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...

वेदान्तविज्ञानसुनिश्चितार्थाः सṁन्यासयोगाद्यतयः शुद्धसत्त्वाः ।
ते ब्रह्मलोकेषु परान्तकाले परामृताः परिमुच्यन्ति सर्वे ॥ ६ ॥

vedāntavijñānasuniścitārthāḥ saṁnyāsayogādyatayaḥ śuddhasattvāḥ |
te brahmalokeṣu parāntakāle parāmṛtāḥ parimucyanti sarve || 6 ||

6. Having without doubt well ascertained the significance of the knowledge of Vedanta the seekers, their minds purified by dint of renunciation, attain the worlds of the Brahman and when their body falls, their Atman being one with the highest immortal Brahma n are absolved all round.

 

Shankara’s Commentary:

Com.—Having without doubt determined the object of the knowledge of Vedanta, i.e., that Brahman should be known, the seekers, their minds purified by dint of renunciation of all karma and by being centred in the pure Brahman, attain the worlds of the Brahman at the end of samsara, which for the seekers after emancipation corresponds to the time of death of those rotating in samsara. As men who seek emancipation are many, the world of Brahman, though one, appears to be many or is reached as many; so, the plural number ‘worlds of the Brahman’ is used. Brahman being the world reached, the expression ‘in the worlds of the Brahman’ means ‘in Brahman.’ Paramritah, they whose atman has become the highest immortal, i.e., Brahman. They become the highest and immortal Brahman, even during life and are absolved in all sides like a lamp that has gone out and like the akas in the pot, i.e., they have no need of any other place to go to; for, the Sruti and the Smriti say “as the footmark of birds in the air and that of aquatic animals in water are not seen, so the track of the knowing men” and they go by no road, who would reach the ends of the roads of samsara. Motion limited by place is only in samsara, because it is accomplished by means limited; but as the Brahman is all, it cannot be reached in a limited space; if the Brahman were limited in respect of place, it would like a substance having form, have a beginning and an end, be dependent on another, composed of parts, non-eternal and be a product. But the Brahman cannot be like that; so, its attainment too, cannot be limited by conditions of place.

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