The Mundakoupanishad : Post-26. Swami Krishnananda.

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Wednesday, March 29,  2023. 08:00.

Chapter 2: Section 1 : 

Mantram-8. (Objects, Organs and their presiding deties are also the creation of Brahmam.) 

POST-26.

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Mantram - (2.1.8) :

From Him, from that great plenum of felicity, these seven senses manifest themselves. 

Sapta-prānāh prabhavanti tasmāt 

saptārcisah samidhas sapta-homāh, 

sapta ime lokā yesu caranti prānā 

guhāśayā nihitāh sapta sapta . 

Seven orifices above the neck are referred to here as seven senses—the two nostrils, the two eyes, the two ears, and the mouth. These are the seven apertures which act like senses, performing their respective functions. These senses, and their powers of cognition—not only the location of the eyes, nose, ears, etc., but also the capacity involved in them to perform their function, and the particular objects to which they are directed, as also the knowledge that such objects are the requisites for the function of a specific sense organ, and the physical locations of these senses—are what is meant by these cryptic words prana, arcisas, samidhas and homa. The terminology of sacrifice is used here to describe an otherwise-vital function that is taking place in us.

Seven pranas are the seven functions of the sense organs mentioned, and the flaming anguish of these senses to grab their particular food, or object, is known as saptārciṣas, seven flames. Our desires are like flames. They rush forth like burning heat in the direction of their objects. And the objects themselves are called samit, which are offered into the sacrifice. The sacrifice—the word homa is used here—is the consumption of the object. This is a kind of prana-agnihotra, otherwise described in the Chhandogya Upanishad. As we have an external sacrifice which we perform on altars with physical fire, and oblations such as ghee, etc., are poured over them, we have an internal sacrifice taking place; that is called agnihotra inside the body. Only householders perform external sacrifice. Vanaprasthas, who are retired from household life, perform the very same sacrifice inwardly—that is, internal prana-agnihotra.

When we take our meals, we are actually offering an oblation into the fire of Vaishvanara, which operates in the stomach as the samana prana. It is the duty of any educated person in the field of spirituality not to eat food with greed like an animal, but to pay some attention to the process that is taking place in the very act of taking food. We just do not lap up, or grab like an animal, the diet that is offered. A prayer is involved in the very process of eating.

Life is a prayer. The sense organs, in their greed for their objects, are actually praying for relief from the agony, or the involvement, in this grizzly action of their longings for things. There is a deity operating inside the ear as a point of consciousness at the back of the nervous system and the eardrum, etc., that appear to be the causes of the sounds that we hear. So is the case with all the other sense organs. If we ignore the presence of these consciousness points called divinities, we would be paying disrespect to them, and the agnihotra sacrifice would not then be performed. Those who eat without offering to the gods first as a sacrament are actually thieves, says the Bhagavadgita.

In the Panchagni Vidya we have been told in a very dramatic fashion, picturesquely, that the diet that we take is actually something produced by the earth, which happens on account of the rainfall coming from the skies. And the rain is nothing but an effect produced by certain vibrations of the rays of the Sun in respect of the water element in the world. And even there, the final cause is not reached. Why should the Sun act in this manner? Who has empowered the Sun to project heating rays so that the water vapour may be absorbed, become clouds, and move about by the action of the wind that simultaneously cooperates in this process? Why should all this take place? Let the Sun convert water into vapour, but why should the wind also blow simultaneously? Who is the reason, who is the cause behind this cooperative activity? There is something beyond the Sun also. That is the heavenly Spirit willing that things should take place in this particular fashion.

Thus, this kind of Panchagni Vidya is taking place inside the body as well as outside the body. All occurrences in world history, inwardly as well as outwardly, inside us as well as outside us, are manifested by a series of causes and effects of the central will, the concentration, the tapas of Brahman: tapasā cīyate brahma (1.1.8).

Sapta ime lokā yesu caranti prānā guhāśayā nihitāh sapta sapta : 

Seven are the worlds which will be reached by the performer of this kind of internal agnihotra, Panchagni Vidya Tattva, and any one of these worlds will be our fruit thereof. We know what the seven worlds are, and we may be reborn there in any way, in any fashion, according to the devotion with which the sacrifice has been performed. Both outer sacrifice as well as inner sacrifice have a common intention of lifting the soul above this physical body and taking it into the heavenly regions, even up to the highest Brahmaloka.

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Next
Mantram-9.

To be continued

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