themselves with and without offering of animals, the gifts to the priests, the proper time of the

sacrifice, the sacrificer, and the worlds presided over by the moon and the sun, to be reached

by the sacrificers. All these are determined by the law of the Virat. From Him again proceed the

forms of and the rules connected with the celestial beings who are of diverse nature, the semigods,

the human beings, animals, birds, inhalation and exhalation, corns and grains, penance,

faith, truth, continence and restraint. By Him are determined the functions of the different senses

with their different forms of knowledge connected with their respective objects giving rise to

various kinds of experiences, the different seeds of the functionl organs actuated by the Pranas

within, in accordance with the constitution of the different individuals. In Him are found the

oceans and the mountains; all rivers flow in Him in their various forms. Plants and the various

tastes connected with food-all form the different parts of this Cosmic Body in which resides the

Universal Self or the Virat-Purusha.

Mantra No. 10: The whole universe is the Purusha alone. Actions and penances also are this

Immortal Supreme alone. One who knows this which is seated within the secret cave, breaks

open the knot of ignorance.

Because all is the Purusha alone, it follows that differences are unreal. Hence,

modification is described as merely a play of speech consisting only in name and,

therefore, false. What is true is the Purusha alone. Other than this Purusha, there is

nothing. This is the reply given by the preceptor to the disciples question regarding that

the knowledge of which means the knowledge of everything. When the Purusha is

known, all is known. In fact there is no such thing as all, except this one Purusha. The

Knowledge of the Purusha, therefore, means the absence of duality which is the same as

the destruction of ignorance and attainment of Immortality and Absoluteness.

SECONDKHANDA

Mantra No. 1: This Supreme Being is revealed as seated within, very near to oneself (really, it is

not near but the very Self itself). It moves in the cave and is the great support on which

everything rests. (On it is based) whatever moves, whatever lives and whatever winks. Know

The Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 18

this which is existence as well as non-existence, which is adorable, the best of all beings,

superior to the intellects of people.

The Self is not really experienced by any individual as it really is. Only its effects are

experienced. The existence of the Self is inferred from the fact that the effects which are

experienced, manifest the natures of existence, consciousness, bliss and indivisibility.

The external experiences of the sense of being, intelligence, happiness, love and power

show that there must be an ever-enduring Being in which are found all these

characteristics in their perfected state. The functions of the sense-organs as well as those

of the psychological instruments constantly reflect the nature of an eternally perfect

Being. This Self should be known as the only reality and as identical with the central

core of everything. It is described as existence, non-existence, and that which is beyond

both. It is, therefore, called transcendental Existence or Super-Being, beyond the

ordinary conception of existence or being.

Mantra No. 2: On that which is self-luminous, subtler than the subtle, all the worlds and their

inhabitants are supported. That is the imperishable Absolute. That manifests itself as life,

speech and mind; that is truth; that is immortal; that should be meditated upon. O disciple!

meditate on it.

Mantra No. 3: Taking hold of the great weapon of the bow consisting of the theme of the

Upanishads, fixing the arrow which is rendered sharp through constant contemplation, drawing

back the bow-string with the power of the conscious affirmation of that, O disciple, hit that mark,

the Imperishable.

Mantra No. 4: Om is the bow; the individual self is the arrow; Brahman is the target to be hit. It

should be hit with great vigilance. Then, one shall merge in Brahman, even as the arrow enters

into the target.

Constant meditation on Om allows the individual consciousness to take the form of Om

itself which is unlimited in its nature. The meditator becomes ultimately the object of

meditation itself. Om is the symbol of Brahman and, therefore, meditation on Om leads

to the realisation of Brahman. When one meditates on Om, the mind gets purified. It is

freed from its distractive nature and, consequently, it rests in the tranquil condition of

the Absolute Om.

The individual self is compared to the arrow which hits the target, because the

individual which is a limited reflection gets dissolved in the original through intense

concentration and meditation, even as the arrow that is shot by pulling the bow-string

gets unified with its target. But, in the case of the individual, the arrow does not move

towards an external object but is turned within. The individual, therefore, does not

move towards Brahman and then get identified with it. It is inwardly extinguished

through the transcendence of its own personal existence. It is more a process of Selfcentredness

than objective meditation. Brahman is compared to a target, not because it

is away from the arrow which can hit it, but it is the ultimate experience which is gained

when the personality of the self is lost. Even objective meditation finally leads to selfdissolution,

because intense concentration on an object continuously and for a long time

makes the mind take the form of that object. As the mind perceives only the form which

it has taken, it begins to perceive the same form everywhere. Since, however, it is not

possible for the mind to exist contemplating on one thing alone and at the same time

maintain its individuality, it itself ceases to exist the moment there is perception of the

The Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 19

same form everywhere. Therefore, continuous meditation on any form leads to the same

result of ultimate self-extinction and Self-recovery in the Absolute.

Meditation should be practised not with heedlessness and non-discrimination, but with

the power consequent upon complete renunciation of all objects and states, giving rise

to absolute passionlessness through concentration of mind. One thing can become

identical with another thing only when that one thing partakes of the nature of the other

thing. Desires of all kinds, potential or manifested, are detrimental to the consciousness

of oneness and, hence, the realisation of Oneness, or Brahman, follows the practice of

absolute desirelessness. All the factors that go to make up ones individual existence

have to be cast off through meditation on the universal Being, which transcends all

planes of phenomenal existence.

Mantra No. 5: On which the heaven, the earth, the sky and the mind, together with all the

Pranas, are based-know that one Atman alone. Leave off all other speech; this is the bridge to

Immortality.

This Atman should be known not as any kind of object of knowledge, but as the

substance of ones own Self as well as the Self of everybody else. As a subject can never

become an object at any time, the Self cannot be known through any means related to

objective knowledge. But it is known in the form of Self-awareness freed from the

objective faculties pertaining to the five material sheaths. This is achieved through a

total abstraction of oneself, i.e, refusal to abide by the laws of relative thinking and

understanding. This, again, is possible only after sense-abstraction, which is signified by

discipline and control of speech. Speech is a means of relating oneself to external objects

by means of spending energy. This energy is spent out, really, through thinking alone.

Every thought sends out energy to the object that is thought. In this process, the mind

gets transformed. As this transformation is a change of the mind itself, there is absence

of equilibrium in the mind. This disturbed state of the mind transmits its

transformation to the senses, which connect themselves accordingly with the forms of

objects determined by this previous transformation. The cessation of speech means the

stoppage of connections with persons external to oneself, though subtle connections are

kept up by the mind, independent of the senses. Therefore, the gross and subtle

relationships are stopped respectively through cessation of sense-functions and of

mental modifications. This practice is reinforced by continuous meditation on the

nature of the Atman. The Atman is figuratively described as the bridge to Immortality,

meaning, thereby, that its experience is Immortal. The Sruti has said that the knowledge

of That alone leads one to Immortality and that there is no other way of attaining it.

Mantra No. 6: Like spokes centred in the hub of a wheel, all nerve-centres are centred in

consciousness. This one consciousness of the Atman seems to appear in various forms.

Meditate on this Atman as OM. May there be blessedness to you all on your way across

darkness.

When a person appears to have a certain quality, it must be understood that this quality

is of the mind and not of the Atman. When it is said that a person is happy or sorry,

pleased or displeased, it means that the mind of the person has taken certain forms. As

all forms are changes felt within, they cannot belong to the nature of the Atman. Every

experience is a fluctuation of the mind, good, bad or otherwise, in relation to the

individual. Because of the intimate relationship that is between the Atman and the

The Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 20

mind, it appears as though the whole person changes when the mind changes itself. This

is the reason why a person says, I am happy, I am sorry, etc., though in essencet

these conditions do not belong to the person at all. This Atman, which is distinct from

the functions of the mind, should be meditated upon through the symbol of Om. The

meditators, as it was already described, are those who have withdrawn themselves from

the impulse for desire and action through an intense yearning for the attainment of

Absolute Knowledge. So that obstacles may not impede the free progress of the disciple,

the preceptor blesses them with auspiciousness for the sake of reaching the other shore

of darkness, i.e., the attainment of the light of the Self.

Mantra No. 7: He who is Omniscient and all-knowing, whose glory extends even to the earth, is

established in the ether of the heart, or the divine city of Brahman. The guider of the mind and

the Pranas and the mover of the body is seated in the core of every individual. Through the

knowledge of that Supreme Principle, the great heroes behold that which shines as Bliss and

Immortality.

The glory of this Atman extends to the earth, because even the individuals inhabiting the

earth reflect certain characteristics belonging to the Atman. The main characteristics of

the Atman are indivisibility, absoluteness, eternity, immortality and pure existence. The

special natures which characterise the aforesaid essential, self-identical qualities of the

Atman are consciousness and the freedom of perfection. All these natures are reflected

in the individual in one way or the other.

The indivisible nature of the Atman is reflected in the individual in the form of the urge

for perfection, preceded by a sense of imperfection. The inner essence of the individual

always points to the possibility of and necessity for an undivided state of existence. The

universe manifests itself as an organic whole and has got the characteristics of harmony

and synthesis among its contents. The character of indivisibility implies that of

infinitude or Absoluteness, as that which is divisible is conditioned by space, time and

motion. Perfection cannot be spatiality. The non-spatial nature of perfection means its

non-temporal nature also. It is not divided by past, present and future because of nonobjectiveness.

Absoluteness can have neither origin nor phenomenal continuance nor

cessation. Hence it is eternal, which explains everything, but which itself is not

explained by anything. Non-temporality is the same as immortality, which again is the

nature of perfection or existence without change. The inability of the individual to rest

continuously in any form of phenomenal life, and the constant urge from within to

transcend oneself ever felt by the individual, are the harbingers of the knowledge of the

fact that the individual is in essence a non-individual or impersonal unlimited being.

The diversities of life can be explained only by absoluteness of nature.

Such is the glory of Brahman as reflected on earth and in the individuals. This relentless

Law of the Absolute is the supreme controller of the systematic functions of everything

in this universe. Even as one cannot go behind ones own self, one cannot in any way

transgress the law of the Absolute, as the Absolute is the very basis of every individual.

The glory of Brahman is reflected through the individual functions, psychological as well

as physical. The characteristics of existence, consciousness, freedom, etc., which belong

to the Absolute, are manifested in different degrees in the different stages of evolution in

conformity with the knowing capacity of the individual in a particular state of

experience. Everyone in this world wants freedom and perfection, which sense is not

limited by any conception, possibility or existence. Everyone hankers after unlimited

The Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 21

freedom. Freedom would not be possible for anyone if it lay as something remote from

the one who seeks it. That freedom is necessary proves that it is possible to have it, and

this possibility again shows that it cannot be remote but should be an element in ones

own consciousness. Therefore, perfection is the essential nature of all beings, the lack of

the experience of which ends in the various struggles of life.

In thinking individuals, Brahman manifests as existence and consciousness, but in

inanimate beings only the aspect of existence is revealed. Bliss, however, is experienced

in addition to the experience of existence and consciousness only in the higher class of

beings in whom the quality of Sattva is predominant. In Tamas, Rajas and Sattva

respectively, existence, consciousness and bliss are experienced in succession, the

succeeding one including the preceding natures of reality. Therefore, all individuals

belonging to all degrees of manifestation reflect in different degrees the reality of the

Self.

This all-pervading Self is said to be situated in the centre of the individual. This,

however, does not mean that the Atman is situated anywhere in space, but it means that

it is felt as existence by the individual through the mind which defines ones personality.

Because it is the mind that reflects the Atman, the presence of the Atman is felt only

where the mind manifests itself. There is neither going nor coming nor establishment in

space with reference to the Atman. Wherever a positive value is experienced, it must be

understood that the Atman is manifest there. It is realised as existent in an indivisible

nature, i.e., as the Absolute, by Sages full of Wisdom, in the form of the experience of

positive bliss and immortality.

Mantra No. 8: The knot of the heart is broken, all doubts are cleared and all actions perish when

the Greatest Supreme Being is beheld.

The knots of the heart are Avidya, Kama and Karma, or ignorance, desire and action.

Avidya is the cause, Kama is the medium and Karma is the effect. These three binding

factors confine experience to an individual personality. Because ignorance is the cause

of all troubles, Knowledge, which is the opposite of ignorance, is able to break open the

fort of ignorance, desire and action. When the cause is removed, all the effects also are

removed. Since an effect cannot remove its cause, no mental act or physical act can

remove the cause of these two, viz., the absence of knowledge. A condition is

contradicted only by an opposite condition and not by an object or state which is

subservient to the condition to be contradicted. Hence, knowledge which is the sole

power which is directly opposite to the cause of all troubles, is able to put an end to the

entirety of phenomenal experience.

Doubts which trouble the minds of the individuals are ultimately solved because of the

knowledge of Existence itself. Doubt is a function of the mind, which is an effect of

nescience. When its cause is removed, it is itself removed. When the mind, the cause of

actions, is removed by the removal of ignorance, all actions perish. Actions are threefold

in nature: Sanchita, Agami and Prarabdha. Sanchita Karma is the store of the effects or

the impressions of all the actions performed by an individual in his countless previous

births. All these effects of actions have to be experienced by the individual in different

bodies. An action or a group of actions out of the Sanchita Karma, which can be

experienced only under some particular conditions, is allotted to a particular body for

the sake of experience in those conditions demanded by this special effect or group of

The Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 22

effects of an action or actions. This allotted portion is called Prarabdha. The Agami

Karma consists of actions performed by the individual through a particular body or the

mind which will bear fruit in future.

It is sometimes held that the Prarabdha Karma of a Jnani is not destroyed. Sometimes it

is suggested that even the Prarabdha is destroyed when Knowledge rises. The portion of

the effects of actions to be worked out through a particular body is separated from the

Sanchita Karma and allotted for experience even before the birth of the body. Hence, the

momentum with which the Prarabdha starts actuating the body is exhausted only on the

death of the body and not before. Knowledge is not concerned with this active

momentum at all. Even when the individual is resolved into the Absolute Consciousness,

the body, as long as the Prarabdha is not exhausted, will continue to move as directed by

the Prarabdha, though this movement of the body does not become the object of the

Knowledge of the Self-realised person. In this sense, the Prarabdha is not destroyed

even when Knowledge dawns.

But, it must be remembered that the Prarabdha is seen to be working in the Jnani only

by other individuals who have not got Self-knowledge. The value of a thing is completely

negated and is also reduced to non-existence when there is no consciousness of that

thing or when the thing is resolved into the subject itself. The state of the

consciousness of the Absolute is not something which is separated from the movement

of the Prarabdha. In it all movements are realised as an infinite unity. The Jnani has no

special connection with his particular body. All other bodies also are equally his. He is

the centre of the Consciousness of all individuals and, therefore, there is no meaning in

holding that Prarabdha works in him. He is the witness of universal activity, or rather,

the very Self of the Universe itself. Appearances are meaningful only to separated

individuals and not to the unified consciousness. The movement of the body of the Jnani

is compared to the movement of a leaf in the wind; such a movement is not a conscious

activity at all.

For these reasons, it should be known that Prarabdha is not a substantial something

which is co-existent with consciousness, but it is only a negative force which operates

only in the individual but not in the Absolute. All relative values are transcended the

moment Absolute Knowledge is realised. The Knowledge of the Supreme Being, which is

Omniscient and free from the attributes of Samsara, in the form of the identity of

oneself with it, removes the fetters caused by ignorance, desire and action. Having

uprooted these causes of Samsara, the individual merges into the Absolute.

Mantra No. 9: The pure, partless Brahman is encased, as it were, in the great golden sheath (of

the intellect). This Pure Being is the Light of lights. It is known by those who have realised the

Self.

The intellect is the seed of the highest empirical knowledge and, therefore, it is nearest

to the consciousness of Brahman. It is the sheath which manifests Brahma-Chaitanya in

the greatest degree. It is characterised by Sattva-Guna and, therefore, its colour is said

to be golden. Because of this Sattva present in it, the human being has consciousness in

him, even in his individualised condition. But, the intellect is characterised by Rajas also

and, hence, its consciousness is always objective. Objectivity belongs to the Rajas in the

intellect, and the consciousness in it belongs to Brahman which is behind the intellect.

However, the intellect is the pointer to the existence of Brahman. Meditation is

The Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 23

practised through the aid of the function of the intellect. Meditation is made possible

because of the consciousness or Sattva that is in it, and meditation is made necessary

because of the Rajas that is in it which dissipates energy and impedes real knowledge.

The Atman is realised through the intellect by transcending the intellect. Hence,

Brahman is said to be manifest in the intellect.

This Atman is known by those who follow the course of the natural essential

consciousness within through the withdrawal of the senses and the mind. But, those

who follow the course of the mind and the senses, enter into the world of sorrow. The

mind and the senses constitute the world of darkness which is illuminated by the light of

the Atman. The whole universe appears to have consciousness and light because the

universe which is truly the region of darkness reflects the consciousness and the light of

Brahman. Even the greatest light of the universe and the greatest consciousness

manifest in it are only a borrowed reflection of Brahman. Brahman is not known by

them who are busy with the universe of darkness in which roam the mind and the

senses.

Mantra No. 10: There the sun does not shine, nor the moon and the stars; nor even these

lightnings; what to speak of this fire; everything shines after Him who shines. By His light this

whole universe is illuminated.

Mantra No. 11: This immortal Brahman alone is before. Brahman is behind. Brahman is to the

right and to the left. Brahman alone is spread above and below. This whole universe is the

supreme Brahman alone.

This Mantra shows that what is real is indivisible and that all divided manifestations are

false appearances. This is the conclusion of the subject-matter of the Srutis. It appears

to be spread in all directions, or existent everywhere, only from the point of view of the

individual perceiving or conceiving It in terms of space and time. The experience of

Itself in Itself is free from the idea or notion of extension or magnitude. Its true nature is

summed up in the word Absolute, which is neither a subject nor an object of

Knowledge. All conceptions and perceptions are based on the idea of cause and effect,

which has no meaning for Brahman. In truth, that which appears as various names and

forms is only Brahman, which is without names and forms. All are in It but It is not in

them in its completeness, as It is not fully manifest in any name or form. True

Knowledge is therefore divisionless, without reference to the knower or the known or

the relation between the two. The Upanishads conclude that Brahman alone is the

Absolute Reality.

The Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 24

THIRDMUNDAKA

FIRSTKHANDA

Mantra No. 1: Two birds living together, each the friend of the other, perch upon the same tree.

Of these two, one eats the sweet fruit of the tree, but the other simply looks on without eating.

The two birds are the Jiva and Isvara, both existing in an individual compared to a tree.

They exist together as the reflection and the original. They both manifest themselves in

different ways in every individual. From the characteristics of the Jiva it is possible to

infer the nature of Isvara, and from the nature of Isvara it is possible to determine the

potentialities of the Jiva. Both the Jiva and Isvara have a common substratum which is

Brahman and which is the reality of both. The body is compared to a tree because it can

be cut down like a tree. This tree is also called the Kshetra or the field of manifestation

and action of the Kshetrajna or the knower of the field. The body is the field of action

and experience and it is the fruit of actions done already.

That which distinguishes the Jiva from Isvara is the mind only. In fact, the mind itself

constitutes the Jiva. It is the Jiva that is affected by Avidya, Kama and Karma. Because

of the conjunction of consciousness with these limiting factors, it has to experience the

results of its actions; but Isvara, who is not limited to any adjunct, has no actions

whatsoever to perform, and so, no experience of the results of actions. The fruits

enjoyed by the Jiva are of the nature of pleasure and pain, i.e., they are all relative

experiences born of non-discrimination. The experience of Isvara is eternal and is of the

nature of purity, knowledge and freedom. Relative experience is the effect of the

presence of Rajas, but the character of Isvara is Sattva and, hence, there is no

phenomenal experience for Him. He is in fact the director of both the agent of actions

and the results of actions. Isvaras activity consists in His mere existence. The value of

His existence is greater than that of the activity of the whole universe. It is His existence

that actuates the whole universe of manifestation.

Mantra No. 2: In the self-same tree the individual (bird) is drowned in grief because of delusion

and impotency. When it beholds the other (bird), viz., the adorable Lord, it realises its own glory

and gets freed from sorrow.

The grief of the Jiva is the result of its inability to live in conformity with the forms of

the effects of unwise actions done in the past. Such thoughtless actions, no doubt, lead

to their corresponding results and as they are not in tune with the law of Truth, they

torment the individual in the form of unpleasant experiences. Without a relative

experience the individual cannot live, and with every relative experience produced by

unwisdom, fresh misery is added to the pre-existing lot. Thus, from the highest

standpoint, the entirety of the experience of the individual consists of grief alone.

Because of its confinement to the forms of its desires and actions, the Jiva feels itself to

be impotent, confused and helpless. It is even made to feel that a particular experience

to which it is connected is alone real and that there is no reality beyond it. Due to this, it

is now and then connected with and separated from the objects of its desire. It is born

and it dies, passing through several kinds of wombs in accordance with the kinds of its

actions.

The Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 25

The freedom of the individual consists in the vision of the Lord Supreme Who is coexistent

with it, in fact inseparable from it as its very Self. The realisation of Isvara is the

same as the raising of the individual consciousness to the consciousness of Isvara. The

Jiva ceases to exist the moment it realises Isvara. The glory of the real essence of the

individual is known only when the veil covering it is removed. This is achieved in the

realisation of God. The ultimate realisation is in the form of the identity of the Self with

the Supreme Being. Here, the whole universe is realised to be the same as the essence of

the spiritual infinite. This realisation puts an end to all kinds of imperfections and

sorrows.

Mantra No. 3: When the knowing individual has the vision of the intelligent creator, the Lord, the

Purusha, the Brahman which is the source of all, then it shakes off both merit and demerit, and

having become taintless, attains to supreme equality with the Lord.

In this Mantra, the Lord is designated as having a golden hue, which means that His

nature of Knowledge is eternally inherent in Him even as the colour of gold is something

inherent in it. It points to the self-luminous nature of God, whose characteristics are

imperishable, which fact is hinted at by the unaffected colour of gold. It is also said that

the individual should have the fit perception, i.e., it should have the ability to perceive

the universal Being. To the individual is attributed the quality of knowingness which is

the knowledge of the Supreme Being achieved after the acquisition of the power of

correct discrimination.

Divine knowledge is free from the conception of good and bad, because this knowledge

is non-relative. It is an all-consuming wisdom in which relative natures or conceptions

can have no value. Distinctions like virtue, vice, good, bad, high, low, etc., are made only

as long as the all-comprehensive knowledge, which underlies all these distinctions, is

not realised. The effects of merit and demerit are burnt up by the fire of knowledge,

because these effects are only conceptual and not spiritual. They exist only as long as the

mind exists. When the mind is transcended, they too are transcended. The whole

universe stands transfigured in the Absolute. The Jiva becomes free from blemishes,

attachments and sorrows, and gets unified with the Supreme Being. Equality with the

Infinite is the same as identity with the Infinite, which is of the nature of non-duality,

limitless and unsurpassable. Equality of objects which have different characteristics is

only a mental imagination and not a fact. But the equality of identical natures

encompassing the whole existence is the experience of an indivisible unified whole.

Mantra No 4: In all beings this one supreme life manifests itself. Knowing this, the wise one

does not speak of anything else. Having his sport in the Self, bliss in the Self, and action in the

Self, he is the best among the knowers of Brahman.

One who realises this Supreme Being as ones own Self, ceases from his natural sensefunctions

and puts an end to all speech unconnected with the Self. Rather, he does not

speak at all. Speech is a manner of connecting one thing with another thing. In Selfrealisation,

the relationship of the subject with the object is transcended and all things

become the Self Itself. Whenever there is a perception of duality, speech has got a value,

but in non-duality all such relationships lose their value. Instead of the experiences of

the external relationships, the knower has the experience of Self-identity. This

experience of the Self is described in the form of finding everything that is found

externally, in ones own Self Itself. The statements regarding sporting in the Self or

The Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 26

finding all bliss in the Self make it clear that the highest form of happiness is realised

without any contact with any object or any condition. Real bliss is not the effect of either

mental or physical contact, but is the result of the absence of all contacts. In short, bliss

consists in the resolution of the very sense of objectivity into the conscious subject. The

action of the knower consists in the knowledge of the Self. Self-delight itself is action for

him. It is a simple mass of bliss that he experiences, unhampered by any function alien

to the nature of the Self. Sankara points out that the action of the knower is of the nature

of renunciation, meditation and wisdom.

The Mantra does not imply that the knower performs any function. It only glorifies the

state of the realisation of the Self by resorting to figurative descriptions of his greatness.

The possibility of the combination of action with knowledge is denied by the fact of his

being the highest among the knowers of Brahman. The Brahma Varishtha is the one

who is in the seventh state of knowledge where his ego is totally merged in the Absolute.

It is quite evident that external bodily action with personal consciousness cannot be in

conformity with Absolute Knowledge. It is not possible for a person to sport in the Self

or have delight in the Self and at the same time concern himself with relative action.

Self-Knowledge is possible only after withdrawing oneself from all external functions,

physical as well as mental. The consciousness of externality and internality cannot be

simultaneous, even as darkness and light do not exist in the same place.

Therefore, the contention that it is possible to combine action with Absolute Knowledge

is only the prattle of the ignorant. The Upanishads have constantly declared that true

Knowledge is obtained through renunciation of all external functions and through

meditation on the Absolute. The Brahma Varishtha, therefore, is one who has realised

Brahman and whose action consists in Self-Knowledge preceded by renunciation of

external consciousness.

Mantra No. 5: The Atman is attained through truth, penance, correct knowledge and

Brahmacharya (self-control), observed continuously without break. The Atman is beheld within

in the form of light and purity by the austere ones who are freed from all kinds of sins.

Truth is adherence to fact, whether absolute or relative. It is proceeding along the way of

the unity of existence. Relatively, it takes the form of acting in conformity with facts that

are experienced through the process of individual knowledge. Absolutely, it is living in

the light of the fact that Existence is absolute and indivisible. Falsehood is the opposite

of truth, and is the result of clinging to the falsehood of individuality. Truth is the way of

disintegrating the individual personality through presentation of the good and not the

pleasant. Truth is that which is universally good, but falsehood, when it is deliberately

resorted to for the fulfilment of a definite purpose, appears pleasant only to an

individual or certain individuals. Falsehood, therefore, fattens the individuality, whereas

truth breaks open the individuality and enables one to realise the Atman.

Tapas, or penance, in its true sense, consists in the withdrawal of senses and

concentration of the mind. Austerity, or penance, is only a means to the end and not the

end itself. It is a means inasmuch as it disciplines the individual functions and directs

them to meditation, which leads to wisdom and realisation. By Tapas what is meant is

not merely bodily mortification, because bondage does not consist in the body but the

mind that animates the body. The cause of bondage is the mind alone and, therefore, the

discipline of the mind is Tapas.

The Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 27

Proper knowledge is equal vision, or perception of the one Atman in all. This is a

function deeper than that of speaking truth or practising Tapas. It is a function of the

spirit which realises itself in every form of existence.

Brahmacharya is the method of the abstraction of sense-energy from the externals and

the conservation of the same for the sake of steadying the mind and giving it the energy

necessary for the practice of concentration and meditation, though the popular meaning

of Brahmacharya is continence. It really means leading a life befitting the nature of

Brahman. It is, in other words, Charya or moving or acting or conducting oneself in

accordance with the law of Brahman, which is the unity of existence. Such control is not

merely the abandonment of objects but is the absence of the taste for objects. Bondage is

not caused by the existence of objects but by the connection of the mind with those

objects. In short, self-control is absence of sense-experience, giving rise to mental

equilibrium, light, consciousness and joy.

These observances should be practised continuously without exceptions to the rules, and

not for sometime alone and with certain exceptions. These should be practised until the

realisation of the Self, because the stoppage of such practices may lead to the assertion

of individuality and impede the process of Self-realisation. The Upanishad has said that

the Atman is attained by those in whom there is no crookedness, no falsehood and no

play of tricks.

This Atman is realised within oneself and not outside oneself. Though the process of

realisation is an inward one, the goal that is attained includes the outward also. Sadhana

starts with an introversion of the mind in the beginning, but in the end the result

achieved is not simply internal but is infinite. From the point of view of the individual, it

is said that this Atman is realised in ones own heart, in the form of a splendid

effulgence, perfectly pure and limitless in its nature, which is realised only by those who

are free from attachments and sins, desires and all kinds of greed. This realisation is

effected through the practice of virtues like truth, enumerated above. Sankara is of the

opinion that only a Sannyasin, i.e., a person of complete renunciation, will be able to

achieve this Supreme End which requires of the aspirant a total transcendence of the

universe.

Mantra No. 6: Truth alone triumphs; not falsehood. Through truth the divine path is spread out

by which the sages whose desires have been completely fulfilled, reach to where is that

supreme treasure of Truth.

Truth is more than truth-speaking. Truth is the symbol of perfection, a representation of

the Divine Being. Adherence to truth means embracing the universal nature of the

Reality. Therefore, truth wins victory everywhere. Truth is the essence of the Universal

movement consisting of evolution and involution. Untruth is negative, whereas truth is

positive. Through Truth the consciousness blossoms into more expanded experience,

but untruth attempts to stifle consciousness altogether and disallows the expansion of

consciousness causing, at the same time, the hardening of individuality.

It is Truth through which the divine way or the life of spiritual striving is spread before

the aspiring individuals. The universe as a spiritual organism to be striven for, is

brought into the consciousness of the individual through the practice of Truth. Truth is

in fact the eye of the individual aspiring for the realisation of its Absolute nature. The

sages got a vision of this Truth because they were absolutely free from such defects as

The Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 28

deceit, delusion, fraud, pride, vanity and falsehood. They found the consummation of

their desires and aspirations in this Absolute Truth. They became first desireless and

then sought the Truth. Desire breeds falsehood, and desirelessness gives rise to Truth.

Truth enables one to attain the Supreme Treasure which is the Absolute Truth.

Mantra No. 7: That which is supremely expansive, divine, of unthinkable form, subtler than the

subtle, much farther than that which is far, and at the same time very near, shines and is seated

in the Central Being of those who have the consciousness of That.

Mantra No. 8: It is not grasped by the eye, not even by speech, nor by the other senses. It is not

possible to know it through mortifications or deeds. He who meditates upon it with absolute

purity (Sattva) of mind, as the partless Being, beholds it through the serenity attained in

knowledge.

The serenity of knowledge is that state where nothing is experienced other than simple

awareness. In ordinary human beings, this knowledge is not manifest, since it is not

connected with the tranquillity of mind and also since it is polluted by the defects of love

and hatred for external things. As a mirror covered over by dust is not able to reflect an

object, knowledge, though it is present within, is not experienced, as the mind is

disturbed by objectivity. When the dirt of the mind consisting of love, etc., in connection

with the sense-objects, is removed and the mind is rendered calm, pure and peaceful,

then one is said to have attained the serenity of knowledge in which condition alone one

becomes fit for the experience of Brahman. Further, meditation should be practised on

Brahman as the partless indivisible being and not as a partial or limited aspect of the

whole. The quality of meditation is dependent upon the character of the object of

meditation. When the mind contemplates upon the divisionless Being, it itself becomes

divisionless and vanishes into the Absolute. But, for all this, in the beginning, practice of

virtues like truth is absolutely necessary, to be followed by the withdrawal of the senses

and concentration of mind, leading to Tadatmyata, or absorption in the object of

meditation.

Mantra No. 9: This subtle Atman should be known with the purified mind into which the Prana

with its fivefold aspect has entered. The mind is pervaded completely by the functions of the

Pranas together with the powers of the senses. In this purified mind this Atman is revealed.

Mantra No. 10: Whichever region is thought of by the mind and whatever desires the man of

purified mind desires, that region and those desires he obtains. Therefore, one who wishes to

have prosperity should worship the knower of the Self.

The realisation of the Self is a simultaneous fulfilment of the deepest aspirations

together with all the desires, internal or external, unmanifested or manifested, subtle or

gross, of the individual. The state of Sattva, or absolute purity of mind, is not an

individualistic experience but a universal one. Sattva is free from Rajas and, therefore,

the experiences of the individualities are denied in it. Complete fulfilment of all ones

wishes is not possible except in the state of universal Being, which is the same as

Suddha-Sattva-Anubhava.

Because of the omniscience and omnipotence of the knower of Self, whoever worships

him becomes prosperous. The Sankalpa of the Knower is rooted in Satya or Truth, and

his influence upon those who adore and worship him, is great. Wherever this Knower of

the Self moves, there he exercises his influence automatically. Whoever comes in contact

with him gets completely transformed.

The Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 29

SECONDKHANDA

Mantra No. 1: Him who knows this Supreme Abode of Brahman in which the whole universe is

situated and which is brilliantly shining, those heroes who adore and worship, without any desire

in their minds, transcend this seed of birth.

Mantra No. 2: He who contemplates on objects of desire, having a desire for them, is born here

and there due to those desires; but for him whose desires are all fulfilled, whose Self is perfectly

contented due to the sense of perfection, all desires dissolve themselves here itself.

An individual is born in that condition of mental experience in which it will be possible

for it to fulfil the desires cherished previously. Desires goad an individual towards virtue

and vice, the result of performance of actions which leads to birth and death. Birth and

death cannot be negated until all desires are fulfilled or destroyed. In fact, there is no

such thing as complete fulfilment of phenomenal desires as long as one exists as a

phenomenal being having desires for objects of phenomena.

Desires are never fulfilled through acquisition of objects, but they find their fulfilment,

which is the same as their destruction, in the source of Consciousness itself, in the

knowledge of which they vanish altogether. All the different individuals have their

cloaks made up of their own varying desires through which alone they have objective

experience which is called birth, life and death. Such experiences cease when these

cloaks are cast off and the Absolute Self is realised. The moment the Self is realised, all

the desires get dissolved in the menstruum of knowledge. This is the condition in which

love merges into experience and the distinction of the subject and the object is

abolished. Here it is that the true meaning of all desires and aspirations is found and the

complete fulfilment of all these is achieved in its real sense. When the cause of desires is

uprooted through knowledge, all its effects too get invalidated at once. The knower

transcends the sense of virtue and vice and all such pairs of opposites, whose law binds

only the individual living in space and time. Destruction of desires is Moksha.

Mantra No. 3: This Atman is not to be attained through discourses, through intellect, or through

much of hearing. That which one seeks, by that alone it is attained. To such a one this Atman

reveals its true nature.

The Self is realised not through an external process of speaking, thinking or hearing but

through self-identical knowledge.Whom one wishes to attain, i.e., the Self or the Atman,

by him alone is It attained through non-relational experience. The realisation of the Self

is actually attained not by the mind, but by consciousness which belongs to the Self and

which in fact is the Self Itself. The Mantra indicates that that which is sought is not

something different from the seeker but the essential nature of the seeker himself. The

condition of realisation is intense aspiration. There is no other way to realise It. The

seeker is required to surrender his individual personality so that that which obstructs

the experience of himself as the infinite Being may be removed, and not to suggest that

surrender means a giving up of oneself to another being. This surrender is actually the

abandonment of the false self for the sake of the infinite Self which is non-different from

ones own Self. The Absolute Atman is ever accomplished and is of the nature of Selfexperience

and, therefore, It cannot be reached through an external process even as one

cannot reach ones own body through any kind of action. To such an aspiring seeker, the

true nature of the Self is revealed within himself alone in the form of eternally

The Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 30

accomplished knowledge. In short, realisation of the Self is the negation of non-self

which consists in the process of thinking.

Mantra No. 4: This Atman cannot be attained by one who is devoid of strength, not through

heedlessness, not even through penance which is devoid of its proper insignia. That wise one

who strives hard with these methods, his self enters into the state of Brahman (or the

Absolute).

The Mantra sets forth certain pre-requisites of meditation on the Atman. Strength here

stands for mental and moral power, or inner toughness, without which concentration is

impossible. It may also mean physical stability, inasmuch as physical health is

conducive to mental peace. Sankara takes strength in the sense of the power that is

generated through devotion to and meditation on the Atman, which paves the way for

the higher achievements later on. One should not expect to know the Self through such

heedless practices as attachments to worldly objects like son, cattle, etc., nor through

works done for the sake of personal gain. Even austerity practised improperly as a sort

of mortification without its insignia, viz., Sannyasa or inner renunciation, will not help

in the realisation of the Self. Sankara here suggests that Tapas may be taken to mean

knowledge which is possessed even by householders, in which case it is useless because

of the lack of renunciation. The knowledge of a householder cannot really be Selfknowledge,

because of his being bound to his duties connected with his stage of life.

True knowledge is the awareness of the non-dual Reality, which a householder cannot

be expected to have as long as he has to perform his duties in this world. Therefore,

knowledge connected with renunciation alone is true knowledge. Knowledge is

necessarily preceded by renunciation, without which it cannot be called real knowledge.

With these methods, viz., strength, carefulness and knowledge connected with

renunciation, one who aspires to attain the Supreme Being becomes a Vidvan, or a

Knower of the Self, and his Self enters into the essence of the Absolute.

Mantra No. 5: Having attained this, the heroic Rishis, being satisfied with Knowledge, perfect,

desireless and calm, uniting their selves with the Divine Being and attaining everything from

every side, enter into Everything Itself, i.e., they become omnipresent through the attainment of

the Omnipresent Being.

Knowledge itself is the highest end of life and not simply a means to an end. Knowledge

is identical with the highest perfection. The sages who have this knowledge are satisfied

with It alone and not with some external means of satisfaction which will simply fatten

the body and the ego. Ones highest duty consists in the struggle for the attainment of

this knowledge by which one gets unified with the all-pervading Absolute Being. This is

the same as Moksha, where the individuality ceases to be and where one exists in all

places and at all times, i.e., becomes infinite and eternal.

Mantra No. 6: Those Yatis who have ascertained the true meaning of the knowledge of

Vedanta, who have purified their natures through Sannyasa and Yoga, having attained

immortality, get liberated from all sides in the region of Brahma at the end of time.

Sannyasa-Yoga means establishment in the consciousness of Brahman consequent upon

the renunciation of desires and actions. The individuals get liberated at the end of time,

which means that they are freed from bondage when their experiences of Samsara come

to an end. It is not ordinary death that is meant here, because in ordinary physical death

time does not come to an end and Samsara also does not cease. What is meant is the

The Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 31

Atyantika Marana, or ultimate death, where the subtle body of the individual dies

together with its cause, viz., ignorance. The end of time may also mean the time when

those who have attained Brahma Loka attain Krama Mukti at the time of the dissolution

of cosmos together with Brahma Himself. In that state, all the liberated ones find their

individualities vanish into Brahman, even as a lamp which is not fed by oil is

extinguished into space. These liberated souls are said to enter into everything, because

they become the Soul of the universe through instantaneous experience of the Infinite.

Their experience is, therefore, absolutely unconditioned and it is not the result of

proceeding towards any plane of consciousness, which is always conditioned because of

its being only a degree of Truth. Moksha is not a movement towards any state, but an

immutable experience here and now. Knowledge is said to be the means to Moksha

because the means should always befit the nature of the end, and knowledge is

unconditioned like Moksha. Moksha is not produced as an effect of anything but

consists in the mere cessation of the hindrances to such an experience.

Mantra No. 7: The different parts of individuality get dissolved and all the senses merge in their

presiding divinities. Actions, the self consisting of intelligence-all these become unified in the

Supreme Imperishable.

The effects of all actions are not experienced because of the rise of knowledge. The

intellectual self, viz., the individual self, transcends itself and is unified with its source,

viz., Pure Consciousness, which is called here the Supreme Imperishable, which is vast

like the ether, which is the same as Brahman, which is unlimited, undecaying, unborn,

changeless, immortal, fearless, without a cause and without an effect, without

internality and externality, non-dual, blessed and peaceful, existing everywhere, at all

times in the same condition. The individual becomes non-different from It, having got

rid of all the obstructions in the forms of ignorance, desire and action.

Mantra No. 8: As rivers flowing into the ocean lose themselves in the ocean, casting off name

and form, so the knower, freed from name and form, attains the Divine Purusha who is higher

than the high.

Mantra No. 9: He who knows the Supreme Brahman becomes Brahman Itself. In his family

none devoid of the Knowledge of Brahman is born. He crosses over sorrow, he crosses over

sin. Freed from the knots of the heart he becomes Immortal.

It may be thought that the knower of Brahman may be obstructed by Devas, etc., from

attaining perfection. But, this is not possible in the case of a knower of Brahman or even

an aspirant after the knowledge of Brahman. Obstacles are possible only in the case of

those whose effort is put forth for the attainment of something which is particularised.

Whenever one struggles to obtain something which is not universal but particular, there

is a reaction from the other particulars, or rather the other aspects of reality, which

resist the onward march of the mind towards its own limited end. The Knower of the

Self, on the other hand, becomes the Self of the Devas and, therefore, he cannot have

opposition from any side. Knowledge simply consists in the removal of ignorance. The

moment ignorance is dispelled or duality is cancelled, Moksha is experienced without

any opposition whatsoever. Oppositions are the reactions to selfish desires and not to

the aspiration for Brahman as there cannot be reaction to an impersonal being or

impersonal thought or aspiration. The Impersonal Being is eternal and is always

identical with ones own Self. In fact, an aspirant after Brahman is helped by the

The Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 32

universe in the pursuit of the same, because what he aspires for is the common reality of

all. No opposition can be of any avail in his case. He transcends all obstacles, conquers

sorrow and sin through the power of Knowledge, frees himself from the pairs of

opposites like virtue and vice, purifies his family with his knowledge, breaks the knots of

his heart, is liberated ultimately from relative experience and becomes Immortal.

Mantra No. 10: Those who have performed their duties well, who are learned in scriptures, who

intensely aspire for Brahman, who faithfully worship the sacred fire called Ekarshi, who have

undergone the vow of the head, to them alone this Brahma-Vidya should be told.

Those who have performed the works prescribed in the previous stages of life, purify

themselves through such works and become fit for higher aspirations. Erudition in the

sacred lore makes them undeluded and clear-minded. Further, they should have already

performed the Upasana of Saguna Brahman, through which alone their minds can rest

in the Nirguna Brahman. Ekarshi is a fire worshipped by Atharva Vedins. The meaning

is that one should perform the works and the worships enjoined in the section of the

Veda of which he forms a member. The vow of the head is either a particular kind of

sacrifice in which fire is carried on the head or Sannyasa which is connected with the

vow of the head, viz., shaving. The drift of the Mantra is that one should have already

performed what he considers as his duty in life and renounced everything later on, so

that he may have true aspiration for Brahman. When Brahma Vidya is imparted to such

people, it becomes fruitful.

Mantra No. 11: This highest truth was declared in ancient days by the Rishi Angiras. This Vidya

should not be studied by one who has not followed the prescribed rules. Prostration to the great

Rishis. Prostration to the great Rishis.

Om Santih, Santih, Santih.

SANTIMANTRA

Om. O gods, may we, with our ears, hear what is auspicious; O ye fit to be worshipped,

may we, with our eyes, see what is auspicious. May we enjoy the life allotted to us by the

gods, offering our praise with our bodies strong of limb. May Indra, the powerful, the

ancient of fame, vouchsafe us prosperity. May He, the nourisher and the possessor of all

wealth, give us what is well for us. May the Lord of swift motion be propitious to us and

may the Protector of the great ones protect us too.

Om Peace, Peace, Peace.