Life is Consciousness alone || Mundaka Upanishad (2021)

प्रणो ह्येष यः सर्वभूतैर्विभाति विजानन्विद्वान्भवते नातिवादी । आत्मक्रीड आत्मरतिः क्रियावानेष ब्रह्मविदां वरिष्ठः ॥

praṇo hyeṣa yaḥ sarvabhūtairvibhāti vijānanvidvānbhavate nātivādī ātmakrīḍa ātmaratiḥ kriyāvāneṣa brahmavidāṃ variṣṭhaḥ

This is the life in things that shines manifested by all these beings; a man of knowledge coming wholly to know this, draws back from creeds and too much disputings. In the Self his delight, at play in the Self, doing works; the best is he among the knowers of the Eternal.

~ Verse 3.1.4

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Acharya Prashant (AP): “This is the life in things that shines manifested by all these beings.”

The śloka (verse) says praṇa . Praṇa has been loosely translated as ‘life’ here.

“There is the life, praṇa , in things that shines manifested by all these beings; a man of knowledge coming wholly to know this, draws back from creeds and too much disputings.”

Again, the word in the śloka is vivād . It has been a bit inaccurately translated as disputings. Vivād in the spiritual context would stand for ‘loose utterances’. Vād is an utterance or a discussion; vivād is a distorted utterance or a discussion. It is not necessarily a disputing.