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 2.1.6

तस्मादृचः साम यजूंषि दीक्षा यज्ञाश्च सर्वे क्रतवो दक्षिणाश्च ।
संवत्सरश्च यजमानश्च लोकाः सोमो यत्र पवते यत्र सूर्यः ॥ ६ ॥

tasmādṛcaḥ sāma yajūṃṣi dīkṣā yajñāśca sarve kratavo dakṣiṇāśca |
saṃvatsaraśca yajamānaśca lokāḥ somo yatra pavate yatra sūryaḥ || 6 ||

6. From him the Rig, the Sama, the Yajur, Diksha, sacrifices, all Kratus, Dakshina, the year, the sacrificer and the worlds which the moon sanctifies and the sun illuminates.

 

Shankara’s Commentary:

Com.—How? ‘Tasmat,’ from the Purasha; ‘Richah the mantras whose letters, feet and endings are determined and which are marked by Chhandas (metre) like the gayatri. Sama with its fivefold and sevenfold classification characterized by sthoba and other gita (music). ‘Yajus,’ mantras in the form of sentences, whose letters, feet and endings are determined by no rules. Thus the threefold mantras.Diksha’, restrictions such as the wearing of a mounjee (a kind of cord), etc., imposed upon the performer (of a sacrifice). ‘Yajnas,’ all sacrifices such as Agnihotra, etc. ‘Kratu’ sacrifices which require a yupa (i.e., sacrificial post). ‘Dakshinah,’ rewards distributed in sacrifice from a single cow up to unbounded whole wealth. ‘Year,’ stated time as a necessary adjunct of karma.Yajamano’ the performer, i.e., the sacrificer. The worlds which are the fruits of his karma are next described “which the moon renders sacred and where the sun shines”; these are attainable by the northern and southern routes and are the fruits of the karma performed by the knowing and the ignorant.

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