MUNDAKA UPANISHAD - 42. Swami Advayananda.

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Saturday, 06 Jan 2024. 07:00.

6 Chapters (64 Mantras)

4. PENETRATING BRAHMAN

(Mantras - 33-43, 11 no.)

dviteeya mundake dviteeyah khandah –

Here begins the second Section of the second Canto.

 
Post - 42.

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42 Mantram - 4.10: Self-Luminous Nature of Brahman.

1 

na tatra sooryo bhaati, =  There the sun does not shine,

na chandra, taarakam, =   nor the moon, nor the stars;

2 

na imaah vidyuto bhaanti, =  these lightnings also do not shine –

kutah ayam agnih; =  how then can this earthly fire? (i.e. the Arati lamp)

3 

tam eva bhaantam  =  Merely reflecting His Brightness (i.e. glory),

anubhaati sarvam, =  everything (in this world) appears to shine as well;

4 

tasya bhaasaa, =  With His Light,

sarvam idam vibhaati. =  this whole world is illumined.

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There is no better way to close this superb Chapter, containing the practical method 

to realize the Divine, than this piece of exquisite poetry. This is the verse chanted commonly 

throughout India during Aratis performed in any temple. Puya Gurudev says, “No ritual of a 

Hindu is concluded without chanting at least once this glorious stanza of our scriptures.” It is 

generally chanted soon after the camphor is offered in the Arati. It pays the highest tribute 

to the Self which illuminates all that we see and know.

Among all the luminaries of this world, from a candle flame to the Sun, this verse 

places the Self above all of them. 

The devotee, while waving the small clay lamp before the idol of the Lord, is 

suddenly reminded of the vast gap between the light he is offering and the true Luminous 

Self by whose all-powerful Light the whole universe is lit up!

1 

In the very core of the Sun, who is shining? Without Brahman, the sun itself has no 

existence. The existence of the sun enables it to perform its function of illuminating our 

galaxy. The same applies to the lesser lights of the moon and the stars.

2 

Lightnings is in the plural. It refers to all such lights in the world, natural as well as 

artificial. All these examples of luminous objects known to us are given in order of reducing 

light, so that the last mentioned light, the small clay lamp which we wave before the Lord 

daily comes out in striking contrast to the enormous brilliance of the Self. Yet, due to the 

power of devotion, the devotee sees the great Lord in his little lamp! 

3 

The presence of Consciousness is Existence. They cannot be separated. The shine 

of the Self enables us to know all else in the universe. It is the light of the Self that shines 

through the sun. The same shine is there even in Darkness also! That is how we ‘know’ 

darkness. The Self is not any less present in darkness as It is in light! It exists uniformly 

everywhere. Agarbatti gets its fire from contact with another flame. The Self’s luminosity is 

not like that. It is self-luminous, not depending on anything else for its ‘Flame’. 

4 

What we are seeing in the world around us with our eyes is only borrowed shine, 

from the Self. The Upanishads are not speaking of a physical shine or light when they speak 

of the luminous Self. The shine from Brahman is the shine of Consciousness.

Thoughts shine just as luminously as the sun. Acharyaji said, “There is a Vedantic 

shine even in our shoes!” Since everything that comes to be known can be so only because 

of the Self’s shine upon it, the all-pervading nature of Consciousness can be inferred from 

this fact alone. This fact throws new light on all that we see and know. 

When we shut our eyes during Arati, we are focused on the great Light within us.

The Arati lamp, small and insignificant as it may appear, represents the all-powerful Light of 

the Supreme Consciousness!

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Next

43 Mantram - 4.11: World is Indeed Brahman

To be continued

"BUT UDF & LDF BOTH DEPEND ON MUSLIMS & CHRISTIANS VOTE BANKS DETRYED THE AGE OLD VALUES OF HOLY LAND.

"BOTH ALLIANCE PARTIES NEGLECTED THE GREATNESS OF SRI ADI SANKARACHARYA, AND UNIVERSITY ON SWAMIJI'S NAME HYJACKED BY COMMUNISTS AND DEFAME THE KERALA AGE OLD TRADTIONS."

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