The Mundaka Upanishad: 5 - Swami Krishnananda.

 

Chinmaya Mission 

The 20th Children’s Summer Camp conducted by Chinmaya Mission Madurai was a joyful and value-filled experience for all the young participants. Held from 26th April to 1st May 2025, the camp was filled with a variety of engaging activities that combined learning with fun. Students played several interactive games that encouraged teamwork and creativity. They also showcased their talents on stage through vibrant dances and captivating performances based on mythological stories, which helped them connect with Indian culture and values. A unique feature of the camp was the classroom-in-nature experience, where children studied under the shade of trees, bringing the Gurukula tradition to life. One of the most touching moments was the Paduka Puja, where children offered heartfelt gratitude to their mothers. The camp created a warm and inspiring environment where children not only had fun but also imbibed meaningful values and developed a deep sense of love and reverence.

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Saturday 17, May 2025, 20:00.
Books
The Mundaka Upanishad: 5. 
First Mundaka
First Khanda
Second Khanda
Swami Krishnananda

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Mantram - 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. All-knowingness 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 one's 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.

The First Mundaka: Second Khanda

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 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.

Mantram - 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.

Mantram - 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.

Mantram - 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.

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Continued

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