yaḥ sarvajñaḥ sarvavid yasya jñānamayaṁ tapaḥ. tasmādetad brahma nāma rūpamannaṁ ca jāyate. (1.1.9)
yaḥ – that; sarvajñaḥ – who is all-knowledge in general; sarvavit – who is all-knowledge in terms of the details; yasya – whose; tapaḥ – tapas; jñānamayam – is of knowledge alone; tasmāt – from that; etat – this; brahma – hiraṇyagarbha; nāma rūpam – names and forms; ca – and; annam – food; jāyate – is born
That Brahman is all-knowledge in general and all-knowledge in terms of details of everything that is to manifest. His tapas is nothing but knowledge alone. From that Brahman, hiraṇyagarbha, all names and forms, and the food are born.
Brahman and Īśvara are therefore one and the same. Brahman with reference to the creation is called Īśvara. Īśvara knows sarva, everything. The understanding of sarva is two-fold. One is in general and the other in particular. One who knows everything in general is called sarvajña,[75] and one who knows everything in particular is called sarvavit.[76] Both words have the same meaning of ‘knower of everything.’
There must be an entity that has all this knowledge. He is called Īśvara. Both Īśvara and the individual are akṣaraṁ brahma. If I know this fact, I am also sarvajña. But I cannot call myself Īśvara for I do not have all-knowledge ‘in detail’ which is required for the creation of this jagat. Īśvara has this knowledge due to māyā-upādhi. The upādhi makes the difference.
~Dayananda
From the Brahman (the supreme Reality) – who not only is aware of the total happenings in the world but has the knowledge of all the details of happenings every minute, whose very thought is of the nature of Knowledge – are all these produced: the creator, names and forms, and nourishment for all.
With this stanza, the first section of the first chapter of the Muṇḍakopaniṣad is completed. Naturally, Śruti is trying to summarise the entire chapter in a pregnant statement, at once brief and beautiful.
The supreme Reality, the light of the intelligence, is nothing but pure Wisdom and as such it is generally aware of all the happenings in the entire cosmos, and It being the Light that illumines every mental wave in the plant, animal and human life, and It being the Existence Principle in everything, that is, there cannot happen anything which is not directly under the supreme Light nor can anything exist but in the lap of pure Existence.
Thus Mother Śruti says, “Pure Consciousness, being by nature absolute Existence- Knowledge, knows everything and it knows every detail of all that it knows”. The pregnant import of those two expressions, ‘sarvajña’ and ‘sarvavid’ is not easy for a gross intellect even to conceive readily and all of a sudden.
~Chinmayananda
For him who knows all and understands everything, whose austerity consists of knowledge-from Him, the Imperishable Brahman, are born Brahma, name, form, and food.
It is well known that any creative work is preceded by deep thinking. The object is at first conceived in the mind of the creator; then it is given a tangible form. The universe is the outcome of the thought of the Creator. In describing the act of creation the Upanishad says: "He thought." The difference, however, between a human creation and the divine creation is that the former is the result of much effort and labor whereas the latter is the spontaneous manifestation of Brahman. Devasya esha svabhavah-"All this is the very nature of Brahman." The Upanishad gives a spiritual interpretation of the creation as opposed to a mechanistic.
~Nikhilananda
