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The Mundaka Upanishad (Sanskrit: मुण्डक-उपनिषद्, Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad) is an ancient Sanskrit Vedic text, embedded inside Atharva Veda.[1] It is a Mukhya (primary) Upanishad, and is listed as number 5 in the Muktika canon of 108 Upanishads of Hinduism. It is among the most widely translated Upanishads.

It is presented as a dialogue between great sacrificer Saunaka and sage Angiras. It is a poetic verse style Upanishad, with 64 verses, written in the form of mantras. However, these mantras are not used in rituals, rather they are used for teaching and meditation on spiritual knowledge.

The Mundaka Upanishad contains three Mundakams (parts), each with two sections.[2] The first Mundakam, states Roer,[2] defines the science of "Higher Knowledge" and "Lower Knowledge", and then asserts that acts of oblations and pious gifts are foolish, and do nothing to reduce unhappiness in current life or next, rather it is knowledge that frees. The second Mundakam describes the nature of the Brahman, the Self, the relation between the empirical world and the Brahman, and the path to know Brahman. The third Mundakam expands the ideas in the second Mundakam and then asserts that the state of knowing Brahman is one of freedom, fearlessness, complete liberation, self-sufficiency and bliss.

Some scholars[3] suggest that passages in the Mundaka Upanishad present the pantheism theory.

In some historic Indian literature and commentaries, the Mundaka Upanishad is included in the canon of several verse-structured Upanishads that are together called as Mantra Upanishad and Mantropanishad.

Etymology

Mundaka (Sanskrit: मुण्डक) literally means "shaved (as in shaved head), shorn, lopped trunk of a tree". Eduard Roer suggests that this root is unclear, and the word as title of the Upanishad possibly refers to "knowledge that shaves, or liberates, one of errors and ignorance".[5][6] The chapters of the Mundaka Upanishad are also sequentially referred to as "Mundakam" in ancient and medieval texts, for unclear etymological reasons.

Chronology

The exact chronology of Mundaka Upanishad, like other Vedic texts, is unclear.[7] All opinions rest on scanty evidence, an analysis of archaism, style and repetitions across texts, driven by assumptions about likely evolution of ideas, and on presumptions about which philosophy might have influenced which other Indian philosophies.

Phillips dates Mundaka Upanishad as a relatively later age ancient Upanishad, well after Brihadaranyaka, Chandogya, Isha, Taittiriya, Aitareya, Kena and Katha.[7] Paul Deussen considers Mundaka Upanishad to be composed in a period where poetic expression of ideas became a feature of ancient Indian literary works.

Patrick Olivelle[9] writes: "Both the Mundaka and the Mahanarayana are rather late Upanisads and are, in all probability, post-Buddhist."

Most of the teachings in the Upanishads of Hinduism, including Manduka Upanishad, however, relate to the existence of Self and Brahman, and the paths to know, realize one's Self and Brahman, making the fundamental premise of Mundaka Upanishad distinctly different than Buddhism's denial of "Self or Brahman".

Some of the ideas and allegories in Mundaka Upanishad have chronological roots in more ancient Vedic literature such as Brihadaranyaka, Chandogya and Katha Upanishads. The allegory of "blind leading the blind" in section 1.2 of Mundaka, for example, is also found in Katha Upanishad's chapter 1.2.[12] The allegory of two birds in section 3.1 of Mundaka Upanishad, similarly, is found in hymns of Rig Veda chapter I.164.

Structure

The Mundaka Upanishad has three Mundakams (parts, or shavings), each part has two khanda (खण्ड, section or volume).[6] The section 1.1 has 9 mantras structured as metered poetic verses. Section 1.2 has 13 verses, section 2.1 includes 10 verses, section 2.2 is composed of 11 verses, section 3.1 has 10, while the last section 3.2 has 11 verses. Combined, the Upanishad features 64 mantras.

Several manuscript versions of Mundaka Upanishad have been discovered so far. These show minor differences, particularly in the form additional text being inserted and interpolated, the insertion apparent because these texts do not fit structurally into the metered verses, and also because the same text is missing in manuscripts discovered elsewhere.

Content

The Mundaka Upanishad opens with declaring Brahma as the first of gods, the creator of the universe, and the knowledge of Brahman (Ultimate Reality, Eternal Principle, Cosmic Self) to be the foundation of all knowledge.[15][16] The text then lists a succession of teachers who shared the knowledge of Brahman with the next generation.[17] Charles Johnston suggests that this announces the Vedic tradition of teacher-student responsibility to transfer knowledge across the generations, in unbroken succession.[18] Johnston further states that the names recited are metaphors, such as the One who Illuminates, Keeper of Truth, Planetary Spirit, mythological messenger between Gods and Men among others, suggesting the divine nature and the responsibility of man to continue the tradition of knowledge sharing across human generations.

Courtesy – Wikipedia

- Mundaka Upanishad

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