Mundaka Upanishad with Shankara’s Commentary
by S. Sitarama Sastri | 1905 | 19,662 words
The Mundaka Upanishad is a collection of philosophical poems used to teach meditation and spiritual knowledge regarding the true nature of Brahma and the Self (Atman). It is composed of the three main parts (mundakas): 1) The first of three parts expounds the science of higher and lower knowledge. 2) The second part describes the true nature of t...
Verse 1.2.8
अविद्यायामन्तरे वर्तमानाः स्वयṁ धीराः पण्डितं मन्यमानाः ।
जङ्घन्यमानाः परियन्ति मूढा अन्धेनैव नीयमाना यथान्धाः ॥ ८ ॥avidyāyāmantare vartamānāḥ svayaṁ dhīrāḥ paṇḍitaṃ manyamānāḥ |
jaṅghanyamānāḥ pariyanti mūḍhā andhenaiva nīyamānā yathāndhāḥ || 8 ||8. Being in the midst of ignorance and thinking in their own minds that they are intelligent and learned, the ignorant wander, afflicted with troubles, like the blind led by the blind.
Shankara’s Commentary:
Com.—Moreover, being in the midst of ignorance, i.e., being utterly ignorant and thinking in their own minds “we alone are intelligent and have known all that should be known.” Thus flattering themselves, the ignorant wander much afflicted by old age, sickness and a lot of their troubles, being devoid of vision as the blind in this world, going the way pointed out by persons, themselves blind, fall into ditch and brambles.