Beyond Life, Beyond Mind, Beyond the Beyond

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:

True security is death for the ego- The ego wants to hedge its bets. Because it is born in insecurity and gains its sustenance from insecurity, therefore insecurity is its very lifestuff. Now, look what happens. If insecurity is the lifestuff of the ego, then what kind of security will it seek? It becomes necessary for the ego to seek false security. True security would be life-threatening to the ego.

The truth of things- from one kindled fire thousands of different sparks arise, similarly from that one Truth called Brahman manifold becomings are born, and into that one Truth all the manifold becomings depart, unbecome. From the Immutable come all things that mutate, and all things that mutate ultimately perish into the Immutable. That is the truth of things, says the verse. That is the truth of things.