Mundaka Upanishad

(selected verses)

Shaunaka approaches Angira in the prescribed manner and asks,

What is that, having known which, all becomes known?

Angira said,

There are two kinds of knowledge, lower and higher. So say the great seers.

Lower knowledge is that of the Vedas, phonetics, rituals, grammar, etc.

Higher knowledge is that which goes beyond words and cannot be destroyed.

[Higher knowledge is] that which is not visible, not graspable, not descended from anything else, not of any quality, not with eyes nor ears, without hands and legs, eternal, full and manifesting as all expressions, all-pervading, the subtle of the subtle, imperishable, the womb of existence and creation, and beheld around all-around by the wise.

As the spider creates, projects, and withdraws,

as, from Earth, herbs and plants sprout forth,

as hairs emerge from the human,

so emerges the universe from the imperishable.

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