The name of the unending love affair || On Mundaka Upanishad (2021)

सत्येन लभ्यस्तपसा ह्येष आत्मा सम्यग्ज्ञानेन ब्रह्मचर्येण नित्यम् । अन्तःशरीरे ज्योतिर्मयो हि शुभ्रो यं पश्यन्ति यतयः क्षीणदोषाः ॥

satyena labhyastapasā hyeṣa ātmā samyagjñānena brahmacaryeṇa nityam antaḥśarīre jyotirmayo hi śubhro yaṃ paśyanti yatayaḥ kṣīṇadoṣāḥ

The Self can always be won by truth, by self-discipline, by integral knowledge, by a life of purity; this Self that is in the inner body, radiant, made all of light, whom by the perishing of their blemishes the doers of askesis behold.

~ Verse 3.1.5, Mundaka Upanishad

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Acharya Prashant (AP): Verse five.

“The Self can always be won by truth, by self-discipline, by integral knowledge, by a life of purity; this Self that is in the inner body, radiant, made all of light, whom by the perishing of their blemishes the doers of askesis behold.”

The Self, the Truth, Ātman , is to be attained by devotion to the Truth; by self-discipline, ātmā sayam ; by integral knowledge, by total knowledge, saṃpūrṇa jñāna ; by a life of purity, brahmacarya .

“This Self that is in the inner body” — this Self that is at the heart of existence — “radiant, made all of light, whom by the perishing of their blemishes…