CHAPTER THREE
SECTION ONE
Two birds, who are companions and always united, live in the
same tree. Of the two, one eats the fruit; it experiences the pleasant and the
painful fruits of its past deeds, while the other looks on without eating.
On that very tree, a person, immersed in the sorrows of the
world, is deluded and, feeling helpless and impotent, he grieves and is sad.
However, when he sees and realizes that his other companion on the tree is none
other than the Supreme Lord who is worshipped all over, then, realizing this
and seeing the Lord’s greatness, he becomes freed from sorrows.
When a seer sees the golden coloured creator, the Lord, the
Person who is the source of Brahma, then becoming a knower, he gets rid of all
good and evil, he gets rid of them both, and then, free from any stain, he
attains equality with the Supreme Lord.
Truly it is life that shines forth in all living beings. Knowing
the Lord, knowing Brahm, the wise man does not talk of anything else. Living in
the Self and delighting in the Self, and always doing all his works, such a one
is the greatest among the knowers of Brahm.
This Self within the body is of the nature of light and is
pure. It can be attained by truth, it can be attained by austerity, it can be
attained by right knowledge and by the constant practice of chastity. All who
do so, all such ascetics get rid of all their imperfections, and then they
behold Him, the Lord.
Truth alone conquers, truth alone prevails, not untruth. By
truth alone is laid out the path leading to the gods and the Supreme abode of
truth, the path travelled by the sages who have fulfilled all their desires.
The Supreme is vast and infinite, the Supreme is divine, the
Supreme is of unthinkable form, and is subtler than the subtle. It always
shines forth. It is ever luminous. It is farther than the far, yet it is here
near at hand. Since it dwells in the secret place of the heart, it can be seen
as such by the intelligent.
The Supreme cannot be grasped by the eye, he cannot be seen
by the eyes, He cannot be grasped or known by speech or by any of the sense
organs. He cannot be grasped by austerity or by work. The Supreme, who is without
parts, can be seen only when one’s intellectual nature has been purified by the
light of knowledge through meditation.
When the senses in five different forms merge and centre in
the thoughts of a person, only then does the subtle sense become known to him.
The whole of man’s thought is totally pervaded by the senses. Therefore, when
his thoughts are purified then only does the self shine forth.
Whatever world a man of purified desire thinks of in his
mind, and whatever desire he desires, all those worlds and all those desires he
attains. The knower of the self has all his desires fulfilled, and he can
obtain anything or any world that he seeks. Therefore, let him who desires
prosperity worship the knower of the self.
SECTION TWO
He knows that Supreme abode of Brahm, wherein founded, the
world shines brightly. The wise men, who, freed from desires, worship the Person,
pass beyond the material cause of embodied birth, they pass beyond birth and
death and are not born again.
He who entertains desires and who keeps on thinking of them,
he therefore, on account of such thoughts and those very desires, is born here
and there. But the person who has his desires fully satisfied, and who has
become a perfected soul, all the desires of such a one vanish even here on
earth, in his very own lifetime.
This Self cannot be attained by instruction, nor can it be attained by intellectual power, nor even by hearing again and again. He can be attained only by the one whom the Self chooses. To such a one the Self reveals his true nature.
This Self cannot be attained by instruction, nor can it be attained by intellectual power, nor even by hearing again and again. He can be attained only by the one whom the Self chooses. To such a one the Self reveals his true nature.
The Self cannot be attained by one who does not have mental
strength, who does not have the inner strength derived from meditation. The Self
cannot be attained by the careless, or through carelessness, or even through
aimless austerity. But he who strives by these means, and if he becomes a
knower, then this Self of his enters the abode of Brahm and he attains
salvation.
Having attained him, the seers who are satisfied with their
knowledge, and who are perfected souls, who are free from passion, who are
tranquil, and who have attained the omnipresent self on all sides, those wise
ones, with concentrated minds, enter into the All itself. Having found the Self
in all, they, therefore enter into everything, they enter into all.
The ascetics who have understood well the meaning of the
Vedanta knowledge, and who have purified their natures through the path of
renunciation, they, dwelling in the worlds of Brahma, the highest immortal, and
becoming one with him, at the end of time are all liberated along with Brahma.
The fifteen parts then go back to their respective supports,
the elements and all the sense organs go back into their supporting deities.
One’s deeds and the self , consisting of understanding, all merge into and
become one with the Supreme Immutable Being, the Supreme Brahm.
Just as the flowing rivers disappear into the ocean casting
off their names and their shape, even so does the knower, freed from name and
shape, merge with and attain to the Divine Person, attain to Brahm who higher
than the high.
He, who truly knows the Supreme Brahm, becomes Brahm
himself. In his family no one who does not know Brahm will ever be born, all
will be knowers of Brahm. He crosses over sorrow. He crosses over all sins.
Liberated from the knots that bind the secret place of the heart, he becomes
immortal.
This very doctrine is declared in the verses. Those who
perform the rites, those who are learned in the scriptures, those who are well
established in Brahm, those who offer up themselves as sacrifice to the sole seer
with faith, to them alone may one declare this knowledge of Brahm, by whom the
rite of carrying fire on the head has been performed according to rule.
This is the truth. The sage Angiras declared it before. Let
none who has not performed the rite read this. We salute the great sages. We
salute the great sages.
END OF CHAPTER THREE
END OF PART THREE
END OF
MUNDAKA UPANISHAD
AUM, PEACE, PEACE, PEACE
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