Only the Self chooses the Self || On Mundaka Upanishad (2021)

नायमात्मा प्रवचनेन लभ्यो न मेधया न बहुना श्रुतेन । यमेवैष वृणुते तेन लभ्यस्तस्यैष आत्मा विवृणुते तनूं स्वाम् ॥

nāyamātmā pravacanena labhyo na medhayā na bahunā śrutena yamevaiṣa vṛṇute tena labhyastasyaiṣa ātmā vivṛṇute tanūṃ svām

This Self is not won by exegesis, nor by brainpower, nor by much learning of Scripture. Only by him whom It chooses can It be won; to him this Self unveils its own body.

~ Verse 3.2.3

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Acharya Prashant (AP): “This Self is not won by exegesis, nor by brainpower, nor by much learning of Scripture. Only by him whom It chooses can It be won; to him this Self unveils itself.”

Nāyamātmā pravacanena labhyo na medhayā na bahunā śrutena . A very famous and a very meaningful verse from Vedanta. In the same vein comes the next verse, and together these two verses will discount much that is usually thought to lead to the great Self, to liberation.

The seer is saying your intellect won’t suffice; understanding the scriptures in an intellectual way, commenting on them or reading commentaries, gaining a lot of knowledge by way of hearing — which was the mode those days — none of these is going to suffice when it comes to Self-realization. You will not get it using any of…