Mundaka Upanishad – 6

Sakshi and Ahamkara 

Third Mundaka opens with a Mantra that contains a beautiful simile which is a classic example of Vedic seers employing a poetic picture to portray a philosophic truth. 

Dvau suparna, sayuja  sakhaaya, samanam vriksham parishasvajate I

Tayor-anyah pippalam svadu atti anashnan anyah abhichaakasheeti.II

There are two birds, bound to each other in close friendship perched on the very same tree.  One of them eats the fruits (of the tree) with great relish; the other looks on without eating (as a spectator). (5 – 1)

The Mantra speaks of two similar looking birds seated in the tree, of which one is tasting the fruits of the tree with relish while the other just watches without tasting any fruit.  Here the tree stands for the body, fruits for  Karma phala, the two birds for the Sakshi and Ahamkara. 

Mind is insentient by itself having evolved out of the satva guna of  the collective pancha bhuthas. Consciousness lends sentiency to mind through its reflection in the mind, chithabasa. The sentient mind in turn lends sentiency to the sense organs and body and makes them sentient.  Mind stands here for Anthakarana which is made up of thoughts.  These thoughts called vrittis are classified as four faculties, based on their function.  They are mind, intellect, chitham and ahamkara.  Mind is the emotional, doubting faculty, intellect the rational discriminating faculty, chitham, the memory faculty and ahamkara  self reference faculty or ego.  How it functions can be illustrated by one example.  Suppose you have parked the car in the parking-lot and gone for shopping in a multi storied super market.  Suddenly you get a doubt whether car has been locked properly.  This doubting vritti arises in the mind.  Then you have a thought ‘yes, I have locked it correctly’.  This vritti arises in the intellect.  If this prevails you go on shopping.  If the doubt prevails then you go back to the parking lot. When you go back to the parking lot another vritti arises giving you the bay and the location where the car is parked.  This is from the chiththam.  In all the three stages ‘I’ vritti is constantly there, as kartha and bhoktha.  This ‘I’ vritti is ahamkara. 

To distinguish the consciousness and its reflection in Anthakarana, we call the Consciousness as sakshi chaithanyam, sakshi in short, as it is neither the kartha nor the bhoktha and the reflection in Anthakarana as ahamkara chaithanyam, ahamkara in short. This ahamkara is the one which is called jivatma ordinarily, though the term is used to refer to sakshi in lakshyartha.  Now we will come to the Mantra.  The two birds are sakshi and ahamkara and it is the ahamkara that experiences the karma phala, some pleasant and some unpleasant and reacts accordingly while Sakshi just looks on, as it is a mere witness to the events.

This simile is carried on in the next Mantra where it is stated that ahamkara sunk in ignorance and deluded, grieves its ignorance.  But it sees the sakshi and moves near it, and as it moves nearer slowly its dejection wears off.  When ahamkara moves still closer and discovers its identity, it disappears to become one with the sakshi for this is only a shadow.  This is the stage when ahamkara identifies itself with the sakshi, that is the ego ‘I’ with true ‘I’ which is Consciousness.  Then the attitude changes from ‘I am ahamkara backed up by sakshi’ to ‘I am sakshi acting through ahamkara’.  The former attitude is samsara and the latter attitude is liberation or Moksha.  This change of attitude from participation to witness is spoken of as achieving supreme equanimity, the state of Jnani, in Mantra 3.

In Mantra 5, four sadhanas for attaining Self-knowledge, Athma Jnanam, is set out.

Satyena tapasa labhyah hi eshah athma,samyak jnanena brahma-charyena nityam I

Antah sarere jyotirmayah hi subhrah,yam pashyanti yatayah ksheena doshah.II

This Athma, resplendent and pure, whom the sinless seekers behold residing within the body, is attained by unceasing practice of truthfulness, austerity, right knowledge, and continence.     (5 – 5)

Self-knowledge is shifting the field of knowledge, from lower Self, ahamkara, to the higher Self, sakshi.  It involves disowning ahamkara as true Self and owning up sakshi as one’s true Self.  Four sadhanas are given in the first line of the Mantra for attaining Self-knowledge. 

1. Satyam - To realize your true self, which is absolute truth, one should adopt truth as one’s way of life.  There should be avoidance of verbal untruth at all times in one’s life and wherever speaking truth will hurt someone, to adopt silence

2. Tapas - Concentration of mind and sense organs and focusing all efforts in the direction of achieving the goal of self knowledge.

3.  Samyak Jnanam - Enquiry with the help of sastras and guru’s guidance to achieve a clear firm knowledge of the True Self

        4.  Brahmacharyam - Sexual purity and chastity.  

One need not take to sanyasa and lead a life of celibacy.  In Sanathana Dharma, married life is called grihasthashram.  So even as a householder when one leads an ashram way of life, with moderation in all pleasure pursuits within the ambit of marriage not swerving from dharma, and ridding his mind of raga and dwesha, he too qualifies.  Sri Krishna echoes this idea when he says in the first line of Gita (5-3); “Jneyah sa nitya sanyasi yo na dweshti na kaangkshati (He who neither hates nor desires should be known as a constant Sanyasi)”.  The word Nithyam has to be added to the above four sadhanas, with the result the sadhanas now read as: Nithyam satyam,   Nithyam  tapas,   Nithyam  samyak jnanam,  Nithyam brahmacharyam.  In keeping with this the word Yatayaha in line 4 should be interpreted as seekers and not as ascetics.  Such seekers with the mind freed of impurities like raga and dwesha discover the True Self as the pure, resplendent Consciousness in the inner cavity of their heart.

The sadhana of Sathyam is glorified in the next Mantra 6 with the famous words “Satyam eva jayate (Truth alone triumphs)---“.   Brahma Lakshanam is given in Mantra 7.

Brihat cha tad divyam achintya roopam, sookshmaat cha tat sookshmataram vibhaati I

Dooraat sudoore tad iha antike cha, pashyatsu iha eva nihitam guhaayaam.II

That Brahman shines forth, vast, self-luminous, inconceivable, and subtler than the subtlest. He is farther than the farthest, yet He is right here very near at hand. Indeed, He is seen here, dwelling in the “Cave of the Heart” by enlightened beings.    (5-7)

Brihat means big.  When it is used as an adjective, the noun it qualifies also determines how big the bigness is.  For bigness of a big ant and bigness of a big elephant are not the same.  When this word is used as a noun it can mean just big, that is bigger than the biggest you can imagine.  This idea is also given in Purusha suktham where it is said Purusha pervades the whole universe and extends beyond it.  But the same Brahman is subtler than the subtlest.  The subtlest bhutha is space.  Brahman is subtler than space.  Bigger than the biggest yet subtler than the subtlest.  That makes it “achintya roopam”, beyond conception.  When it says it is farther than the farthest it means it is far removed from all things known to those, who in their ignorance conceive of it with a location like heaven, kailasa or vaikunta.  But it is here within one’s own self, in the sacred space within one’s heart, for the realized people.  What type of people are these realized people and through what process they realize it is explained In Mantra 8.

Na chakshushaa grihyate, na api vaachaa, na anyaih devaih, tapasaa karmana vaaI

Jnaana prasaadena, vishuddha sattvah, tatah tu,tam pashyate nishkalam dhyayamaanah.II

Brahman is not perceivable by the eyes, nor describable through words, nor grasped by the other senses, nor (obtained) by penance or good works. A seeker becomes pure through serenity of intellect; thereupon, in meditation, he realizes Him who is without parts.    (5-8)

They are the people who have a pure mind free of raga and dwesha and an intellect that is sensitive and refined.  They realize Brahman as without parts in Vedantic meditation.  Vedantic meditation is also called nitidyasanam wherein one meditates on Mahavakhyas like ‘Prajnanam Brahma’.  Such a realized person is called a Jnani.  As Jnani’s mind is pure and intellect subtle, he serves almost as unblocked pipe line for Iswara’s grace, to all those who serve him devotedly.  If they have dharmic material desires that will be fulfilled with Jnani’s blessings.  More on Jnani, we shall see in the next blog

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