* 3RD MUNDAKA-KHANDA 1-2

[Anne Terri]

God's Living Bible - The Third Testament - Research Library - The Upanishads

p. 38

THIRD MUNDAKA
FIRST KHANDA

1. Two birds, inseparable friends, cling to the same tree. One of them eats the sweet fruit, the other looks on without eating 1.

2. On the same tree man sits grieving, immersed, bewildered by his own impotence (an-îsâ). But when he sees the other lord (îsâ) contented and knows his glory, then his grief passes away 2.

3. When the seer sees the brilliant maker and lord (of the world) as the Person who has his source in Brahman, then he is wise, and shaking off good and evil, he reaches the highest oneness, free from passions;

4. For he is the Breath shining forth in all beings, and he who understands this becomes truly wise, not a talker only. He revels in the Self, he delights in the Self, and having performed his works (truthfulness, penance, meditation, &c.) he rests, firmly established in Brahman, the best of those who know Brahman 3.

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5. By truthfulness, indeed, by penance, right knowledge, and abstinence must that Self be gained; the Self whom spotless anchorites gain is pure, and like a light within the body.

6. The true prevails, not the untrue; by the true the path is laid out, the way of the gods (devayânah), on which the old sages, satisfied in their desires, proceed to where there is that highest place of the True One.

7. That (true Brahman) shines forth grand, divine., inconceivable, smaller than small; it is far beyond what is far and yet near here, it is hidden in the cave (of the heart) among those who see it even here.

8. He is not apprehended by the eye, nor by speech, nor by the other senses, not by penance or good works 1. When a man's nature has become purified by the serene light of knowledge, then he sees him, meditating on him as without parts.

9. That subtle Self is to be known by thought (ketas) there where breath has entered fivefold, for every thought of men is interwoven with the senses, and when thought is purified, then the Self arises.

10. Whatever state a man, whose nature is purified imagines, and whatever desires he desires (for himself or for others) 2, that state he conquers and

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those desires he obtains. Therefore let every man who desires happiness worship the man who knows the Self 1.

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Footnotes

38:1 Cf. Rv. I, 164, 20; Nir. XIV, 30; Svet. Up. IV, 6; Kath. Up. III, 1.

38:2 Cf. Svet. Up. IV, 7.

38:3 The commentator states that, besides âtmaratih kriyâvân, there was another reading, viz. âtmaratikriyâvân. This probably owed its origin to a difficulty felt in reconciling kriyâvân, performing acts, with the brahmavidâm varishthah, the best of those who know Brahman, works being utterly incompatible with a true knowledge of Brahman. Kriyâvân, however, as Sa?kara points out, may mean here simply, having performed meditation and other acts conducive to a knowledge of Brahman. Probably truthfulness, p. 39 penance, &c., mentioned in the next following verse, are the kriyâs or works intended. For grammatical reasons also this reading is preferable. But the last foot esha brahmavidâm varishthah is clearly defective. If we examine the commentary, we see that Sa?kara read brahmanishthah, and that he did not read esha, which would give us the correct metre, brahmanishtho brahmavidâm varishthah.

39:1 Cf. Kath. Up. VI, 12.

39:2 Cf. Brih. Âr. I, 4, 15.

40:1 All this is said by the commentator to refer to a knowledge of the conditioned Brahman only.

Vol. XV THE UPANISHADS - PART II - 3RD MUNDAKA-KHANDAS

(SEBO1)Translated by F. Max Müller - 1879
God's Living Bible - The Third Testament - Research Library - The Upanishads
This text is in the public domain because it was published prior to 1923

[Anne Terri]

God's Living Bible - The Third Testament - Research Library - The Upanishads

THIRD MUNDAKA
SECOND KHANDA

1. He (the knower of the Self) knows that highest home of Brahman 2, in which all is contained and shines brightly. The wise who, without desiring happiness, worship that Person 3, transcend this seed, (they are not born again.)

2. He who forms desires in his mind, is born again through his desires here and there. But to him whose desires are fulfilled and who is conscious of the true Self (within himself) all desires vanish, even here on earth.

3. That Self 4 cannot be gained by the Veda, nor by understanding, nor by much learning. He whom the Self chooses, by him the Self can be gained. The Self chooses him (his body) as his own.

4. Nor is that Self to be gained by one who is destitute of strength, or without earnestness, or without right meditation. But if a wise man strives after it by those means (by strength, earnestness, and right meditation), then his Self enters the home of Brahman.

5. When they have reached him (the Self), the sages become satisfied through knowledge, they are conscious of their Self, their passions have passed

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away, and they are tranquil. The wise, having reached Him who is omnipresent everywhere, devoted to the Self, enter into him wholly.

6. Having well ascertained the object of the knowledge of the Vedânta 1, and having purified their nature by the Yoga 2 of renunciation, all anchorites, enjoying the highest immortality, become free at the time of the great end (death) in the worlds of Brahmâ.

7. Their fifteen parts 3 enter into their elements, their Devas (the senses) into their (corresponding) Devas 4. Their deeds and their Self with all his knowledge become all one in the highest Imperishable.

8. As the flowing rivers disappear in the sea 5, losing their name and their form, thus a wise man, freed from name and form, goes to the divine Person, who is greater than the great 6.

9. He who knows that highest Brahman, becomes even Brahman. In his race no one is born ignorant of Brahman. He overcomes grief, he overcomes evil; free from the fetters of the heart, he becomes immortal.

10. And this is declared by the following Rik-verse: 'Let a man tell this science of Brahman to those only who have performed all (necessary) acts, who are versed in the Vedas, and firmly established in (the lower) Brahman, who themselves offer as

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an oblation the one Rishi (Agni), full of faith, and by whom the rite of (carrying fire on) the head has been performed, according to the rule (of the Âtharvanas).'

11. The Rishi A?giras formerly told this true (science 1); a man who has not performed the (proper) rites, does not read it. Adoration to the highest Rishis! Adoration to the highest Rishis!

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Footnotes

40:2 See verse 4.

40:3 The commentator refers purusha to the knower of the Self.

40:4 Kath. Up. II, 23.

41:1 Cf. Taitt. Âr. X, 12, 3; Svet. Up. VI, 22; Kaiv. Up. 3; see Weber, Ind. Stud. I, p. 288.

41:2 By the Yoga system, which, through restraint (yoga), leads a man to true knowledge.

41:3 Cf. Prasna Up. VI, 4.

41:4 The eye into the sun, &c.

41:5 Cf. Prasna Up. VI, 5.

41:6 Greater than the conditioned Brahman. Comm.

42:1 To Saunaka, cf. I, 1, 3

Vol. XV THE UPANISHADS - PART II - 3RD MUNDAKA-KHANDAS

(SEBO1)Translated by F. Max Müller - 1879
God's Living Bible - The Third Testament - Research Library - The Upanishads
This text is in the public domain because it was published prior to 1923