MUNDAKA UPANISHAD IN SIMPLE ENGLISH PART ONE

                                                    MUNDAKA UPANISHAD

                                                          INTRODUCTION

The Mundaka Upanishad is one of the Principal eleven Upanishads of the Hindu religion. It belongs to the Atharva Veda and has sixty five verses spread over three chapters, each having two sections. The Upanishad teaches the highest knowledge of Brahm which cannot be obtained by sacrifice or by worship.

 The name of the Upanishad is derived from the root “to shave” meaning, that he who understands the teaching of the Upanishad is “shaved” or liberated from all mistakes and ignorance.

 The Upanishad clearly states the distinction between the higher knowledge of the Supreme Brahm and the lower knowledge of the empirical world.

 It is by the higher knowledge and wisdom and not by sacrifices or worship that one can reach Brahm. Only the sanyasin, the renunciate, who has given up everything, can obtain the highest knowledge.

The Upanishad is presented in three parts, part one consists of chapter one, part two of chapter two, and part three of chapter three.

                                                                 THE UPANISHAD

                                                                     PART ONE

                                                                   CHAPTER ONE

                                                                    SECTION ONE

Brahma arose as the first among the gods, as the maker of the universe, and as the protector of the world.

He taught the knowledge of Brahm, which is the foundation of all knowledge to his eldest son Atharvan.

That knowledge of Brahm, both the higher and the lower knowledge, which Brahma taught to his son Atharvan,  Atharvan, in ancient times, told it to Angira who in turn taught it to Satyavaha, son of Bhardvaja, who further taught it to Angiras.

Shaunaka, a great householder and respected person of his time, duly approached Angiras in the proper manner and asked very humbly: Respected sir, through the knowledge of what does all this world and all that exists become known? What is it that we must know so that all becomes known to us? Is there any one cause of all the varied, different and multifarious things that exist in the world, knowing which cause everything and all will be well known?

Angiras replied: The knowers of Brahm declare that there are two kinds of knowledge to be known, the higher and the lower, and both should be known.

Of these, the lower knowledge is the knowledge of the Vedas, of the Rig Veda, the Sama Veda, the Yajur Veda and the Atharva Veda, the knowledge of all the scriptures, knowledge of Phonetics, of Ritual, of Grammar, of Etymology, of Metrics and of Astrology. This is the knowledge of the world.

 And the higher knowledge is that knowledge by which the Undecaying Imperishable Supreme Brahm is apprehended and attained.

  The wise perceive the Undecaying Supreme Brahm as the source of all beings and of all existence. That Brahm is ungraspable, is without family, is without caste, is without sight or hearing, is without hands or feet, is eternal, is all- pervading, and is exceedingly subtle.

Just as a spider emits and draws in its thread, just as herbs and plants grow on the earth, just as hair grows on the head and on the body of a living person, so too does the universe emerge and grow from that Imperishable Brahm.

By the power of contemplation and the energy so produced, Brahm expands and grows. From that food is produced. From food comes life, then comes mind, then come the five elements: earth, air, fire, water and space; then come the worlds, then the rituals and from the rituals is produced immortality.

Brahm who is all knowing and all wise, whose austerity consists of knowledge, from him is born Brahma, the creator, and from Brahma are born all that have name and shape and from Brahma is produced food as well.

                                                                 SECTION TWO

This is that truth. The works and the duties which the sages saw in the hymns are described in detail in the Vedas. Perform them constantly and without fail, you lovers of truth. This is your path to the world of good deeds.

 The sacrificial fire has to be lit and when the flames of the fire burn brightly, then only should one offer his oblations with faith between the two portions of melted butter.

He whose Agnihotra sacrifice is not followed by the sacrifice of the new moon and of the full moon,  by the four month’s sacrifice, by the rituals performed in the harvest season, and is not attended by guests, is without the customary oblations, is without ceremonies to all the gods, or who gives offerings contrary to the rules laid down in the scriptures, such conduct of his destroys his future up to seven births. The sacrificial fires have to be lit within ourselves and constantly fed by always speaking the truth, for if we do not speak the truth but indulge in untruthfulness and falsehood; we will put out the flame of sacrifice.

The following are the seven moving flames of fire:  the black, the terrific, the swift as mind, the very red, the very smoky coloured, the spark blazing, and the divine shaped.

Whosoever performs works, whosoever makes his offerings when these flames of fire are shining and who makes his offerings at the proper time, these offerings of his, in the form of the rays of the sun, lead him to that world where the one Lord of the gods abides, to the abode of the Supreme Brahm.

The radiant offerings invite him with the words,” come, come”, and carry the sacrificer by the rays of the sun, honouring him and saluting him with the pleasing words: “This is your holy world of Brahma which you have won through your good deeds.”

 The boats of the eighteen sacrificial forms, consisting only of rituals, are said to be inferior karma, because they are devoid of knowledge, and are, therefore, unsteady, unstable and unreliable. Those who are deluded by such rituals, thinking that this alone will lead them to the good and who delight in them, such people fall again and again into old age and death.

 People who live in ignorance, but who consider themselves to be wise in their own esteem, and who think of themselves as learned, are actually deluded. Such people suffer all kinds of troubles, and go about like blind men led by one who is himself blind.

The people who are immature live mostly in ignorance. They think they have attained their aim without actually have done so. Those who only perform rituals, they get attached to those rituals and do not understand the truth because of their attachment to the rituals. They, therefore, fall down miserable when the fruits of their merits from their previous births are exhausted.

These men are deluded since they regard only sacrifices and good works or works of merit as most important. They do not know any other good. After enjoying their stay in the high place of heaven, which was won by their good deeds, and after their merit is exhausted; they come back to this world or to a still lower one.

But those who practice austerity and faith, in solitude, those tranquil knowers, who lead the life of a mendicant, depart from this world, freed from sin, through the door of the sun, to the abode of the Immortal, Imperishable Person, the Param Atma, the Supreme Brahm.

Having carefully seen and examined the worlds won by works, a seeker of Brahm should arrive at non attachment, he should become non attached. The world that is not made is not won by what is done. Karma or work results only in achieving the transitory, the temporary, and not the permanent eternal. For seeking the knowledge of the permanent eternal, of the Supreme Brahm, the seeker should go humbly and respectfully to a teacher who is learned in the scriptures and who is established in Brahm, who has realized and attained Brahm.

That  knowing teacher, on his part, should teach, in its very truth, that knowledge of Brahm, by which knowledge one knows the Imperishable Person, the true, to such a seeker of knowledge whose mind is tranquil and who has attained peace.

                                                         END OF CHAPTER ONE

                                                           END OF PART ONE

                                                     AUM, PEACE, PEACE, PEACE