At the center, the divided stands united || On Mundaka Upanishad (2021)

अरा इव रथनाभौ संहता यत्र नाड्यः स एषोऽन्तश्चरते बहुधा जायमानः । ओमित्येवं ध्यायथ आत्मानं स्वस्ति वः पाराय तमसः परस्तात् ॥

arā iva rathanābhau saṃhatā yatra nāḍyaḥ sa eṣo’ntaścarate bahudhā jāyamānaḥ omityevaṃ dhyāyatha ātmānaṃ svasti vaḥ pārāya tamasaḥ parastāt

Where the nerves are brought close together like the spokes in the nave of a chariot wheel, this is He that moves within, there is He manifoldly born. Meditate on the Self as AUM and happy be your passage to the other shore beyond the darkness.

~ Verse 2.2.6

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Acharya Prashant: “Where the nerves are brought close together like the spokes in the nave of a chariot wheel, this is He that moves within.”

The nerves, the nāḍis are being referred to. So, what do these nerves indicate here? They indicate the separation that is present in the bodily, embodied person. The nerves that are being talked of here are not really the nerves that modern science, modern medicine refers to and deals with; these are invisible nāḍi that have been talked of classically in India. But what is it that they are pointing to in an Upanishadic context?

Just as nerves rush to your brain from all your limbs, from all your organs to carry…