Mundakopanishad : ( 12/12/2012. )

 ====================================================================== Greetings to all from Chinmaya Vibhooti for Ganesh Chaturthi! Shri Pranav Ganesh Bhagwan ki Jai! Shri Sadhgurunath Maharaj ki Jai! ========================================================================= Tuesday, September 06, 2022. 06:55. Chapter-1, Section-2, Mantram-6. POST-13. ====================================================================== Mantram-6 : Attainment of heaven by performing Agnihotra ritual properly. Ehy-ehīti tam-āhutayas suvarcasaḥ  sūryasya raśmibhir-yajamānaṁ vahanti,  priyāṁ vācam-abhivadantyo'rcayantya,  eṣa vaḥ puṇyas sukṛto brahma-lokaḥ (1.2.6).  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Sun's rays, as the flames of fire, are not dead things; they are consciousness. They speak to you: “Come. Glorious man, here are the flames. Come, come.” The oblations, when offered properly wit...

 ======================================================================== ======================================================================= Wednesday, August 17, 2022. 20:00. Chapter-1, Section-2, Mantram-4. POST-12. ===================================================================== Mantram-4 : Kālī karalī ca mano-javā ca sulohitā yā ca sudhūmravarṇā, sphuliṅginī viśva-rūpī ca devī lelāyamānā iti sapta-jiḥvāḥ (1.2.4).  In a properly performed sacrifice, seven flames of the fire are supposed to shoot up, not just one or two. The hungry fire will lap up in seven tongues. The seven tongues have their own names—kālī: the black one; karalī: the blacker one; mano-javā: rapid like the movement of the mind; sulhoitā: reddish in colour; sudhūmravarṇā: brownish in colour; sphuliṅginī: sparking forth; viśva-rūpī: radiant. Devī: divine are the flames. The god Agni himself rises up to receive our offering and take us to the gods so that, in their satisfaction, they lift us up to t...

 ======================================================================== ======================================================================== Wednesday, July 27, 2022. 19:45. Chapter-1, Section-2, Mantram-1.Continued .. POST-11. ========================================================================= Mantram-1, Continued .. Eka eva purā vedaḥ praṇavaḥ sarva-vāṅgmāyaḥ (S.B. 9.14.48).  In the Krita Yuga there was no Veda, no yajna or sacrifice, no worship, no governmental system, no ruler, no necessity for law and order, etc. It is called the hamsa condition—pure Eternity living on Earth, the Golden Age, the millennium come, as some religions tell us. The Treta Yuga was a descent in the moral order of creation; and then yajnas started, and also the Vedas. Otherwise Om, or Pranava, alone was the Veda. The three Vedas were not there. Hence, we can take this word ‘treta' to mean both things: either the commencement of yajnas in the Treta Yuga, or it may mean the three Vedas b...

 ======================================================================= ======================================================================== Saturday, July 09, 2022. 08:28 Chapter-1, Section-2, Mantram-1. POST-10. ======================================================================= MANTRAM-1. A LOOK AT THE RITUALS : "Tad etat satyam mantresu karmani kavayo  yany-apaśyam-stani tretayam bahudha santatani,  tanya-caratha niyatam satyakama  esa vah panthah sukrtasya loke." (1.2.1.). This is a different subject altogether. A mantra in the earlier mantras told us that there are two types of knowledge, the lower and the higher.  Rg-vedo yajur-vedaḥ sāma-vedo'tharva-vedaḥ śikṣā kalpo vyākaraṇaṁ (1.1.5):  The Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda and Atharvaveda are all lower knowledge. Higher knowledge is that great spiritual insight by which we come into direct contact with the Imperishable. This was told to us in earlier verses. Now some details are given as to wh...

 ======================================================================= ====================================================================== Monday, June 20, 2022. 19:00 Chapter-1. Section-1. Mantram-9 ============================================= Mantram-9. Yaḥ sarvajñaḥ sarva-vid yasya jñānamayaṁ tapaḥ; tasmād etad brahma nāma-rūpam annaṁ ca jāyate (1.1.9).  That Great Being is sarvajñaḥ and sarva-vid.   According to the commentator, sarvajñaḥ and sarva-vid mean two different things. Though the literal meaning of both words is ‘all- knowing', the connotative meaning is that Being which knows everything in general and also in particular. This is Acharya Sankara's interpretation. God knows everything in general and also in particular. Somebody asked me a question: “Does God know that a cat is moving in the kitchen?” I said, “God not only knows the movement of the cat, but He also knows how many hairs the cat has.” This is the direct knowledge of the minutest details o...

 ======================================================================= ======================================================================== Tuesday, May 31, 2022. 19:00 Chapter-1. Section-1. Mantram-8. ====================================================================== Mantram-8. Tapasa ciyate brahma tato'nnam abhijāyate,  Annat prano manah satyam lokah karmasu camrtam (1.1.8).  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In one mantram, the whole of creation is described. Brahman, the Supreme Absolute, distends, swells—becomes large, as it were—by tapas. Tapas means concentration. Brahman's concentration is the will to create. It becomes extended in the form of the contemplated shape of creation, as it were. When we think something, the mind takes the form of that thing which we think. Now, the Supreme Absolute thinks, wills, concentrates itself on the shape which creation has to take, a...

 ============================================================ ============================================================== Wednesday, May 11, 2022. 21:57. Chapter-1. Section-1. Mantram-6 & 7. ============================================================ 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 enco...