kathopanishad-2-3-17-aṅguṣṭhamātraḥ

Commentary by Swami Krishnananda of the great Divine Life Society

Aṅgusṭhamātraḥ puruṣo’ntarātmā sadā janānām hṛdaye sanniviṣṭaḥ, taṁ svāc charīrāt pravṛhen muñjād iveṣīkāṁ dhairyeṇa, taṁ vidyāc chukram amṛtaṁ taṁ vidyāc chukram amṛtaṁ iti (2.3.17): The Atman is lodged in the heart as a pith is inside munja grass. In a particular grass called munja, a sacred grass which brahmacharins tie during the upanayana ceremony, there is a special kind of pith. People who observe long fasts sometimes consume the pith of this grass, which stops appetite and hunger. Generally, when we fast we will have hunger, appetite. That temptation to eat something will cease if we take the pith of this munja grass. This Atman, which appears to be like a thumb-like flame in the heart of everyone always, in every person at all times, this Atman within has to be separated from the shackles of the gross, subtle and causal bodies as the pith inside the munja grass is separated by taking out the stock. That Being will immediately shine, as a captive is liberated from prison, and it will assume its universal power at once. Here the purity of the Atman is actually the universality of the Atman. Impurity is localisedness and finitude.

Taṁ vidyāc chukram amṛtaṁ taṁ vidyāc chukram amṛtaṁ: The repetition of a word in the Upanishad is always indicative of the closing of the Upanishad. This is the great knowledge that the Lord Yama imparted to Nachiketas.