Mundaka Upanishad with Shankara’s Commentary
by S. Sitarama Sastri | 1905 | 19,662 words
The Mundaka Upanishad is a collection of philosophical poems used to teach meditation and spiritual knowledge regarding the true nature of Brahma and the Self (Atman). It is composed of the three main parts (mundakas): 1) The first of three parts expounds the science of higher and lower knowledge. 2) The second part describes the true nature of t...
Verse 3.1.6
सत्यमेव जयते नानृतं सत्येन पन्था विततो देवयानः ।
येनाक्रमन्त्यृषयो ह्याप्तकामा यत्र तत् सत्यस्य परमं निधानम् ॥ ६ ॥satyameva jayate nānṛtaṃ satyena panthā vitato devayānaḥ |
yenākramantyṛṣayo hyāptakāmā yatra tat satyasya paramaṃ nidhānam || 6 ||6. Truth alone wins, not falsehood; by truth, the Devayanah (the path of the Devas) is widened, that by which the seers travel on, having nothing to wish for to where there is that—the highest treasure attained by truth.
Shankara’s Commentary:
Com.—Truth alone, i.e., he who speaks the truth alone, wins; not he who utters falsehood, for there can be neither victory nor defeat between abstract truth and falsehood where they do not cling to men. It is well known in the world that he who utters falsehood is defeated by him who speaks the truth; not the converse. Therefore, it is established that truth is a strong auxiliary; again, the superiority of truth as an aid is also known from the sastras; how? It is only by truth, i.e., by a determination to speak what had occurred, the road named “Devayanah” (the way of the gods) is widened; i.e., is kept up continually; by which road, seers free from deceit, delusion, fraud, pride, vanity and falsehood and having no desires, go about to where the absolute truth, the highest treasure covetable by man and attainable by the important aid, truth, exists. The expression “where the greatest, etc.,” is connected with the preceding clause “the road by which they go is widened by truth.” What that is and what its characteristics are, will be explained.