The Mundakoupanishad : Post-50. - Swami Krishnananda

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Friday, 26 Jan 2024. 06:50.

Chapter 3: Section 2.

Mantram-2.

POST-50.

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Mantram-2.

"Kaman yah kamayate manya-manah 

sa kamabhir-jayate tatra tatra, 

paryapta-kamasya krt-atmanas-tu 

ihaiva sarve pravi-liyanti kamah." (3.2.2): 

"Whoever longs for objects of desire, brooding over them, they are born here and there for the fulfilment of those desires. But in the case of a Seer whose longings have found there final consummation in the Atman and who has realised the Self, his desires vanish here, in this life."   

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If we desire anything, we will be born according to the nature of the desire. Inasmuch as every day we accumulate desires and go on piling them one over the other, and the duration of our lifespan is not long enough to permit us to enjoy all those desires, we die before the desires are fulfilled. Some of them are of course fulfilled, but many of them are not, and our unfulfilled desires will decide where we will be reborn. Therefore, it is up to each person to go on investigating into their own mind and probe into what kind of desires are inside—whether subtle or gross, visible or invisible, covert or overt. It is proper and good for everyone to make a list of all their desires if desires are there, though it is better if they are not there. If desires are there, we must fulfil them in this birth itself in some manner, or we must sublimate them by a higher means. One way or the other, desires should not be there at the time of passing; otherwise, the jiva, the sushma sarira, the mind and the senses will directly gravitate in the direction of that location where it is possible for the mind to fulfil its desires. So rebirth is unavoidable for those who entertain desires in the mind.

Kaman yah kamayate manya-manah sa kamabhir jayate tatra tatra: 

Whatever be the desire, accordingly one will be reborn in that particular place corresponding to the nature of the desire; but if the desires are all dissolved here—

paryaapta-kamasya krt-atmanas tu—

if we have done whatever is to be done and there is nothing more for us to do in this world, if we have known whatever is to be known in this world and there is nothing more to be known, and if we have seen and enjoyed things enough in this world and there is nothing more to be enjoyed, the desires melt instantaneously here at this very spot. All the desires melt into liquefied form, and they shall not cause any solidification of our mind in the form of rebirth: 

ihaiva sarve pravi-liyanti kamah. 

Because of the fact that all the desires are fulfilled, we are what is called kratakritya, praptaprapya and jnatajneya. Kratakritya is one who has done what is to be done, praptaprapya is one who has obtained what is to be obtained, and jnatajneya is one who has known what is to be known, and nothing more is left. Hence, the mind cannot have any occasion to desire another body for fulfilling itself, because the mind itself will not be there when the desires go. It is good, therefore, to see that these desires melt. If there are desires, fulfil them and somehow or the other see that they are not there.

Next

Mantram 3.

"Nayam-atma pravacanena labhyo 

na medhaya, na bahuna śrutena,

yam-vaisa vrnute tena labhyah 

tasyaisa atma vivrnute tanum svam." (3.2.3):

To be continued

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