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 2.1.9
अतः समुद्रा गिरयश्च सर्वेऽस्मात्स्यन्दन्ते सिन्धवः सर्वरूपाः ।
अतश्च सर्वा ओषधयो रसश्च येनैष भूतैस्तिष्ठते ह्यन्तरात्मा ॥ ९ ॥ataḥ samudrā girayaśca sarve'smātsyandante sindhavaḥ sarvarūpāḥ |
ataśca sarvā oṣadhayo rasaśca yenaiṣa bhūtaistiṣṭhate hyantarātmā || 9 ||9. From him proceed the oceans and all the mountains and the diverse rivers; from him also, all the medicinal plants and taste, by which encircled by the Bhutas, i.e., gross elements, the intermediate Atman, i.e., subtle body is seated.
Shankara’s Commentary:
Com.—‘From him,’ from the purusha. ‘The oceans’, all, the salt ocean, etc. ‘Mountains’, the Himalayas and the rest are all from this purusha. ‘Syandante,’ flow. ‘Rivers’, such as the Granges. ‘Sarvarupah,’ of many forms. From this purusha, also proceed, the medicinal plants, such as corn, yava paddy, etc. ‘Taste,’ sixfold such as sweetness, etc. ‘By which’, by which taste. ‘Bhutaih,’ by the five gross bhutas. ‘Pariveshtitah’, encircled. ‘Tishthate’, is seated. ‘The internal Atman’, the subtle body, so called, because it is the Atman, as it were, intermediate between the gross body and the soul proper.