The Mundaka Upanishad is among the Mukhya Upanishadas associated with the Atharva Veda. The Mundaka Upanishad has three chapters and each chapter is divided into subchapters called `Khanda`. The Mundaka Upanishad has sixty-four Mantras in total. The knowledge of Mundaka Upanishad is divided into two categories. The knowledge of Self Realization is called Para Vidya or Divine Knowledge. The knowledge other than Para Vidya is called Apara Vidya or Knowledge of Material World. The Mundaka Upanishad states about the greatness of Para Vidya. Chapter Two gives an elaboration about the science of Brahman.
1st Khanda of Chapter Two of Mundaka Upanishad states that all souls are produced from the indestructible Brahman, and they also return to him, just like a blazing fire is produced from the woods. The Brahman is luminous without form, a spirit, he is without and within, without origin, without life, without mind, he is pure and greater than the great indestructible one. The Brahman is the producer of life, mind, and all the organs, ether, air, light, the water and the earth, the support of all. He is the one whose head is the fire, whose eyes are the moon and the sun, whose ears the quarters, from whom the Vedas have evolved, whose vital air the mind, whose heart the universe, from whose feet the earth sprang forth, is the inner soul of all beings. From him the fire is produced whose fuel is the sun; from the moon Parjanya, from him the annual herbs grow on the earth and are nourished. The Brahman is the producer of the mantras of the Rig Veda, Sama Veda and the Yajur Veda, the initiatory rites, the burnt offerings, all the sacrifices, the donations, the year and also the sacrifice, and the worlds in which the sun and moon purify. From him also were produced the gods, the sadhyas, men, quadrupeds, birds, the vital airs that go forward and descend, rice and barley, devotion, faith, truth, the duties of a Brahma-student and observance. The seven senses have evolved from Him, the seven flames, the seven kinds of fuel, the seven sacrifices, the seven places in which the vital airs move that rest within heart sleep all have been produced from the Supreme Brahman. All the seas and mountains, annual herbs, the juice by which, together with the elements, the inner body is upheld come from Him. Whoever knows this supreme, immortal Brahman as dwelling in the heart acquires knowledge and gets rid from the cycle of birth and death.
