Mul}~aka Upani~ad

THE MuQ

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CHAPTER 1

BRAHMA arose as the first among gods, as the creator of all, as the guardian of the world.

To Atharvan, his firstborn son, he disclosed the knowledge of brahman, of all know ledge the root.

2 The knowledge of brahman, which Brahma taught him-both the higher and the lower-

Atharvan of old disclosed to Ailgir, Ailgir, to Bharadvaja Satyavaha, Bharadvaja, to Ailgiras.

3 Saunaka, a wealthy householder, once went up to Ailgiras in the prescribed manner and asked: 'What is it, my lord, by knowing which a man comes to know this whole world?' 4 This is what Ailgiras told him.

Two types of know ledge a man should learn-those who know brahman tell us-the higher and the lower. 5 The lower of the two consists of the ~gveda, the Yajurveda, the Samaveda, the Atharvaveda, phonetics, the ritual science, grammar, etymology, metrics, and astronomy; whereas the higher is that by which one grasps the imperishable.

6 What cannot be seen, what cannot be grasped, without colour, without sight or hearing, without hands or feet;

What is eternal and all-pervading, extremely minute, present everywhere-

That is the immutable, which the wise fully perceive.

7 As a spider spins out threads, then draws them into itself; As plants sprout out from the earth; As head and body hair grows from a living man;

So from the imperishable all things here spring.

[Ritualists argue:] s Through heat brahman is built up;

thereby food is produced.

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From food comes breath mind, truth, and worlds, and immortality in rites.

9 He is omniscient, he knows all knowledge is his austerity. '

From him is born this brahman, as also name, appearance, and food.

Here is the truth:

The rites that the wise poets saw in the vedic formulas, stretched in many ways across the three Vedas-

- Perform them always, you who long for the truth;

That's your path to the world of those who correctly perform the rites.

2 When the flame flickers after the fire is lit let him then make his offerings, ' between the two pourings of ghee.

3 A man's daily fire sacrifice that remains without the new-moon, the full-moon,

and the four-month sacrifice an~ without offerings to guests;

That ts performed without an offering to all the gods or without following the rules; '

Will rob him of his worlds, up to the very seventh. 4 The Black, the Terrible, the Swift-as-the-mind

The Blood-red, the Smoke-coloured, the Sparkling And the glittering Goddess- ' These are the seven flickering tongues of flame.

5 When a man moves within these as they are shining bright, ' receiving oblations offered at the proper time;

Then, as sunbeams, these carry him to where the king of gods resides, the only place to reside.

6 'Come! Come!' say the oblations shining bright, As they carry their offerer on the sun's rays of light,

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1.2.6 Upani:jads

They praise him, telling him flattering things: 'This is yours, this brahman's world, Built by good deeds and rites well done.'

[The Author replies:]

7 Surely, they are floating unanchored, these eighteen forms of the sacrifice, the rites within which are called inferior.

The fools who hail that as the best, return once more to old age and death.

s Wallowing in ignorance, but calling themselves wise, thinking they are learned, the fools go around,

hurting themselves badly, like a group of blind men, led by a man who is himself blind.

9 Wallowing in ignorance time and again, the fools imagine, 'We have reached our aim!'

Because of their passion, they do not understand, these people who are given to rites.

Therefore, they fall, wretched and forlorn, when their heavenly stay comes to a close.

10 Deeming sacrifices and gifts as the best, the imbeciles know nothing better.

When they have enjoyed their good work, atop the firmament,

They return again to this abject world.

11 But those in the wilderness, calm and wise, who live a life of penance and faith,

as they beg their food; Through the sun's door they go, spotless,

to where that immortal Person is, that immutable self.

12 When-he perceives the worlds as built with rites, A Brahmin should acquire a sense of disgust-

'What's made can't make what is unmade!'

To understand it he must go, firewood in hand, to a teacher well versed in the Vedas,

and focused on brahman.

t 3 To that student of tranquil mind and calm disposition, who had come to him in the right manner,

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2.1.6

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Upani:jads

Worlds where the sun and the moon shine-from him do they spring.

7 Gods, celestial beings, humans, beasts, and birds: from him in diverse ways they spring;

In-breath and out-breath, barley and rice, penance, faith, and truth, the chaste life and the rules of rites:

from him do they spring.

s The seven breaths, the seven flames, the seven oblations, the seven pieces of wood:

from him do they spring. These seven worlds in which the breaths move as they lay hidden, seven by seven, within the cave:

from him do they spring.

9 From him spring all oceans and hills; From him flow rivers of all types; From him spring all plants and the sap by which

he abides in things as their inmost self.

10 All this is simply that Person-rites, penance, prayer (brahman), the highest immortal.

One who knows this, my friend, hidden within the cave, cuts the knot of ignorance in this world.

Though manifest, it is lodged in the cave, this vast abode named 'Aged'.

In it are placed this whole world; In it are based what moves or breathes-

what moves or breathes, what blinks the eye, what's most desirable, beyond perception, what people desire most.

2 What is smaller than the smallest and intensely bright, in which rest these worlds and those who live therein-

It is the imperishable brahman; It is breath, it is the immortal. It is what we must strike, my friend.

Strike it!

3 Take, my friend, this bow, this great weapon of upani~ad;

Place veneration on it as the whetted arrow;

Stretch it with the thought fixed on the nature Of that;

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2.2.10

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Upani~ads

There lightning does not shine, of the common fire need we speak!

Him alone, as he shines, do all things reflect; this whole world radiates with his light.

11 Brahman alone here extends to the east; brahman, to the west; it alone, to the south, to the north, it alone extends above and below;

It is brahman alone that extends over this whole universe, up to its widest extent.

CHAPTER 3

Two birds, companions and friends, nestle on the very same tree.

One of them eats a tasty fig; the other, not eating, looks on.

2 Stuck on the very same tree, one person grieves, deluded by her who is not the Lord;

But when he sees the other, the contented Lord-and his majesty-his grief disappears.

3 When the seer sees that Person, the golden-coloured, the creator, the Lord, as the womb of brahman;

Then, shaking off the good and the bad, the wise man becomes spotless, and attains the highest identity.

4 It is breath that is visible in all beings-Be a man who perceives, who knows this,

and thereby a man who out-talks; a man who dallies with the self, who finds pleasure in the self, and thus an active man.

He is brahman! and of those who know brahman,

He is the best!

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3.2.3 Upani:fads

3 This self cannot be grasped, by teachings or by intelligence, or even by great learning.

Only the man he chooses can grasp him, whose body this self chooses as his own.

4 This self cannot be grasped, by a weak man or through carelessness, or even by austerity without the marks.

But when a wise man strives by these means, this self enters his brahman-abode.

5 The seers, sated with knowledge, when they have attained him, become free from passion and tranquil, and their selves are made perfect.

The wise, their selves controlled, when they attain him altogether, he who is present in All, they enter into that very All.

6 The ascetics who have firmly determined their goal through a full knowledge of the Vedanta, have their being purified by the discipline of renunciation.

In the worlds of brahman, at the time of the final end, having become fully immortal, they will all be fully liberated.

7 The fifteen parts have retired to their foundations; And all the senses, to the respective divinities; Works and the self consisting of knowledge-

all unite in the highest immutable.

s As the rivers flow on and enter into the ocean giving up their names and appearances;

So the knower, freed from name and appearance, reaches the heavenly Person, beyond the very highest.

9 When a man comes to know that highest brahman, he himself becomes that very brahman. A man without the knowledge of brahman will not be born in his family. He passes beyond sorrow, he passes beyond evil. Freed from the knots of his heart, he will become immortal. IOThis point has been made in the ~gvedic verse:

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