The Mundaka Upanishad (Sanskrit: मुण्डक-उपनिषद्, Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad) is an ancient Sanskrit Vedic text, embedded inside Atharva Veda
It is a Mukhya (primary) Upanishad, and is listed as number 5 in the Muktika canon of 108 Upanishads of Hinduism
It is among the most widely translated Upanishads
It is a poetic verse style Upanishad, with 64 verses, written in the form of mantras
However, these mantras are not used in rituals, rather they are used for teaching and meditation on spiritual knowledge
The Mundaka Upanishad contains three Mundakams (parts), each with two sections
The first Mundakam, states Roer, defines the science of “Higher Knowledge” and “Lower Knowledge”, and then asserts that acts of oblations and pious gifts are foolish, and do nothing to reduce unhappiness in current life or next, rather it is knowledge that frees
The second Mundakam describes the nature of the Brahman, the Self, the relation between the empirical world and the Brahman, and the path to know Brahman
The third Mundakam expands the ideas in the second Mundakam and then asserts that the state of knowing Brahman is one of freedom, fearlessness, complete liberation, self-sufficiency and bliss
Some scholars suggest that passages in the Mundaka Upanishad present the pantheism theory
In some historic Indian literature and commentaries, the Mundaka Upanishad is included in the canon of several verse-structured Upanishads that are together called as Mantra Upanishad and Mantropanishad