Truth Alone Wins

Here we are with the Mundaka Upanishad of Atharva Veda. The name is interesting: Mundaka Upanishad. It is surmised that ‘muṇdaka’ comes from ‘muṇda’, and ‘muṇda’ points towards the shaven head of the Brahmins who would practice austerity, the disciples of old carrying bald heads. We have seen those images. So, that is called a muṇda. From there comes the name Mundaka.

This Upanishad throws light on the path of knowledge. We call the Upanishads as belonging to the path of knowledge, Jñānamārga, and then we say the Bhaktimārga is the mārga of love, the path of devotion is synonymous with love. One should refuse to buy that distinction. The Upanishads are overflowing with love. If love is real, it can’t be sans discrimination or knowledge. And if you really have knowledge, you would be a very loving person. It’s just that your love would not be of the type you see all around.

After reading Mundaka Upanishad one can say poets are at work here. In fact, the Upanishads several times call the Rishis as kavis, poets. Not without reason: they are bringing to words that which is very abstract, and that is what a poet does; they are giving a face to that which is very conceptual, that is what a painter does. And then, when you give it a face, obviously you also give it a name, and that becomes the name of a god. So, those gods don’t really exist. They are names of something virtuous within.

In this course we will explore following topics in-depth:

Truth alone wins- "Satyamev Jayate" The most famous verses of Upanishads in the contemporary world. Truth alone wins and not falsehood. There is double emphasis. How is it that sages are emphatically with double emphasis announcing here that nothing but the truth is going to win and not falsehood? How?

Truth is one of the two choices in front of the ego. Even if there are forty choices, it all boils down to two. And most of the time ego decides in the favor of the false. Why?

In the victory of falseness is a greater victory of truth. Because now false has surrendered so deeply in front of the truth that it says, I have no value, no currency of my own. So sir, I will wear your(truth's) face, I will borrow your(truth's) name, I will steal your(truth's) identity and then I will say, I am the truth, truer than the truth".