Excerpt from Mundaka Upanishad
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Photo: Hindu Sadhu feathered in Life magazine.
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This is the truth: the sparks, though of one nature
with the fire, leap from it; uncounted beings leap from
the Everlasting, but these, my son, merge into It again.
The Everlasting is shapeless, birthless, breathless,
mindless, above everything, outside everything, inside
everything.
From Him are born life, mind, sense, air, wind,
water, earth that supports all.
He is the inmost Self of all. Fire, His head; sun and
moon, His eyes; the four quarters, His ears; revelation,
His voice; wind, His breath; world, His heart; earth,
His feet.
Fire is from Him, its fuel sun, moon from sun, rain
from moon, food from rain, man from food, seed from
man; thus all descends from God.
From Him are hymns, holy chants, ritual, initiation,
sacrifice, ceremonial, oblation, time, deeds, everything
under sun and moon;
From Him, gods, angels, men, cattle, birds, living
fires, rice, barley, austerity, faith, truth, continence,
law;
From Him seven senses like ritual fires, seven desires
like flames, seven objects like oblations, seven
pleasures like sacrifices, seven nerves like habitations,
seven centres in the heart like hollows in the cavern.
From Him, seas, rivers, mountains, herbs and their
properties: in the middle of the elements the inmost
Self.
My son! There is nothing in this world, that is not
God, He is action, purity; everlasting Spirit, Find Him
in the cavern; know the knot of ignorance.
(Mundaka Upanishad)
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Source Quote and Recommended Reading:
'The Ten Principal Upanishads'
By Shree Purohit Swami (Author), W. B. Yeats (Contributor)
Purchase Book:
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Description:
The Upanishads are the most sacred texts of the Hindu religion, considered to contain the ultimate truth and the knowledge that leads to spiritual emancipation. They are the finest examples of Indian metaphysical and speculative thought. Out of the traditional 109 Upanishads, ten of them are considered to be the principal ones: Isha, Kena and Katha, Prashan, Mundaka, Mandukya, Tattiriya, Aitareya, Chhandogya and Brihadaranyaka. The Ten Principal Upanishads is an introduction of the primary Upanishads to the uninitiated.
Purohit Swami, fluent in both Sanskrit and English, was instrumental in popularising the wisdom of Indian spirituality and philosophy through his translations of ancient Indian texts. His other books include The Geeta: the Gospel of the Lord Shri Krishna, The Song of Silence, Aphorisms of Yoga, In Quest of Myself, Harbinger of Love, Honeycomb and Gunjarao. This book has been co-translated by the Nobel Prize winning, Irish poet and dramatist, William Butler Yeats (1865-1939).
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