Mundaka Upanishad

01The Upanishad of the shaven head

The Mundaka belongs to the Atharvaveda and is read in the Shaunaka shakha. Its first mantra places it at the very start of things: Brahma, first of the devas, maker of the universe and guardian of the world, taught the knowledge of Brahman, the ground of every other knowledge, to his eldest son Atharvan. Munda means a shaven head. The last khanda says this teaching is to be given only to those who have kept the shirovrata, the vow of the head, which Shankara explains as the Atharvavedic rite of carrying fire upon the head. Its shanti mantra is bhadram karnebhih, shared with the Prashna and the Mandukya.

02Three mundakas, six khandas

The text has three mundakas of two khandas each, sixty-four mantras, almost all in verse. The first mundaka sets out the two knowledges and weighs the yajna. The second shows how the world comes from the Imperishable and how the Imperishable is to be struck, like a target, by meditation. The third gives the two birds, the vow of truth and the end of the seeker, who becomes Brahman. The closing mantra bows to the paramarishis, the great seers who handed the teaching down.

03Para and apara vidya

The teaching came down from Brahma to Atharvan, then to Angir, to Satyavaha Bharadvaja, to Angiras, who gave it to Shaunaka. There are two kinds of knowledge to be known, says Angiras. The lower is the four Vedas and the six Vedangas. The higher is that by which the Imperishable is reached. The Upanishad does not throw away the Vedas; it places them, and says the yajna is a boat that cannot carry one across alone. Then it sends the seeker, samidh in hand, to a guru who is learned in the Veda and established in Brahman.

04Frail boats of ritual

The second khanda of the first mundaka honours the yajna and then sets its limit. It names the seven flickering tongues of Agni, Kali, Karali, Manojava, Sulohita, Sudhumravarna, Sphulingini and Vishvaruchi, and says the offerings poured into them carry the yajamana on the rays of the sun to the world of Brahma. But these sacrifices, with their eighteen performers, are frail boats. Fools who hold them the highest go again to old age and death. Thinking themselves wise while living in ignorance, they wander like the blind led by the blind. The seeker who has seen this goes to a guru, samidh in hand.

05The bow, the arrow, the target

As a spider sends out its thread and draws it in, as plants grow from the earth, as hair grows on a living man, so the universe comes from the Imperishable. As sparks fly by thousands from a blazing fire, so beings come from it and return to it. The second mundaka gives the image every teacher of meditation uses: take the great bow of the Upanishad, set on it the arrow sharpened by worship; Om is the bow, the self is the arrow, Brahman is the target. Hit it with an undistracted mind, and become one with it as the arrow with its mark.

06Fire is his head

The second mundaka gives the form of the cosmic purusha. Agni is his head, the moon and sun his eyes, the quarters his ears, the revealed Vedas his speech, the wind his breath, the universe his heart, and the earth is born of his feet; he is the inner Self of all beings. From him come the Rig, Sama and Yajus, the diksha and every yajna, the devas, men, cattle and birds, the seven pranas, the oceans and mountains. When he is seen, the knot of the heart is cut, all doubts are severed and karma wears away. There the sun does not shine, nor moon nor stars; by his light all this shines.

07Two birds on one tree

The third mundaka opens with two birds, companions, on the same tree. One eats the sweet fruit; the other looks on without eating. The first, confused, grieves; when it sees the other, the Lord, and his glory, its grief goes. The same mantra stands in the Rigveda (1.164.20) and the Shvetashvatara. A few mantras on comes satyam eva jayate: truth alone wins, not untruth; by truth is laid the path of the devas. In 1950 the line was placed beneath the Lion Capital of Sarnath on the State Emblem of India.

08The knower becomes Brahman

The last khanda repeats a mantra the Katha also holds: this Self is not won by discourse, nor by intellect, nor by much hearing; it is won by the one whom it chooses. It adds that the Self is not won by the weak, nor by the careless, nor by tapas without its true mark. As flowing rivers lose name and form and disappear into the sea, the knower, freed from name and form, reaches the divine purusha beyond the highest. Then the boldest line of the Upanishad: whoever knows that supreme Brahman becomes Brahman. In his line no one is born who does not know Brahman. The text closes with a bow to the great rishis.

09One bird or two

The two birds have divided the schools. For Adi Shankaracharya the bird that eats is the jiva as it appears through the body and mind, and when it sees the other, the Lord, it knows its own true nature and its grief ends; the Upanishad's own words, the knower becomes Brahman, seal his reading. Madhvacharya reads the two as eternally distinct: the jiva sees the Lord, and in liberation it attains parama samya, the highest likeness (3.1.3), never identity. Rangaramanuja Muni, for the Vishishtadvaita school, reads the Lord as the inner Self of the jiva, one with it as soul with body. Badarayana's Brahma Sutra cites the Mundaka at 1.2.21 and 1.3.1.

What it contains

1. 1
   Mundaka 1, Khanda 1

   Nine mantras. The lineage of the teaching runs from Brahma to Atharvan, Angir, Satyavaha Bharadvaja and Angiras, and Shaunaka asks what, once known, makes all this known. Angiras names the lower knowledge of the four Vedas and six Vedangas and the higher knowledge of the Imperishable, from which the world comes as a web from a spider.

2. 2
   Mundaka 1, Khanda 2

   Thirteen mantras on the agnihotra and the yajna, the seven tongues of Agni and the worlds the offerings win. The sacrifices are called frail boats, and those who rest in them alone return to birth and death. The seeker is sent, samidh in hand, to a teacher learned in the Veda and established in Brahman.

3. 3
   Mundaka 2, Khanda 1

   Ten mantras. As sparks from a blazing fire, beings come from the Imperishable and return to it. The cosmic purusha is described limb by limb, with fire as his head and the earth born of his feet, and from him come the Vedas, the yajnas, the devas and all creatures.

4. 4
   Mundaka 2, Khanda 2

   Eleven mantras. Om is the bow, the self the arrow and Brahman the target, to be struck with an undistracted mind. When the Lord is seen the knot of the heart is cut, and the light by which sun, moon and fire shine is named as his.

5. 5
   Mundaka 3, Khanda 1

   Ten mantras. Two birds sit on one tree, one eating its fruit and grieving, the other watching. Satyameva jayate: truth alone wins, and by truth the path of the devas is laid. The Self is reached by truth, tapas, right knowledge and brahmacharya, and seen by those whose faults are spent.

6. 6
   Mundaka 3, Khanda 2

   Eleven mantras. The Self is won by the one it chooses, and not by the weak or the careless. As rivers enter the sea and lose their names, the knower enters the supreme purusha; whoever knows Brahman becomes Brahman. The teaching is to be given only to those who have kept the vow of the head.

Famous verses

कस्मिन्नु भगवो विज्ञाते सर्वमिदं विज्ञातं भवतीति॥

Revered sir, what is that which, being known, makes all this known?Mundaka Upanishad 1.1.3

द्वे विद्ये वेदितव्ये इति ह स्म यद्ब्रह्मविदो वदन्ति परा चैवापरा च॥

Two knowledges are to be known, say the knowers of Brahman: the higher and the lower.Mundaka Upanishad 1.1.4

भिद्यते हृदयग्रन्थिश्छिद्यन्ते सर्वसंशयाः। क्षीयन्ते चास्य कर्माणि तस्मिन् दृष्टे परावरे॥

When he who is both the high and the low is seen, the knot of the heart is cut, all doubts are severed and one's karmas wear away.Mundaka Upanishad 2.2.8

द्वा सुपर्णा सयुजा सखाया समानं वृक्षं परिषस्वजाते। तयोरन्यः पिप्पलं स्वाद्वत्त्यनश्नन्नन्यो अभिचाकशीति॥

Two birds, inseparable companions, cling to the same tree. One of them eats the sweet fruit; the other, not eating, looks on.Mundaka Upanishad 3.1.1

सत्यमेव जयते नानृतं सत्येन पन्था विततो देवयानः। येनाऽऽक्रमन्त्यृषयो ह्याप्तकामा यत्र तत् सत्यस्य परमं निधानम्॥

Truth alone triumphs, not untruth. By truth is spread the path of the devas, by which the rishis, their desires fulfilled, go to where the supreme treasure of truth is.Mundaka Upanishad 3.1.6