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 2.1.4

अग्नीर्मूर्धा चक्षुषी चन्द्रसूर्यौ दिशः श्रोत्रे वाग्विवृताश्च वेदाः ।
वायुः प्रणो हृदयं विश्वमस्य पद्भ्यां पृथिवी ह्येष सर्वभूतान्तरात्मा ॥ ४ ॥

agnīrmūrdhā cakṣuṣī candrasūryau diśaḥ śrotre vāgvivṛtāśca vedāḥ |
vāyuḥ praṇo hṛdayaṃ viśvamasya padbhyāṃ pṛthivī hyeṣa sarvabhūtāntarātmā || 4 ||

4. This is he, the internal atman of all created things whose head is agni, whose eyes are the sun, and the moon, whose ears are the four directions, whose speeches are the emanated Vedas, whose breath is vayu, whose heart is all the universe and from whose feet the earth proceeded.

 

Shankara’s Commentary:

Com.—This text is intended to show that the virat purusha within the globe, who is born of Hiranyagarbha the first born, is born only and a modification, of this purusha, though apparently distanced by an intermediate principle. The text also describes him. ‘Agnihi,’ the devaloka or svarga, from the Sruti ‘This loka verily is Agni, O Gautama.’ ‘Murdha,’ head; whose eyes are the sun and the moon. The word ‘yasya’ (of whom) should be read in every clause. The word ‘asya’ subsequently occurring being converted into ‘yasya’ whose speech are the opened, i.e., celebrated Vedas. ‘Hridayam’ heart. ‘Visvam,’ the whole universe. The whole universe is only a modification of the mind for it is absorbed into the mind during sleep and because it issues from the mind when waking, like sparks of fire and from whose feet the earth was born; this deity, all-pervading, endless, the first embodied existence having for its body the three lokas is the interior atman of all created things; for, it is he who, in all created things, is the seer, the hearer, the thinker, the knower and who is the cause of all. It is next stated that all living beings who come into samsara through the five fires are also born of the same purusha.

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