The marks of the right seeking and the rewards of the right seeker || On Mundaka Upanishad (2021)

नायमात्मा बलहीनेन लभ्यो न च प्रमादात्तपसो वाप्यलिङ्गात् । एतैरुपायैर्यतते यस्तु विद्वांस्तस्यैष आत्मा विशते ब्रह्मधाम ॥

nāyamātmā balahīnena labhyo na ca pramādāttapaso vāpyaliṅgāt etairupāyairyatate yastu vidvāṃstasyaiṣa ātmā viśate brahmadhāma

This Self cannot be won by any who is without strength, nor with error in the seeking, nor by an askesis without the true mark: but when a man of knowledge strives by these means his self enters into Brahman, his abiding place.

~ Verse 3.2.4

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Acharya Prashant (AP): “This Self cannot be won by any who is without strength, nor with error in the seeking, nor by an askesis without the true mark: but when a man of knowledge strives by these means his self enters into Brahman .” Beautiful.

“The Self cannot be won by any who is without strength” — now, what does that mean?

Somebody said, “Only dead fish flow with the stream.” It requires no strength to go with the flow, right? Even if you are dead, you will be traveling with the speed of the stream. It requires strength to go against the stream. It requires strength to go upstream.