Chapter 1 - First Mundaka, First Khanda

Peace chant.

(a) O Devas of senses! May we (live long to) listen with, our ears what is pleasant, and to see with our eyes what is beautiful. 0 Holy Ones! may we with firm limbs and bodies strong, extolling you always, attain the full term of our God-ordained life. (Rig Veda I.89—8.)

(b) May Viṣṇu the powerful, the ancient of fame, vouchsafe us prosperity, may Viṣṇu, the nourishes, the knower of all hearts, give us what is well for us, may Viṣṇu, the Lord of swift motion, the felly of whose wheel never wears out, be propitious to us, may Viṣṇu, the protector of the great ones, protect us too. (Rig. Veda I, 89—6)

Madhva’s Salutation.

I bow to the Supreme Spirit (Puruṣottama) whose powers are infinite who is omnipotent, bliss, undecaying, eternal, unborn, undying, and unchanging.

Mantra 1.1.1.

1. Brahmā the Creator and the Protector of the whole universe was the first-born (of Viṣṇu) among all the Shining Ones. He taught the science of Brahman, the foundation of all sciences, to his eldest son, Atharvan.—1.

Madhva’s commentary called the Bhāṣya:

In the Vaivasvata Manvantara, Atharvan was the first born of Brahmā, while Mitra, Varuṇa, Praheti, and Heti were born after him.

In the first Kalpa, Śiva was the first born of Brahmā. Sanaka and the rest were the first born in Varāha Kalpa, while Brahmā is the first born of Viṣṇu. (Brahmaṇḍa Purāṇa).

Mantra 1.1.2.

2. What Brahmā had taught to Atharvan, that science of Brahman, Atharvan taught in ancient times to Aṅgir; he taught it to Satyavāha, son of Bharadvāja, and Bharadvāja taught it, that which is both exoteric and esoteric, to Aṅgiras.—2.

Note.—Parāvarām is a Karmadhāraya compound showing that the Parā and the Aparāvidyās are really identical, contained in one and the same texts of the Vedas.

Mantra 1.1.3.

3. Saunaka of the Great Sacrifices, having duly approached Aṅgiras, asked, “O Lord by knowing what can all this be known.”—3.

Note.— The question asked is really three-fold. First, By what authoritative teaching do we know the Karmas and the Devatās. What are the books or sources from which we may learn the nature of the Devatās and the method of approaching them. Secondly, even when the method of performing Karmas is known, what further must be known, in order that the knowledge of the fruit may be obtained. Thirdly, even when the knowledge of the fruit of Karma is obtained, what further must be known that the fruit may be obtained.

Mantra 1.1.4.

4. To him replied Aṅgiras, ‘Two Sciences ought to be known, for thus say the knowers of Brahman, the higher and even the lower science.—4.

Note.—The words conveying these teachings are not different When higher and the principal meaning is read into them, it is called esoteric, when the scriptures are read in their ordinary meaning they are exoteric. The force of the word “Eya”, in the above indicates that the things are not really two but one. When a person reads with the highest vehicle, which reveals to him the inner purport of the sacred book, the teaching becomes esoteric, but when he reads them with his lower intellect it is exoteric.

This verse answers the first question raised in the last mantra as well as the second. All Karmas are to be learnt from the Aparā Vidyā. When so learnt, this knowledge becomes perfected when it is supplemented by the knowledge of the Supreme Self, the subject of the Parā Vidyā. This answers the second question. Therefore the verse says: Two Vidyās ought to be known, etc.

Mantra 1.1.5.

1.1.5. Among these, the lower sciences are the Rig-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, the Sāma-Veda, the Atharva Veda, the phonetics, the liturgy, the Grammar, the lexicon, the prosody and astronomy. The higher is that by which the Imperishable is known.—5.

Madhva’s commentary called the Bhāṣya:

The Vidyās like the Rig-Veda, etc., are considered Aparā, when they do not designate Viṣṇu, but are employed in a ritualistic sense. But these very sciences become the Parā Vidyā, when they express the Lord Viṣṇu. Thus we find in Parama Saṃhitā.

The true Bhāgavatas chanted, the praises of Viṣṇu through the hymns of the Ṛg-Veda (when acting as Hotṛ priests), they praised the Lord through the songs of the Sama Veda (when officiating as Udgātṛ priests), they offered oblations into the fire with the mantras of the Yajur-Veda, in honour of Viṣṇu alone, and they recited His praises through the Atharva-Veda, and the Itihāsa and Purāṇas.

They who do not consider any one to be equal to Viṣṇu, nor superior to Him; who know Him to be the Best of All are verily the best of the. devotees and Bhāgavatas.

In the Vedas, in the Rāmāyaṇa, in the Purāṇas and the Mahābhārata, throughout these scriptures—in their beginning, middle and end, Viṣṇu alone has been sung everywhere. Those who know that the Brahman alone has been taught in the beginning, middle and the end of these books, get the grace of the Śabda-Brahman, that abides five-fold in the four Vedas and the Itihāsa, the fifth Veda.

That True, whom the workers of the True praise in the true Vākas and Anuvākas (two topics of the Yajur Veda), in the true Niṣads and the Upaniṣads (two topics of the Atharva Veda), in the Satyas (the Ṛk?) and in the Samans is the Lord Viṣṇu alone.

That goal which all the Vedas declare, for whose sake they lay down austerities, desiring whom Great Ones perform Brahmacarya, that path I will declare to thee with brevity. (Kath Up., I. 2, 15, Gita, VIII. 11).

And that which is to be known in all the Vedas am I alone and I indeed the Veda-knower and the author of the Vedānta. (Gitā, XV. 15). (This also shows that Viṣṇu alone is the Primary object of worship taught in all the Vedas and no other deity; for such is the force of the word ‘eva.’) So also the original Śruti:—

“The fourteen sources of the great Vidyās should be known.”

Note.—The four Vedas, the Itihāsas, the Purāṇas, the six Vedāṅgas, the Smṛtis and the Mīmāṃsā constitute the fourteen sources of the Vidyās.

In ancient times the Pañca-Rātras and the Vedas were all one; and in that Kṛta age they were known by the single appellation of the Root-Veda (because it taught or revealed the great Root, Lord Viṣṇu). Then they were not known by the names of the Ṛg, Sāman, etc. Nor in those days, the names like Indra, etc., were applied to any being other than Viṣṇu. For in those times, Hari alone was designated by the names of Brahmā, Rudra, Indra, etc. He alone was worshipped as the Supreme God. The Devas like Brahmā, etc., called also Manu, were worshipped with love, in that age, because they were the revealers of the Truth about God, because they were the fathers and the guardians of humanity and because they were agents of the Lord. (They were not worshipped as the Supreme God). Because men were the worshippers of one God alone, therefore in the Kṛta age they obtained Hari alone. Thus there is nothing else in the Vedas but the highest Truth. There is really no such thing in it as a higher or a lower Vidyā, because all the Vedas beginning with the Rig Veda and ending with Anuvyākhyā have come out of the Lord: therefore let all worship Hari alone. For Brahmā and Devas, Manus and men worship Him with the entire undivided single Veda and know Him alone. Thus it was in the Kṛta age. In the Tretā age, when intelligence declines and men become incapable of such worship, then even they should adore Hari with the Pañcarātras and the divided Vedas, Ṛg, Yajur, Sāma, etc. Hari should then be worshipped through the divided Vedas and the Pañcarātras, by men of the Tretā Yuga. In the Dvāpara age men should worship Viṣṇu through Pañcarātras alone (if they are incapable of worshipping Him through the Vedas). Similarly in the Kali age men should worship the Lord Hari by reciting His name only (if they are incapable of worshipping Him through the Vedic and the Pañcarātra mantras).

The Veda was one in the Kṛta age. It became three-fold in the Tretā age. In the Dvāpara age it became five-fold, while in the Kali age the Veda is almost going to disappear everywhere.

The highest Dharma of the Kṛta age should be observed in the Kali age also. The other Dharmas taught for Tretā, and subsequent ages were meant for those only who were totally incapable of observing the highest Dharma, (so in those ages also the highest was observed by those who were capable of it).

Because all men were worshippers of one God in the Kṛta age, therefore all the Vedas were understood then as directing the worship of one Lord. But in the Tretā, men began to love other objects than the Supreme, and so the Vedas came to be divided into three parts (and so understood by the people of that age, according to their three-fold nature of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas and they employed the Vedic mantras for the attainment of those objects).

Therefore, the one Viṣṇu, the Eternal, should be understood through all the Vedas, adored in all sacrifices and ceremonies, always to be meditated upon and reverenced. (Nārāyaṇa Saṃhitā).

The words of the Vedas degenerate in their meaning with the age and with such decline lose their power of denoting Viṣṇu, thus have we heard (Mahābhārata).

So also in the Varāha Purāṇa:—

“I am to be seen through the Vedas, the Pañcarātras, through Bhakti (Love), and through sacrifice and through nothing else can I be seen even in millions of years.”

Even in this Upaniṣad, there is taught first the Aparā Vidyā the Karma in the verses “mantreṣu karmāṇi etc., (I. 2, 1.). Then is taught the highest Vidyā, the knowledge of the Imperishable, commencing with the verse “yena akṣaram puruṣa veda” (Mu. Up., I 2—13). Then it is further shown that persons who have studied the four Vedas, or whose Saṃskāras have been performed according to the four Vedas, are alone Adhikāris of this Vidyā—(for they alone by their previous training and education, can profit by this teaching). For at the end, the Upaniṣad says:—“this must be taught to him alone who has performed the vow of the head.” Now Śiro-Vrata or the vow of the head, is merely illustrative of other ceremonies peculiar to the other Vedas also. As says the Vyāsa Smṛti:—“He who performs the vow of his own Veda, and who has gone through all the Vedas, is entitled to study the occult Vidyās, but never those who have not performed the vow of their Vedas.”

Mantra 1.1.6.

6. The tranquil in heart see the Imperishable, as the source of all beings, and know Him to be in visible, unseizable, without genus, without species, without eyes or ears, without hands or feet, all-powerful, eternal, all-pervading and extremely subtle, as the unchanging source of all beings.—6.

Mantra 1.1.7.

7. As the spider stretches forth and gathers together its thread, as herbs grow out of the earth, as from a living man come out the hair, so from the Imperishable comes out this universe.—7.

Note.—The illustration of the spider and its thread shows that the material universe is a reality by itself, not a Parināma or modification of Brahman, and always remains outside of Brahman; as the thread remains outside the spider, when he stretcheth it out, it is creation; when he gathers it together and wraps it round himself, it is Pralaya or destruction. This shows that the material world is neither a modification (parināna) of Brahman, nor an illusion (vivarta).superimposed upon Brahman. The second illustration shows that Jīvas also come out of Brahman; as seeds remain latent under ground in the winter but burst forth into herbs and plants in the summer, so the Jīvas remain latent in pralaya with their different karmas as their seeds, and come out at the time of creation, as trees of different kinds, but with their root always in Brahman. The third illustration shows that as out of a conscious man come out unconsciously and without any exertion on his part, hairs, nails, &c, so the Jīvas and the lokas come out of Brahman without any effort on His part.

Mantra 1.1.8.

8. The Brahman united with Tapas (the root of Matter and Thought), and thence arose the Matter, from the Matter arose the Breath, the Manas, and the True, as well as the worlds (and karmas) and in the Karmas the immortality itself.—8.

Note.—The brooding or Tapas denotes reflection on the shape and character of the previous world which Brahman is about to reproduce. He creates the new world on the pattern of the old. (Rāmānuja.)

This also shows that by the mere thought of Brahman (not by any modification of it or by any vivarta in it) comes out Matter and Karmas or Jīvas. The matter or anna [annam] gives rise to the seven lokas and triple powers, viz., Kriyā-śakti (Prāṇa), Jñāna-śakti (manas) and Icchā-śakti (satya [satyam]). This on the side of form; while among the karmas (Jīvas) the Immortal Brahman himself takes up His residence. This verse further shows that the Prakṛti and the Jīvas are co-eternal with Brahman, together with the Logos or Brahmā.

Mantra 1.1.9.

1.1.9. From Him who is All-knowing and All-understanding, whose tapas is the Primeval Wisdom comes out of this triad:—Brahmā, the Nāma-rupa or the Jīvas, and the Anna [annam] or the Prakṛti.—9.

Madhva’s commentary called the Bhāṣya:

The words “etat brahma” mean this caturmukha brahmā.

Note.—The first Chapter opens with the statement that Brahmā was the first of the shining ones that came out of Viṣṇu at the beginning of a creative period, and that He is the First Teacher of the secret doctrine, the Theosophy, the Brahma-Vidyā. It then goes on to mention how this Brahma-Vidyā or Theosophy, is preserved for mankind by a Lodge that is coeval with creation and whose present Head is known by the name of Aṅgirasa. An initiate called Saunaka is the questioner in this Upaniṣad: and he puts the enigmatical question what is that one science, one substance by knowing which everything else is known. Does there exist any science from whose principles the principles of all other sciences can be deduced. The answer to that is: “Yes. There exists such a science. It is the science of the Syllable—Akṣara-Vidyā; as distinguished from the science of the words.” All sciences like the Physical (Ṛk) Theological (Yajus), Spiritual (Sāman)—Occult (Atharvan) are summed up in the science of the Syllable, the science of the Imperishable Akṣara-Vidyā. But this science is not contained in any particular book. All religious scriptures of every people—scriptures that have come from the Great Lodge—contain it: but one must read these scriptures between the lines; or rather between the Syllables (Akṣara). This reading between the syllables known as Kabbalistic science in the West, is almost lost now in India. Every akṣara or letter had a numerical value as well as denoted a particular substance or quality. The sacred scriptures must be read with this key in order to understand their secret meaning. When the Scriptures are read in their exoteric sense, with the surface meaning, they are called Aparā. When read with this key of the Imperishable, they are turned into Parā Vidyā. All sacred scriptures have thus a two-fold meaning; and hence the impossibility of translating them, and prohibition against translating them.

The Science of the Imperishable has some broad outlines, and it is these that the Muṇḍaka gives in its six chapters. The three Great Imperishables are God (Brahma), Soul (Karma), and Matter (Anna [annam]), the last two subordinate to the first.