The Mundakoupanishad : Post-66 - Swami Krishnananda.

 

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Wednesday 04, September 2024. 06:20.
The First Mundaka: 
Second Khanda
Mantram: 12.
POST-66.

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Mantram-12 (continued)

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.

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Mantram 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.

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The Second Mundaka: First Khanda:

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.

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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 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.

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Next

Mantram- No. 2:

Continued

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