Śruti / The twelve Upaniṣads / Muṇḍaka · 5 of 12

5. Two birds

Muṇḍaka (मुण्डक)

The Muṇḍaka (मुण्डक) belongs to the Atharvaveda. Śaunaka (शौनक), a householder, asks Aṅgiras (अङ्गिरस्) what it is that, being known, all this is known. Śaunaka here is the questioner in the dialogue. That is not a census of the śākhā. Aṅgiras divides knowledge in two. The lower is the Vedas, the auxiliary sciences, grammar, ritual, and the stars. The higher is that by which the imperishable is reached. The division is not a contempt for the Veda. It is the Veda saying that reciting the Veda is not the last thing the Veda is for.

The imperishable is not seen, not grasped, without family, without eye or ear, without hands or feet, and yet from it beings come. The famous image is the two birds on one tree. One eats. One looks on. The eating bird is the person caught in the fruit of deeds. The watching bird is the person who is near, and free. Grief thins when the eater sees the other.

From that seeing comes the verse a modern state took as a motto, and the verse is larger than the motto. Truth prevails, the path of the gods is stretched by truth, and the seers whose desires are already quiet walk to the treasury of truth. Works done without that knowledge are called unsteady. The arrow of the upaniṣad is the self, the bow is the syllable, and Brahman is the mark. The image is taught as meditation. This page does not turn it into a drill.

The breakthrough is the pair of knowledges, settled by the pair of birds. Everything a competent priest knows can still leave him the bird who eats. The higher knowledge is the turn of the head.

द्वा सुपर्णा सयुजा सखाया समानं वृक्षं परिषस्वजाते ।
तयोरन्यः पिप्पलं स्वाद्वत्त्यनश्नन्नन्यो अभिचाकशीति ॥ dvā suparṇā sayujā sakhāyā samānaṃ vṛkṣaṃ pariṣasvajāte |
tayor anyaḥ pippalaṃ svādv atty anaśnann anyo abhicākaśīti ||

Two birds, companions and friends, clasp the same tree. One of them eats the sweet berry. The other looks on, without eating. The verse is Muṇḍaka (मुण्डक) 3.1.1, and it is already Ṛgveda (ऋग्वेद) 1.164.20.

सत्यमेव जयते नानृतं सत्येन पन्था विततो देवयानः ।
येनाक्रमन्त्यृषयो ह्याप्तकामा यत्र तत् सत्यस्य परमं निधानम् ॥ satyam eva jayate nānṛtaṃ satyena panthā vitato devayānaḥ |
yenākramanty ṛṣayo hy āptakāmā yatra tat satyasya paramaṃ nidhānam ||

Truth alone prevails, not untruth. By truth the path of the gods is stretched. By it the seers, their desires already gained, stride to where that highest treasury of truth is. This is Muṇḍaka (मुण्डक) 3.1.6. The motto a republic put on its seal is the first clause. The verse does not stop there.

नेपालीमा

मुण्डक अथर्ववेदको हो। शौनकले अङ्गिरसलाई सोधे, के जान्दा सब जानिन्छ? शौनक यहाँ प्रश्नकर्ता हुन्। त्यो शाखाको गणना होइन। तल्लो विद्या वेद र अङ्ग हुन्। माथिल्लो विद्या त्यो हो, जसबाट अक्षर, अर्थात् अविनाशी, प्राप्त हुन्छ।

एउटै रूखमा दुई पक्षी बस्छन्। एकले फल खान्छ। अर्को हेर्छ। सत्यमै जय हुन्छ भन्ने पङ्क्तिको पूरा ऋचा प्रस्तुत गरिएको छ। छापको वाक्य पहिलो खण्ड मात्र हो।

Where it sits

The four feet of the self are the next sitting. Both books are Atharvan.