Haridasara Mundigegalu – 3

• Author: Smt. Radhika. V. Upadhyaya
• Translator: Smt. Vaishnavi Bankalgi

Mundige in Veda-Puranas

prātaḥ dyūtaprasaṅgēna madhyāhnē strīprasaṅgataḥ |
rātrau cauryaprasaṅgēna kālō gacchati dhīmatām ||

The superficial meaning of this shloka would be:
“An erudite person is one who engages himself in gambling in the mornings, dallying with women in the afternoons. He spends the nights in stealing”
Superficially this shloka seems obnoxious. However, the subliminal meaning is as follows:

A learned person is the one who engages himself in:
dyūtaprasaṅgēna = Act of gambling = Understanding the Mahabharata whose principal story revolves around gambling. strīprasaṅga = Incidence of women = Understanding Ramayana which is the story of the kidnapping of a lady (Sita Maata) cauryaprasaṅgēna = Act of stealing = Understanding the dashamaskanda (Chapter 10) of Srimad Bhagavata, which is the tale of Krishna who stole milk, curds, butter and also the hearts of the Gopis.

Thus, the meaning of this enigmatic mundige is: A learned person is one who strives to understand the Mahabharata in the morning, the Ramayana in the afternoon and the dashamaskanda of Srimad Bhagavata at night.

Here’s one more such Mundige:

kēśavaṁ patitaṁ dr̥ṣṭvā pāṇḍavāḥ harṣanirbharāḥ |
rudanti kauravāḥ sarvē hāhā kēśava kēśava ||

This one is quite famous. The outward meaning would be: “Upon seeing Keshava fall, all the Pandavas became ecstatic whereas the Kauravas lamented seeing the fallen Keshava and said ‘Alas Keshava!!’”

It is obvious that, the meaning is different from what it seems at an outward glance. Seeing their most dear Krishna fall, it is not possible that the Pandavas would feel happy. It is all the more impossible to imagine that Kauravas would lament the fall of Krishna. However, the correct interpretation is as below:

The magical meaning of this shloka is obtained by splitting the Sanskrit words.

• Ke = Water
• Shavam = Dead body of an animal or insect
• Pāṇḍavāḥ = White Cranes
• Kauravāḥ = Group of crows

Upon seeing the dead body of an insect or animal fall into the water (of a lake or a similar body of water), the white cranes rejoiced as they got food. But the crows flying in the sky lamented as they could not get to eat it.

A Mundige from Ramayana:

caturthajaḥ pan̄camagaḥ dr̥ṣṭvā prathamajākr̥tim |
tr̥tīyaṁ tatra nikṣipya dvitīyamagamat punaḥ ||

Keeping the five elements of nature namely earth, water, fire, air and sky as reference, the story of Sundarkanda Ramayana is told in this shloka.

Caturthajaḥ = Born of the fourth element. Fourth element is air or Vaayu. So, one born from Vaayu is Hanumanta pan̄camagaḥ = via the fifth element, sky. Thus, Hanuman flew to Lanka across the sky dr̥ṣṭvā = Sees prathamajākr̥tim(Prathama+jā+akr̥tim) = Form of Sita, the one born from the first element, earth tr̥tīyaṁ = Third element, fire tatra = There nikṣipya = Kept punaḥ = Again dvitīyam = Travels on the second element, water; meaning traveled across the sea agamat = Returned to the place where Rama was present

To summarize, this means: Hanumanta, the son of Vaayu, which is the fourth of nature’s elements, flew via the sky route, which is the fifth element. He saw Seeta, the daughter of the earth, which is first element of nature. He put fire, the third element of nature (as Ravana sets his tail on fire and Hanumanta ends up burning Lanka), and returned to Rama by crossing the sea or water which is the second element of nature.

Vaishnavi Kulkarni Bankalgi

Software Engineer by profession and a learner of Madhwa Siddhanta by passion.

ब्रह्मान्ता गुरवः साक्षात् इष्टं दैवं श्रियःपतिः |
आचार्या श्रीमदाचार्या सन्तु मे जन्मजन्मनि ||