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 2.2.5
यस्मिन्द्यौः पृथिवी चान्तरिक्षमोतं मनः सह प्राणैश्च सर्वैः ।
तमेवैकं जानथ आत्मानमन्या वाचो विमुञ्चथामृतस्यैष सेतुः ॥ ५ ॥yasmindyauḥ pṛthivī cāntarikṣamotaṃ manaḥ saha prāṇaiśca sarvaiḥ |
tamevaikaṃ jānatha ātmānamanyā vāco vimuñcathāmṛtasyaiṣa setuḥ || 5 ||5. He in whom the heaven, the earth, the antariksha (sky), the mind with the pranas are centred; know him to be the one Atman of all; abandon all other speech; this is the road to immortality.
Shankara’s Commentary:
Com.—As the “Immortal” cannot be easily grasped by the mind, the repetition is for the purpose of making it more easily cognisable. He, the immortal Brahman, in whom Dyouh, earth, and antariksha are centred, as also the mind with the other instruments; know him, O disciples as “the one,” the support of all; the Atman, i.e., the internal principle of yourselves and all living beings; having known that, leave off all other speech of the nature of “Apara vidya” as also all Kar ma with their aids elucidated by it; for, this, i.e., the knowledge of the Atman is the road to the attaintment of emancipation, the bridge as it were by which the great ocean of Samsara is crossed, as another Sruti says “having known him thus, one travels beyond death; there is no other road to emancipation.”