Mundakopanishad : Chapter-1. Section-2. Mantram-10. - Swami Krishnananda

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28/12/2016.
Mantram-s  - 8 to 10 : Description of the sad state of knowledge-less ( devoid of Upasana ) ritualists-
Mantram-10.
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Ishtapurtam manyamana varishtam
nanyac chreyo vedayante pramudhaḥ,
naksaya prsthe te sukrte’nubhutvemam
lokam hinataram va vishanti (1.2.10).
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1.
Many of these verses sound like the verses of the Bhagavadgita, in the Ninth Chapter, where it is said that after enjoying the glories of heaven you come back due to the exhaustion of the merits accumulated by good deeds.

Ishta and purta are two types of good deeds that people do in this world. Sacrifices along the lines of the Vedic injunctions are called ishta.

Other philanthropic deeds such as distributing wealth, planting trees, giving charity, constructing rest houses, all these are called purta.

These are the two types of charity that one can think of. One is heavenly; the other is earthly.

But people may imagine that this is the be-all and end-all of all things.

Just because you please the divinities in heaven, such as Indra, etc., and the people in this world, it does not mean you have pleased the realities of life.

They are quite different things.

2.
Nanyac chreyo vedayante pramudhaḥ :

Very ignorant people imagine not that this is futile in the end.

Having reached the peak of the blissful experience of heavenly worlds on account of the consequences of their good deeds, they come back to this world, or they may go to even worse worlds—lokam hinataraṁ va vishanti.

The karmas of an individual work in inscrutable ways.

When a person like a king has the facility to perform yajnas like the Ashvamedha, it only means that some aspect of his prarabdha karma which is conducive to his progress in the world has manifested itself, subjugating certain other aspects of his karmas which are there in store as sanchita karma, which also have to germinate one day or the other. ''

So when, due to the pressure exerted by the onrush of the good karmas which have led him to this body of a king and permit him to perform sacrifices of this kind, enabling him to go to the heavenly world, are exhausted when they get used up, what happens?

The force exerted by these good karmas constituting this present prarabdha will vanish completely like mist before the sun.

Then suddenly he falls. He will fall into a condition which would be the area of action of another set of prarabdha which is waiting to be experienced and to come forward in due course of time.

That remnant of prarabdha which would be the cause of his future birth may not be equivalent to that earlier one which made him king. It may be another thing altogether. He may be born as a poor man.

 He may be born on this very Earth, or he may have such prarabdha which may have been suppressed earlier on account of the overwhelming power of the other prarabdhas, which may bring him down to a lower level, lower than even the human species.
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To be continued ...


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