Discipleship

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:

Discipleship, it is a ripening. It is valuable; it cannot arbitrarily come to anybody with any kind of mind or any kind of attitude. The Upanishadic tradition is full of worldly and materially successful and accomplished people going to the sages.

True simplicity- The one that says that the man of scriptures, the spiritual man, is a simpleton. Not possible. Simplicity is a great virtue but it is not what we think it to be. There is a great difference between innocence and ignorance. The ignorant mind cannot even see Maya, and therefore remains happily blissful.

Higher and lower knowledge- The Upanishads are part of the Vedas, and the Vedas through the Upanishads are saying, “We are lower knowledge.” Look at the wisdom and look at the humility. Vedas, through the Upanishads, are saying, “You know, we are lower knowledge.” And they are not employing symbolism to put this across; here they are as forthright as possible. They are leaving no ambiguity, no possibility of misinterpretation.