Know Your Limits to Go Beyond Limits

Here we are with the Mundaka Upanishad of Atharva Veda. The name is interesting: Mundaka Upanishad. It is surmised that ‘muṇdaka’ comes from ‘muṇda’, and ‘muṇda’ points towards the shaven head of the Brahmins who would practice austerity, the disciples of old carrying bald heads. We have seen those images. So, that is called a muṇda. From there comes the name Mundaka.

This Upanishad throws light on the path of knowledge. We call the Upanishads as belonging to the path of knowledge, Jñānamārga, and then we say the Bhaktimārga is the mārga of love, the path of devotion is synonymous with love. One should refuse to buy that distinction. The Upanishads are overflowing with love. If love is real, it can’t be sans discrimination or knowledge. And if you really have knowledge, you would be a very loving person. It’s just that your love would not be of the type you see all around.

After reading Mundaka Upanishad one can say poets are at work here. In fact, the Upanishads several times call the Rishis as kavis, poets. Not without reason: they are bringing to words that which is very abstract, and that is what a poet does; they are giving a face to that which is very conceptual, that is what a painter does. And then, when you give it a face, obviously you also give it a name, and that becomes the name of a god. So, those gods don’t really exist. They are names of something virtuous within.

In this course we will explore following topics in-depth:
Know your limits to go beyond limits : The sage tells the seeker 'vast is that'. What does vastness imply here? This is not the vastness that the mind is accustomed to. The mind thinks itself to be vast, therefore it can entitle itself to think that it can contain a certain vastness. Had the mind been vast then it would contain peace, joy, stillness, depth etc.

When you take vastness as something within the mind, this is a very arrogant act. The ego is according itself the privilege of being called big. "I am so big that I can hold even the truth within myself".

Vast here simply means beyond thought, beyond you. You are not vast. 'That is vast'. Therefore, all that you contain is not him.

When you realize your limits, that's when you become available to knowing the limitless. Not that limits can know the limitless but atleast limits can know themselves.