The Mundaka Upanishad belongs to the Atharva–veda. It is a mantra upanishad because it is written in verse. However these mantras are not intended to be used in rituals for invoking phenomenal benefits. Rather the verses of the Mundaka Upanishad teach the Knowledge of Brahman. The word “Mundaka” is derived from a root word that signifies shaving. Renunciates had their heads shaved when they joined a priestly order or pursued their own spiritual journey away from society. The instruction given in this Upanishad has the sharpness of a razor, cutting away human ignorance through the lucidity of knowledge. All the major themes of the Upanishads are integrated in this text – OM, prana, creation, sage and student, the nature of the Self and Brahman. The story that frames all this imagery is the leading question of Shaunaka to the great sage, Angiras. The question that launches this Upanishad concerns the topics of truth and learning. The Mundaka and the Prasna Upanishad are said to be complimentary. Topics stated in one are elaborated in the other. We will explore the Prasna Upanishad after the Mundaka.
Two types of knowledge are discussed by the Sage Angiras talking with the householder Shaunaka, who has approached Angiras seeking knowledge of the supreme Self which is beyond duality. All vedas, grammar, etymology, astronomy are the lower knowledge (apara) which is practical, phenomenal, and necessary for day to day living. The higher knowledge is that by which the imperishable Brahman is attained. This is the highest mode of knowing.
By means of the higher Knowledge, the wise behold Brahman everywhere, which has no attributes –
Part 1. 1.6 That which is beyond sight, beyond grasp, without source, Without features, without eyes, without hands or feet, Eternal, all-pervading, omnipresent, extremely subtle- that is The imperishable, which the wise know as the womb of beings.
~Vernon Katz and Thomas Egenes translation
[Note: Study Group Reads slokas 4-9 aloud.]
Part 1. Section 2 describes the rituals that are embodied in the ‘lower knowledge’ but says sage Angiras, such rituals are:
…unsafe rafts for crossing The sea of samsara, of birth and death. Doomed to shipwreck are those who try to cross The sea of samsara on these poor rafts. (1.2.7)
Ignorant of their ignorance, yet wise In their own esteem, these deluded men Proud of their vain learning go round and round Like the blind led by the blind. (1.2.8)
~ Eknath Easwaran translation
Here in the Mundaka Upanishad, a radically self-transcending teaching is boldly spelled out with the use of imagery.
The spider and its thread (1.1.7):
As a spider spins out and draws in its threads, As herbs sprout from the earth, As hair grows from the head and body of a living person, So does this world spring from the imperishable.
~ Vernon Katz and Thomas Egenes translation
[Note: Study group reads select slokas of of 2.2]
The bow, arrow and target (2.2.3):
Take, my friend, this bow, This great weapon of Upanishad; Place veneration on it As the whetted arrow; Stretch it with the thought fixed on the nature of that; That very imperishable is the target, my friend. Strike it!
The bow is OM, the arrow’s the self, The target is Brahman, they say. One must strike that undistracted. He will then be lodged in that. Like the arrow in the target.
That alone is the Self, you must understand, On which are woven the earth, Intermediate region, and sky, The mind together with all the breaths. Put away other words, for this is the dike to the immortal. (2.2.4)
The wheels and spokes of the chariot:
Where the veins come together like spokes, In it that one, taking birth in many ways, It is OM – meditate thus on this Self; (2.2.6) …
In that high golden container is Brahman, Stainless and partless, The brilliant light of lights! This is what they know, Those who know the Self. (2.2.8)
~ Patrick Olivelle translation 2.2.3-4, 2.2.6, and 2.2.8
The Omnipresent Brahman Brahman alone here extends to the East; Brahman to the west; It alone, to the south, to the north, It is Brahman alone that extends Over this whole universe, Up to its widest extent.
~ Patrick Olivelle translation 2.2.11
The upper bird and the lower bird (3.1.1 and 2)
Two birds, companions and friends, Cling to the same tree, One of them eats the sweet pippala-berry: The other looks on, without eating.
In the same tree a man is plunged, Deluded, he grieves from powerlessness; When he sees the other, powerful one, content, Sees his greatness, he is freed from sorrow.
~ Valerie Roebuck translation
[Note: Study group reads select slokas of Chapter 3.1. and Chapter 3.2.]
Commenting on the above verses, the late 19th-early 20th century sage, Swami Vivekananda says this is the picture of the human soul. “Man is eating the sweet and bitter fruits of this life, pursuing gold, pursuing his senses, pursuing the vanities of life, hopelessly, madly careening he goes…Such is the career of men pursuing the vanities of life, children dreaming golden dreams only to find that they are but vain, and old men chewing the cud of their past deeds and yet not knowing how to get out of this network. This is the world. Yet in the life of everyone come golden moments and we catch a glimpse of something beyond….beyond the life of the senses, beyond its vanities, its joys and its sorrows, beyond nature or our thirst for…..name, fame and posterity. Man stops for a moment at this glimpse, and sees the other bird calm and majestic, eating neither sweet nor bitter fruits, but immersed in his own glory, self-content, self-satisfied……….If he be fortunate, he comes nearer and nearer to this companion, the other bird, his life, his friend; and as he approaches him he finds that the light from the higher bird is playing around his own plumage; and, as he comes nearer and nearer, lo! the transformation is going on. The nearer and nearer he comes, he finds himself melting away, as it were, until he entirely disappears. He did not really exist; it was but the reflection of the other bird, which was there calm and majestic amidst the moving leaves. It was all his glory, that upper bird’s. He then becomes fearless, perfectly satisfied, and calmly serene.” (from Swami Ranganathananda’s commentary on the Mundaka)
Please note: Excerpts and references from the following Vedanta society teachers:
Advaita Society lectures and literature Swami Vivekananda, Swami Nikhilananda, Swami Ranganathananda Swami Gambhirananda and Swami Sarvapriyananda,
Excerpts from the following Translations of the Upanishads
Vernon Katz and Thomas Egenes Eknath Easwaran Patrick Olivelle Valerie Roebuck Robert Ernest Hume
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