The Mundaka Upanishad

satyam eva jayate (truth alone triumphs) [3:6:1]

The Mundaka Upanishad is an exposition of the higher knowledge that leads to omniscience. This is not the knowledge of empirical facts, or specialised knowledge of particular subjects. It is the knowledge we value because it satisfies our urge to know the essence of things, in contrast to knowing about the qualities that appear to our senses and can be worked on by our mind.

In the non-dual philosophy, that essence of all is indicated by the expression existence-consciousness-bliss. It is the existence in all that exists, and the consciousness in all conscious experience. Transcending differences, it is free from all limitations and is therefore also called bliss.

That essence is not to be thought of as far removed from our practical concerns because it is unseen, but rather as fundamental, because without it the apparent qualities would have nothing to rest on. Untouched by the differences, it may be contemplated as one and the same principle in all.

Our quest is to discover the subtle essence which is the real being in everything, the eternal amid the transient. And we have to begin by turning within to detect the essence of our own being as our real self. This is the search for satisfying knowledge, and is expressed in the question asked by a seeker at the beginning of the Mundaka Upanishad:

What is that knowledge, which, when known, everything there is becomes known? (1:1:3).

The question assumes that such knowledge is possible. This is reasonable, because the assumption is that it is knowledge of our own nature. In fact this is not knowledge of anything separate from us; it is the realisation of our consciousness as that which alone truly exists, the one universal and eternal Consciousness- Being within and behind the diverse forms that appear to fill our world. Self-knowledge is thus the focus of enquiry for those seeking to realise non-duality.

The answer given to the above question is:

There are two kinds of knowledge to be acquired, the higher and the lower. This is what is said by those who understand.

The lower comprises the Vedas and academic subjects. The higher is that by which is realised the immutable. [1:1:4-5]

It may come as a surprise to hear that the Vedas are classed as lower knowledge, for the upanishads themselves form the conclusion of the Vedas. But what is meant here is ritualistic action and instruction. This was based on ways to please and appease the gods—or powers of nature—in order to gain personal benefits, either in this life or after death. Those who advocated this form of religion insisted that it was the highest available to humankind, and were dismissive of the upanishadic wisdom, which they failed to comprehend or recognise. They taught rival views, which had to be refuted. These factors account for the sharp tone of the Mundaka verse:

The deluded fools, believing the rites inculcated by the Vedas and the smritis (derivative literature) to be the highest, do not understand the other thing that leads to liberation. (1:2:10)

Positively, this recognition of the limits of ritualism, and the affirmation that there is a way to liberation, may inspire us to go more deeply into the enquiry. We remember that the goal is nothing less than knowledge of all that is to be known, and the way is true Self-knowledge.

Let us turn to the practical and traditional way of approaching the truth in our own being. One must first recognise the futility of worldly aims and ends to deliver lasting satisfaction. This follows an intelligent assessment of one’s own experience. In our reflections, we have come to understand how any achievement or state brought about by action (karma) will not last forever. On this the Mundaka Upanishad says:

A wise person should adopt non-attachment after examining the worlds acquired through action [karma], with the help of this maxim: ‘There is nothing here that is not the result of action, so what is the need of performing action?’. [1:2:12]

This maxim is a reliable guiding principle. Everything in the world is the result of previous action and is transient. Therefore action, ritualistic or otherwise, cannot be the way to attainment of the Real. What is needed here is not action, but knowledge— the higher Self-knowledge which transcends all distinctions between the knower and the known. Then:

To one who approaches duly, whose heart is calm and whose outer organs are under control, the enlightened [teacher] should impart that knowledge of Brahman by which one realises the true and immutable. [1:2:13]

The necessary inner calm and control is expressed in self-effacing qualities like reverence and patience, which become all-important, as we are preparing the way for a new understanding of Self.

These qualities are natural and life-enhancing when we remember the distinction between our thoughts and what we really are. In this way we make our mind tranquil and ensure that we are truly receptive to teachings on the nature of the Self that transcends all limited conceptions. Truth is to be seen as universal, embracing the whole of experience by virtue of its all-pervading presence:

By the higher knowledge the wise realise everywhere that Reality, which is not available to our normal understanding; which is eternal, which appears in many forms, which is present everywhere and is the source of all. (1:1:6)

So our preparation includes careful study and reflection on the non-dual philosophy. Notice that such verses indicate the nature of the supreme Reality in negative terms, by stating what it is not. To call Reality the Immutable is to say that it transcends the mutations of empirical life, including death, and it alone has this freedom.

On the other hand, this same immutable is what makes possible the entire world appearance. Without qualities itself, it appears to serve as a ‘seed bank’ for the qualities of all things; but being immutable, it has no real connection with the changing phenomena. And yet no ‘thing’ can appear or exist independent of this deeper reality, because it is the one principle of being that underlies them. There is no other cause or origin of all things.

How reality can be untouched by all mutations and differences, and yet apparently serve as the source and sustainer of all phenomena, is a mystery that will only be solved through direct experience of Reality as Self. The unillumined mind can only conceive of the world as apparently depending on the Immutable.

And so we find that several verses seem to suggest a relationship of cause and effect between the world of appearances and the Reality, Brahman. Another way of putting this is to say that everything in our experience emanates from that deeper, changeless, non-dual reality, and nothing is really different from that reality. Anything that appears to be different from reality is, ultimately, found to be a phenomenal appearance, not absolutely real. As the Mundaka Upanishad puts it:

As from a fire, fully ablaze, fly off thousands of sparks, each non-separate from the fire, so from the Immutable originate different kinds of creatures, and into It they merge. (2:1:1)

It was said at the beginning that this Upanishad teaches a distinction between higher and lower knowledge. Here it does so with these indications of how we may reflect on the ultimate source of all manifestation:

The supreme source is transcendental, formless, birthless, without mind, pure and beyond what is beyond the perishable. (2:1:2)

We see the changing world around us and intellectually infer that it has an origin. Philosophers and scientists try to perceive this source. It is understood to be beyond the forms and processes presented to our senses, but is still conceived as having some finite quality—of being that from which the world appears. Here the Upanishad points even ‘beyond what is beyond’, to that which has no relation to finitude at all. This is subtle teaching on the higher knowledge, but if approached with a prepared mind and trust in the authority of the teacher, it will lead to fruitful meditation. The Upanishad continues:

From This originates the vital force, the mind, senses, space, air, fire, water and earth that supports everything. (2:1:3)

We now have a more refined understanding of what it means to say that all phases of nature, and life, are ultimately ‘from This’. Our preparation for enlightenment, as it were, is to see the world in this new light. At this stage of enquiry we find that ‘from This’ points to the Reality that transcends causality, and is yet the ultimate Self of all, our true being ‘present in the heart’ here and now. Realisation is direct experience of the fact indicated in these words: ‘I indeed am all this.’ (2:1:10, commentary).

Having prepared the way and planted the ideas based on Truth, we need to become rooted in the conviction that our true identity is the changeless light of conscious awareness which is present in our own being as our nature or Self. This higher Self-knowledge encompasses a right understanding of both the world of action, and that which transcends it:

This is all action and knowledge. One who knows this supremely immortal Brahman as existing in the heart, destroys here the knot of ignorance. (2:1:10)

The meaning is that we begin by discerning the light of Self-awareness in our own being. As this discernment deepens, the same essence is revealed in the heart of all.

How are we to make this higher knowledge our own? How to grasp it and live in its light? The Upanishad offers practical guidance:

Taking hold of the bow, the great upanishadic weapon, fix on it an arrow sharpened with meditation. Drawing the string with the mind absorbed in thought of it, hit the target, the immutable.

OM is the bow, Atman [self] is the arrow, Brahman is said to be the target. That is to be hit by the unerring person. Be one with that like the arrow. (2:2:3-4)

It is by constantly keeping the teaching in mind that one becomes absorbed in truth. Many aspirants have found that an effective way of doing so is to more or less continuously repeat a text, name or symbol such as OM, the sound-word that symbolises the immutable as Brahman, as the Self, and as their eternal identity. OM indicates that Reality which includes all, yet transcends all, and is free from any sectarian ‘terms and conditions’. OM can be chanted, meditated on, and the details of its symbolism may be studied in the Mandukya Upanishad.

Withdrawing attention from distractions by focussing on OM, the apparently individualised self is to be united with the Real, like an arrow embedded in the target. Then:

Know that Self alone that is one without a second, on which are strung [like beads] all things… and give up all other talk. (2:2:5)

Meditate on the Self with the help of OM. May you be free from hindrances in going to the other shore beyond darkness. (2:2:6)

The first step is to learn, through careful observation, that in your own consciousness there are no boundaries or divisions. It is one without a second. Next understand that the same is true of the Reality underlying all phenomena. Then let go of non-essential talk and thoughts by fixing the attention on an expression of Truth such as OM. The quest for self-realisation requires as much one-pointed concentration as a master bowman devotes to focussing on the target.

It is by letting go of non-essentials that we enhance our capacity for right discrimination. Then arises, not more discursive thinking, but heightened inner perception:

Those who discriminate realise, through knowledge, the Self as existing in its fullness on all sides, the Self that shines surpassingly as blissfulness and immortality. (2:2:7)

It is said here that the Self ‘shines’. This means that the Self is ‘self-luminous’: it is the light of awareness which makes all experience possible, and which requires nothing else to reveal it.

Our thoughts become liberating when we look on others as one with our own Self and we transcend likes and dislikes through a deeper understanding of our ‘I am’. This is to recognise the same light of awareness shining in our own mind and in all minds. In this way the obstacles to inner illumination are slowly weakened and dissolved, as the mind is made clear and serene, because it is imbued with right discrimination and detachment from what is non-essential and passing.

This liberating endeavour is to be pursued while living in the world. The world is sometimes called the realm of name and form, making itself known through countless transient qualities to which our mind reacts with feelings of personal connection and identity. But what appears to our inmost awareness is always an object to that awareness, and can never actually be that awareness, nor can that changeless witnessing consciousness ever really mingle with the moving picture-show that it reveals.

This non-identification of the immutable Self with the ephemeral not-self is taught in the Mundaka Upanishad, with the metaphor of the two birds.

Two birds, close companions, perch on the same tree. Of these two, one eats the sweet fruit, and the other looks on without eating. (3:1:1)

The tree stands for the body and nature. It is a metaphorical tree whose seed is unmanifest and roots invisible, whose branches and shoots form the world. One bird anxiously pecks at the fruits, the distractions and delusive pleasures of the world. The other bird sits calmly, without eating. What do the birds represent?

On the same tree the individual soul remains troubled (literally ‘as if drowned’); and so it grieves, being worried by its impotence. When it sees the other, who is the supreme Reality and Beauty—the adorable One—it is liberated from sorrow. (3:1:2)

Thus the human being appears to have two natures, one calm and self-contained, the other restless and fearful. At any time, the restless one can lift up its inner gaze, so to say, and revive its sense of identity with the serene bird, who represents one’s ever-present higher Self, realising ‘I am that’.

This turning and recognition exposes the ultimate unreality of the agitated nature and fixes one in identity with the Immutable, which is never other than one’s true and innermost Self.

In the concluding sections of the Mundaka Upanishad the nature of higher knowledge and how to attain it is presented once again for the benefit of dedicated students:

That is great, self-effulgent, unthinkable, subtler than the subtle, shining forth, further than the far yet near at hand, seen dwelling in the heart of conscious beings. (3:1:7)

As we have found, the Real transcends qualities and is yet the awareness that reveals all. So it is to be sought within consciousness itself. This requires an essential inner quality:

It is not apprehended by the eye, nor speech, nor the senses, nor austerity, nor karma. When purified by the effect of knowledge (jnana-prasadena), one sees the indivisible through contemplation. (3:1:8)

The essential quality is purity, and what purifies is knowledge. A theoretical knowledge is gained from the Upanishad as explained by a traditional teacher. When this knowledge is cherished in a restrained mind, there arises a tranquil transparency conducive to contemplation. Then:

The subtle Atman [Self] is to be known by the intelligence that pervades the mind and senses. When it is purified, Atman is revealed. (3:1:9)

The teaching is that there are three levels in our being. One is the inner world of the mind and senses. This is pervaded by intelligence. And intelligence in turn is pervaded by pure consciousness, the true Self. When intelligence is used to purify the mind by dwelling on the teachings and their implications, the obstacles that seem to obscure the conscious Self are removed.

Similar guidance with a further subtle hint regarding the higher knowledge comes in the final section of the Upanishad:

The Self is not attained through study, nor thought nor much listening. To one who seeks the Self it is attainable. To that one the nature of Self is revealed. (3:2:3)

This apparently simple indication is worthy of deep reflection. It is the very act of seeking that opens the way. To seek means to direct our most precious resources, time and attention, into the enquiry. And through enquiry we awaken to our own true nature as the Self of all. This is the higher Knowledge that satisfies forever.

B.D.