The Mundaka Upanishad: 13. - Swami Krishnananda.

 

======================================================================================

Sunday 20, July 2025, 06:30.
Books
The Mundaka Upanishad: 13. 
The Third Mundaka: 
Second Khanda
Mantras- 1to 11
Swami Krishnananda.

======================================================================================

The Third Mundaka: Second Khanda

Mantram - 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.

Mantram - 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.

Mantram - 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 one's own Self. The Absolute Atman is ever accomplished and is of the nature of Self-experience and, therefore, It cannot be reached through an external process even as one cannot reach one's 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 accomplished knowledge. In short, realisation of the Self is the negation of non-self which consists in the process of thinking.

Mantram - 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 Self-knowledge, 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.

Mantram - 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. One's 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.

*****
Next
Mantram - No. 6:

================================================================================================