First Mundaka - Chapter 1
1
Om. Brahma, the Maker of the
universe and the Preserver of the world, was the first among the
devas. He told His eldest son Atharva about the Knowledge of
Brahman, the foundation of all knowledge.
2
The Knowledge of Brahman about which Brahma told Atharva,
Atharva, in olden times, told Angir. Angir taught it to
Satyavaha, belonging to the clan of Bharadvaja, and the latter
taught it, in succession, to Angiras
3
Saunaka, the great householder, approached Angiras in the proper
manner and said: Revered sir, what is that by the knowing of
which all this becomes known?
4
To him he said: Two kinds of knowledge must be known-that is
what the knowers of Brahman tell us. They are the Higher
Knowledge and the lower knowledge.
5
Of these two, the lower knowledge is the Rig-Veda, the Yagur-Veda,
the Sama-Veda, the Atharva-Veda, siksha (phonetics), kalpa
(rituals), vyakaranam (grammar), nirukta (etymology), chhandas (metre),
and jyotis (astronomy); and the Higher Knowledge is that by
which the Imperishable Brahman is attained.
6
By means of the Higher Knowledge the wise behold everywhere
Brahman, which otherwise cannot be seen or seized, which has no
root or attributes, no eyes or ears, no hands or feet; which is
eternal and omnipresent, all-pervading and extremely subtle;
which is imperishable and the source of all beings.
7
As the spider sends forth and draws in its thread, as plants
grow on the earth, as hair grows on the head and the body of a
living man-so does everything in the universe arise from the
Imperishable.
8
Brahman expands by means of austerity, and from It primal matter
is produced; from matter, Prana; from Prana, mind; from mind,
the elements; from the elements, the worlds; thence works, and
from the works, their immortal fruits.
9
For him who knows all and understands everything, whose
austerity consists of knowledge-from Him, the Imperishable
Brahman, are born Brahma, name, form, and food.
Chapter 2
1
This is the Truth: The sacrificial works which were revealed to
the rishis in the hymns have been described in many ways in the
three Vedas. Practise them, being desirous to attain their true
results. This is your path leading to the fruits of your works.
2
When the fire is well lighted and the flames flicker, let a man
offer his oblations in the space between the two portions of
melted butter.
3
If a man’s Agnihotra sacrifice is not accompanied by the Darsa
and the Paurnamasa sacrifice, by the Four Months’ sacrifice and
the Autumnal sacrifice; if it is unattended by hospitality to
guests or if the oblations are not offered at the right time; or
if the sacrifice is unaccompanied by the Vaisvadeva ceremony or
is improperly performed-then it destroys his seven worlds.
4
Kali (the Black), Karali (the Terrific), Manojava (the Swift as
thought), Sulohita (the Very red), Sudhumravarna (of the colour
of bright smoke; purple), Splulingini (the Scintillating), and
the luminous Visvaruchi (the All-gleaming, all-formed)-these
seven, flickering about, form the seven tongues of the fire.
5
A man who performs the sacrifices when these flames are shining,
and offers oblations at the right time, is carried by these
oblations on the rays of the sun to where dwells the sole
sovereign of the gods.
6
The luminous oblations say to the sacrificers: Come hither! Come
hither! And lead him on the rays of the sun, worshipping him all
the while and greeting him with the pleasant words: This is the
holy heaven of Brahma, earned by your good deeds.
7
But frail indeed are those rafts of sacrifices, conducted by
eighteen persons, upon whom rests the inferior work; therefore
they are destructible. Fools who rejoice in them as the Highest
Good fall victims again and again to old age and death.
8
Fools, dwelling in darkness, but wise in their own conceit and
puffed up with vain scholarship, wander about, being afflicted
by many ills, like blind men led by the blind.
9
Children, immersed in ignorance in various ways, flatter
themselves, saying: We have accomplished life's purpose. Because
these performers of karma do not know the Truth owing to their
attachment, they fall from heaven, misery-stricken, when the
fruit of their work is exhausted.
10
Ignorant fools, regarding sacrifices and humanitarian works as
the highest, do not know any higher good. Having enjoyed their
reward on the heights of heaven, gained by good works, they
enter again this world or a lower one.
11
But those wise men of tranquil minds who lives in the forest on
alms, practising penances appropriate to their stations of life
and contemplating such deities as Hiranyagarbha, depart, freed
from impurities, by the Path of the Sun, to the place where that
immortal Person dwells whose nature is imperishable.
12
Let a brahmin, after having examined all these worlds that are
gained by works, acquire freedom from desires: nothing that is
eternal can be produced by what is not eternal. In order that he
may understand that Eternal, let him, fuel in hand, approach a
guru who is well versed in the Vedas and always devoted to
Brahman.
13
To that pupil who has duly approached him, whose mind is
completely serene, and whose senses are controlled, the wise
teacher should indeed rightly impart the Knowledge of Brahman,
through which one knows the immutable and the true Purusha.
Second Mundaka - Chapter 1
1
This is the Truth: As from a blazing fire, sparks essentially
akin to it fly forth by the thousand, so also, my good friend,
do various beings come forth from the imperishable Brahman and
unto Him again return.
2
He is the self-luminous and formless Purusha, uncreated and
existing both within and without. He is devoid of prana, devoid
of mind, pure, and higher than the supreme Imperishable.
3
From Him are born prana, mind, all the sense-organs, Akasa, air,
fire, water, and earth, which supports all.
4
The heavens are His head; the sun and moon, His eyes; the
quarters, His ears; the revealed Vedas, His speech; the wind is
His breath; the universe, His heart. From his feet is produced
the earth. He is, indeed, the inner Self of all beings
5
From Him comes the Fire whose fuel is the sun; from the moon
comes rain; from rain, the herbs that grow on the earth; from
the herbs, the seminal fluid which a man pours into a woman.
Thus many living beings are born of the Purusha.
6
From Him have come the Rik, the Saman, the Yajus, the Diksha,
all sacrifices, the Kratus, gifts, the year, the sacrificer, and
the worlds which the moon sanctifies and the sun illumines.
7
By Him are begotten the various devas, the sadhyas, men, cattle,
birds, and also prana and apana, rice and corn, penance, faith,
truth, continence, and law.
8
From Him have sprung the seven pranas, the seven flames, the
seven kinds of fuel, the seven oblations, and also the seven
planes where move the pranas, lying in the cave, which are seven
in each living being.
9
From Him come all the oceans and the mountains; from Him flow
rivers of every kind; from Him have come, as well, all plants
and flavours, by which the inner self subsists surrounded by the
elements.
10
The Purusha alone is verily the universe, which consists of work
and austerity. O my good friend, he who knows this Brahman-the
Supreme and the Immortal, hidden in the cave of the heart-cuts
asunder even here the knot of ignorance.
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Chapter 2
1
The Luminous Brahman dwells in the cave of the heart and is
known to move there. It is the great support of all; for in It
is centred everything that moves, breathes, and blinks. O
disciples, know that to be your Self-that which is both gross
and subtle, which is adorable, supreme, and beyond the
understanding of creatures.
2
That which is radiant, subtler than the subtle, That by which
all the worlds and their inhabitants are supported-That, verily,
is the indestructible Brahman; That is the prana, speech, and
the mind; That is the True and That is the Immortal. That alone
is to be struck. Strike It, my good friend.
3
Take the Upanishad as the bow, the great weapon, and place upon
it the arrow sharpened by meditation. Then, having drawn it back
with a mind directed to the thought of Brahman, strike that
mark, O my good friend-that which is the Imperishable
4
Om is the bow; the atman is the arrow; Brahman is said to be the
mark. It is to be struck by an undistracted mind. Then the atman
becomes one with Brahman, as the arrow with the target.
5
In Him are woven heaven, earth, and the space between, and the
mind with all the sense-organs. Know that non-dual Atman alone
and give up all other talk. He is the bridge to Immortality.
6
He moves about, becoming manifold, within the heart, where the
arteries meet, like the spokes fastened in the nave of a chariot
wheel. Meditate on Atman as Om. Hail to you! May you cross
beyond the sea of darkness!
7
He who knows all and understands all, and to whom belongs all
the glory in the world-He, Atman, is placed in the space in the
effulgent abode of Brahman. He assumes the forms of the mind and
leads the body and the senses. He dwells in the body, inside the
heart. By the knowledge of That which shines as the blissful and
immortal Atman, the wise behold Him fully in all things.
8
The fetters of the heart are broken, all doubts are resolved,
and all works cease to bear fruit, when He is beheld who is both
high and low.
9
There the stainless and indivisible Brahman shines in the
highest, golden sheath. It is pure; It is the Light of lights;
It is That which they know who know the Self.
10
The sun does not shine there, nor the moon and the stars, nor
these lightnings, not to speak of this fire. When He shines,
everything shines after Him; by His light everything is lighted.
11
That immortal Brahman alone is before, that Brahman is behind,
that Brahman is to the right and left. Brahman alone pervades
everything above and below; this universe is that Supreme
Brahman alone.
Third Mundaka - Chapter 1
1
Two birds, united always and known by the same name, closely
cling to the same tree. One of them eats the sweet fruit; the
other looks on without eating.
2
Seated on the same tree, the jiva moans, bewildered by his
impotence. But when he beholds the other, the Lord worshipped by
all, and His glory, he then becomes free from grief.
3
When the seer beholds the self-luminous Creator, the Lord, the
Purusha, the progenitor of Brahma, then he, the wise seer,
shakes off good and evil, becomes stainless, and reaches the
supreme unity.
4
He indeed is Prana; He shines forth variously in all beings. The
wise man who knows Him does not babble. Revelling in the Self,
delighting in the Self, performing actions, he is the foremost
among the knowers of Brahman.
5
This Atman, resplendent and pure, whom the sinless sannyasins
behold residing within the body, is attained by unceasing
practice of truthfulness, austerity, right knowledge, and
continence
6
Truth alone prevails, not falsehood. By truth the path is laid
out, the Way of the Gods, on which the seers, whose every desire
is satisfied, proceed to the Highest Abode of the True.
7
That Brahman shines forth, vast, self-luminous, inconceivable,
subtler than the subtle. He is far beyond what is far, and yet
here very near at hand. Verily, He is seen here, dwelling in the
cave of the heart of conscious beings.
8
Brahman is not grasped by the eye, nor by speech, nor by the
other senses, nor by penance or good works. A man becomes pure
through serenity of intellect; thereupon, in meditation, he
beholds Him who is without parts.
9
That subtle Atman is to be known by the intellect here in the
body where the prana has entered fivefold. By Atman the
intellects of men are pervaded, together with the senses. When
the intellect is purified, Atman shines forth.
10
Whatever world a man of pure understanding envisages in his mind
and whatever desires he cherishes, that world he conquers and
those desires he obtains, Therefore let everyone who wants
prosperity worship the man who knows the Self.
Chapter 2
1
He, the Knower of the Self, knows that Supreme Abode of Brahman,
which shines brightly and in which the universe rests. Those
wise men who, free from desires, worship such a person transcend
the seed of birth.
2
He who, cherishing objects, desires them, is born again here or
there through his desires, But for him whose desires are
satisfied and who is established in the Self, all desires vanish
even here on earth.
3
This Atman cannot be attained through study of the Vedas, nor
through intelligence, nor through much learning. He who chooses
Atman-by him alone is Atman attained. It is Atman that reveals
to the seeker Its true nature.
4
This Atman cannot be attained by one who is without strength or
earnestness or who is without knowledge accompanied by
renunciation. But if a wise man strives by means of these aids,
his soul enters the Abode of Brahman.
5
Having realized Atman, the seers become satisfied with that
Knowledge. Their souls are established in the Supreme Self, they
are free from passions, and they are tranquil in mind. Such calm
souls ever devoted to the Self, behold everywhere the
omnipresent Brahman and in the end enter into It, which is all
this.
6
Having well ascertained the Self, the goal of the Vedantic
knowledge, and having purified their minds through the practice
of sannyasa, the seers, never relaxing their efforts, enjoy here
supreme Immortality and at the time of the great end attain
complete freedom in Brahman.
7
The fifteen parts go back to their causes, and all the senses to
their deities; the actions, and the Atman reflected in the
buddhi, become one with the highest imperishable Brahman, which
is the Self of all.
8
As flowing rivers disappear in the sea, losing their names and
forms, so a wise man, freed from name and form, attains the
Purusha, who is greater than the Great.
9
He who knows the Supreme Brahman verily becomes Brahman. In his
family no one is born ignorant of Brahman. He overcomes grief;
he overcomes evil; free from the fetters of the heart, he
becomes immortal.
10
A Rik-verse declares: This Knowledge of Brahman should he told
to those only who have performed the necessary duties, who are
versed in the Vedas and devoted to Brahman, and who, full of
faith, have offered oblations in the Ekarshi Fire and performed,
according to rule, the rite of carrying fire on the head.
11
Thus the seer Angiras declared this truth in olden times. A man
who has not performed the vow should not read it. Salutation to
the great seers! Salutation to the great seers!
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