The Mundaka Upanishad : Post-6&7. Swami Krishnananda.

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Wednesday, May 11, 2022. 21:57.

Chapter-1. Section-1. Mantram-6 & 7.

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Atha parā yayā tad akṣaram adhigamyate: That is the higher knowledge with which alone can we reach the imperishable Reality. Learning is different from wisdom; scholarship is not the same as insight. One may be a learned Vedic scholar and very proficient in the performance of sacrifices and the invocation of gods in the heavens, but eternity is different from temporality. All these glories of the Veda are in the region of time, and the Eternal is timeless. What is that timeless thing, that which is called Imperishable?


Yat tad adreśyam, agrāhyam, agotram, avarṇam, acakṣuḥ- śrotraṁ tad apāṇi-padām, nityam vibhuṁ sarva-gataṁ susūkṣmaṁ tad avyayam yad bhūta-yonim paripaśyanti dhīrāḥ (1.1.6):

 That great Reality is to be encountered in direct experience. Adreśyam: that Reality which is not capable of perception through the eyes; agrāhyam: that which cannot be grasped with the hands; avarnam: which has no origin; agotram: which has no shape or form; acakṣuḥ-śrotraṁ: which has no sense organs like us; tad apāṇi-padam: which has no limbs such as feet, hands, etc.; nityam vibhum sarva-gataṁ susūkṣmaṁ: which is permanent, eternal, all-pervading, subtler than the subtlest; tad avyayam: which is imperishable; bhūta-yonim: which is the origin of all beings; paripaśyanti dhīrāḥ: heroes on the path of the spirit will behold that great Reality within their own selves.


Yathorṇa-nābhiḥ sṛjate gṛhṇate ca, yathā pṛthivyām oṣadhayas sambhavanti, yathā sataḥ puruṣāt keśalomāni tathākṣarāt sambhavatīha viśvam (1.1.7). 

From this Eternal Being this world, this universe, has emanated. How does the world come from God? We have seen a spider spitting threads from its own body. Threads come out, and it weaves a web around itself. We have seen trees spontaneously growing from under the earth, and we have seen hair growing on the head. In some such way is the manner of the creation of this world.


Tathākṣarāt sambhavatīha viśvam. These analogies have some significance of their own. The spider does not create the web from external material. The upadana is the same as the nimitha, as they say. The instrumental cause is the same as the material cause in the case of the spider weaving a web. In the case of the potter making a pot, the instrumental cause is not the same as the material cause, and so is the case with the carpenter making furniture. That is to say, the potter does not make the pot out of a substance coming from his body, and so is the case with the carpenter. But in the case of the spider, the creation of the web materially emanates from the very body of the spider, and so here the material cause is identical with the instrumental cause. They are not two different things. God does not create the world as a carpenter or a potter does; the substance of God is verily present in the creation. That illustration is brought out by this analogy of a spider creating a web.


Yathā pṛthivayām oṣadhayas sambhavanti. Here is another analogy. Trees grow from the earth; they draw sustenance from the earth. The original support of all the trees is the substance of the earth. This analogy tells us that the world is sustained by God, and all the values of the world come from God only. God is the soul of all that He creates. There is also the analogy of hair growing. When we behold rocks, stones, inanimate matter existing in this world, we sometimes have difficulty connecting inanimate things with animate consciousness. How can animate, conscious God create inanimate stuff? This analogy brings out the possibility of inanimate things coming from animate consciousness, as hair grows from animate skin and becomes inanimate so that we can shave it off, or dead fingernails projecting themselves forth from animate roots, and the like. From consciousness, apparently unconscious things can also emanate.


These difficulties are solved by analogies of this kind—namely, the spider's web, trees growing from the earth, and hair growing from the body. Like that, please understand that eternity produces temporality. To put it in modern scientific language, the four-dimensional reality creates the three-dimensional world of length, breath and height.

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Next : Mantram-8.

Tapasā cīyate brahma tato'nnam abhijāyate, annāt prāṇo manaḥ satyaṁ lokāḥ karmasu cāmṛtam (1.1.8).

To be continued ....




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