A Brief overview of

Mundaka
Mundaka Upanishad
Revealing the entire spectrum of knowledge - the Para & Apara Vidya

Almost every Indian must aware of the famous mantra written below the national
emblem, Satyameva Jayate, meaning Truth alone wins. But very few are aware that this
famous line is from an Upanishad of the Atharva Veda - the Mundaka Upanishad. An
unequivocal commitment to the truth. That is what Upanishads are all about.

The Upanishad begins with a very famous prayer done simultaneously by the teacher
& the taught that 'Bless us O Gods ! That we may always hear good things, see selfless
loving acts, with healthy body live our full lives serving the magnanimous objectives of
Gods.' The whole Upanishad is a beautiful philosophical dialogue between Angiras Rishi and
a student called Shaunak. Shaunak puts forward a question pertaining to quenching the
inquisitiveness of man. The thirst for knowledge appears to be unquenchable. The more you
know the more you realize how less you know. So the student very humbly asks 'O teacher
! What is it knowing which everything becomes known'. Thus starts a great discourse called
Mundaka Upanishad. This Upanishad has in all three sections called mundakas, and each
mundaka has two sub-sections each. In all there are 64 mantras in the whole Upanishad.
As usual there is a great commentary on the Upanishad by the one & only Bhagwan Sri Adi
Sankaracharya.

In the beginning we have the brief description of the lineage of the teacher, the
approaching of the student to the teacher, his question, and a brief answer of the teacher.
In this brief answer we have classification of the entire gamut of knowledge into two
categories : the Apara & the Para, the objective & the subjective knowledge, or the
knowledge of the changing things and the changeless eternal reality. The teacher reveals
that it is by the pursuit of Para Vidya that the quenching of the inquisitiveness of man is
ultimately possible. The realm of time & space has come about from the transcendental
eternal truth, so one should pursue the para vidya also after apara vidya. It is noteworthy
that the teacher also indicates that the role & importance of objective knowledges. Later
the Upanishad also reveals the role & limitation of actions as such, the great importance of
going to the teacher for realizing the eternal truth, the secret of the creation, nature of the
ultimate truth, and various important values for making our mind ready for the final
awakening. Of this truthfulness has the highest place.