The Mundakoupanishad : Post-20. Swami Krishnananda.

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Wednesday, January 04, 2023. 07:30.

Chapter 2: Section 1 : 

Mantram-2.( The Absolute nature of Brahman)

POST-20.

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Mantram-2.

"Divyo hy amūrtaḥ puruṣah sa bāhyābhyantaro hy ajaḥ 

aprāṇo hy amanāḥ śubhro akṣarāt parataḥ paraḥ (2.1.2)".

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It was said that from that Imperishable Being, everything proceeds; the world is created by That. That Supreme Imperishable is the divine, formless Purusha. Here, Purusha is to be understood in the sense of essential Consciousness. The origin of all things is Consciousness. It presupposes all thoughts, all actions, and all types of awareness of objects. Even to think, there must be consciousness behind the thought. Even when we assert or deny a thing, consciousness is behind the act of affirmation and denial. If we totally doubt and become a confirmed agnostic or atheist, even in that act of our agnosticism or atheism there is a consciousness of our being such a thing. Even if we say nothing exists, there is a consciousness that affirms that nothing exists; therefore, something exists. That something is the consciousness of even the denial of all things. Such is the Purusha, which is the Supreme Consciousness.

Sa bāhyābhyantaro hy ajaḥ: 

Inside and outside, it is there. Consciousness cannot be divided into parts. It has no fractions. There is no division in Consciousness. It is indivisible. Because of the fact that it is indivisible, it is all-pervading. If it is only in one place, it can be divided. If it is only in one place, there should be a place where it is not. Now, to know that Consciousness is not in some place, Consciousness has to be there already, because the absence of Consciousness cannot be known except by Consciousness itself, and so even the location of the absence of Consciousness is Consciousness itself. We cannot negate it in any manner whatsoever. The denial of Consciousness is an act of Consciousness only; therefore, it is to be considered as pervading all things, and not located somewhere. It is not only in one place, it is everywhere.

Ajaḥ: 

It is unborn; it has no beginning. To conceive the beginning of Consciousness is impossible, because there must be somebody to conceive that Consciousness as the beginning. If we imagine that Consciousness was created at some time, we must imagine that there was something prior to Consciousness which created Consciousness. Then there will be what is called an infinite regression of argument: Who created that which causes the coming of Consciousness? Then we can ask another question: Who caused that second one? and so on. Finally, we will find that we will land on the lap of Consciousness. It cannot be created by anybody, because the very question of the creation of Consciousness is raised by Consciousness itself. Hence, finally we have to accept that Consciousness is the Ultimate Reality; it is unborn in its nature.

Aprānaḥ: 

It is not individual prana consciousness—breathing, etc. It has no mind, because there is no necessity for it to think anything. As there are no objects in front of it, why should there be a mind? As it is not an individual with a body, therefore there is also no prana. Śubhraḥ: Pure, simple radiance. Akṣarāt paratah paraḥ: Even the so-called imperishable prakriti is perishable in the light of a still higher imperishability that is beyond prakriti—paratah paraḥ.

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Next

Mantram-3 : Braman -The Supreme cause of all.

"Etasmāj jāyate prāṇo manaḥ sarvendriyāṇi ca, 
khaṁ vāyur jyotir āpaḥ pṛthivī viśvasya dhāriṇī" (2.1.3): 

To be continued

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