Continuing his explanation, Angirasa describes how like the
sparks emanating from blazing fire various beings emerge from the imperishable
and finally merge into it. The Imperishable is formless, omnipresent, within
and without, unborn, pure and transcends
life. He is the source of life, mind and all the senses, space, air light,
water and the earth. Fire is the head of the Imperishable, sun and the moon his
eyes, the directions his ears, the Vedas his voice. While the wind is his
breath, the universe is his heart! Fire comes through the sun, rain from the
moon, and herbs from the earth and progeny through women. In other words, the
Purusha begets everything in the universe. Not only these but the Vedas, sacrifices, ceremonies, the
year and the sacrifice have their origin in the Imperishable.
It is
not surprising to say that gods, demigods, men, cattle, and birds the pranas,
paddy and other grains, penance, faith, truth, chastity and law arise out of
Him! Angiras continues and remarks that all the organs of sense, the seven flames
of fire, seven oblations and seven worlds are centered in the heart of the
imperishable Aii seas, mountains, flowing rivers of every kind, the herbs and
their juices that sustain the inner soul come from Him! In short the Purusha alone
is the embodiment of the universe. All the things mentioned above specify the
Brahman the highest and the immortal!One who realizes that hidden in the heart,
is released from ignorance! Thus this section of Mundakopanishad describes
the nature of Brahman, the self, the relation between the empirical world and
the Brahman and the path to know the Brahman.
Angirasa introduces the metaphor of the bow and arrow in describing the
path of reaching the Brahman. He says, “
Taking the Upanishad as your bow, as your great weapon, fix on it the arrow
sharpened by devotion, and then, drawing
it with a mind concentrated on THAT, hit the target of the eternal.” He
explains further; AUM is the bow; one’s own self is the arrow; Brahman is the
aim. An undistracted man alone should hit it! Like the arrow he should become
one with it. Self is a combination of heaven, earth and sky together with the
mind and the senses. This Self is the bridge to immortality. Meditating on AUM
as the Self you can cross the sea of ignorance!
When the Brahman is realized “all fetters are
broken, all doubts are dissolved, and
one’s works melt away.” Brahman resides
in the innermost sheath of golden color unstained and formless! Sage Angiras
sums up the explanation of the Brahman excellently with these pregnant
words: “The sun does not shine there,
nor the moon and the stars, nor these lightnings, much less this fire. When He
shines everything shines after Him. By His light all this is lighted.” ( Continued)
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