Mundaka 2.1.3 Trans & Comms

etasmājjāyate prāṇaḥ manaḥ sarvendriyāṇi ca. khaṁ vāyurjyotirāpaḥ pṛthivī viśvasya dhāriṇī. (2.1.3) 

etasmāt – from this (Brahman); jāyate – are born; prāṇaḥ – the prāṇa; manaḥ – mind; sarvendriyāṇi – all senses and organs of action; kham – space; vāyuḥ – air; jyotiḥ – fire; āpaḥ – water; ca – and; pṛthivī – the earth; viśvasya – of the entire world of life; dhāriṇī – that which is the sustainer

From this Brahman are born prāṇa, the mind, all senses and organs of action, space, air, fire, water and the earth that sustains the entire world of life.

There is a particular order here in the enumeration of the five elements. If one analyses it, one can observe the order to be from the subtlest to the grossest.

~Dayananda

From Him are born the prāṇa, the mind, all the organs, the sky (ākāśa), the wind; (vāyu), the fire (jyoti), the water (āpaḥ) and the earth (pṛthivī) which supports all.

From the supreme Reality explained in the previous mantra, was created the entire world, knowable and knowing objects. Thus here, we have enumeration explaining that the five elements, the ten senses, the prāṇa and the mind came out of Brahman. In case, the pure Existence – the Reality – is removed from the created world, we shall find the observed world of plurality dwindling itself into nothingness or non-existence.

The pure Consciousness, the eternal pure Wisdom is that knowledge, ‘knowing which every other knowledge becomes known.’ Out of this Knowledge Absolute has all the world of names and forms emerged out, and in it they exist and into it they merge back. It is, in order to make us understand this single idea in all its pregnant imports, that Mother Śruti has started this section with so many mantras, each in a different way, expressing this one and the same idea.

~Chinmayananda

From Him are born prana, mind, all the sense-organs, akasa, air, fire, water, and earth, which supports all.

ARE BORN: The creation is illusory. From the standpoint of Pure Consciousness the created objects do not exist. It is through maya, or nescience, alone that Brahman appears as the universe and all created objects. 

As before creation, so also afterwards, Brahman is free from prana, mind, and sense-organs. These are modifications of Saguna Brahman and therefore have no independent existence. According to Vedanta all modifications are unreal; they are mere words. A tray, a tumbler, and a cup, made from clay, have no existence independent of the clay, which is their only real substance. They are mere names used for convenience in man's practical life. Being in themselves unreal, prana, mind, and sense-organs do not exist, as such, in Brahman before or after creation. A childless man cannot be called a father simply because of his dreaming about a son. The creation is like a dream. Just as the dream is real to the dreamer, so the world is real to the unillumined person and continues to be so till he wakens to the light of Truth. 

~Nikhilananda