Source of the well-known line 'satyameva jayate,' truth alone triumphs — and home to the parable of two birds on one tree.
अथर्ववेद के अंतर्गत · within the Atharvaveda
The Upanishad distinguishes para vidya, higher knowledge of the imperishable Self, from apara vidya, lower knowledge including the Vedas themselves, ritual, and worldly learning, arguing the higher knowledge alone leads to liberation.
Its parable of two birds perched on the same tree, one eating its fruit and one watching without eating, is widely read as an image of the individual self caught up in experience beside the witnessing Self that remains untouched. Tradition also holds the Mundaka Upanishad to be recited at a sannyasa (renunciation) initiation, marking its central place within the specifically renunciate strand of Vedantic teaching.