Katha Upanishad with Shankara’s Commentary
by S. Sitarama Sastri | 1928 | 23,822 words
The Katha Upanishad is a collection of philosophical poems representing a conversation between the sage Naciketas and Yama (god of death). They discuss the nature of Atman, Brahman and Moksha (liberation). The book is made up of six sections (Valli). This commentary by Shankara focuses on ‘Advaita Vedanta’, or non-dualism: one of the classical ort...
Verse 1.2.25
यस्य ब्रह्म च क्शत्रं च उभे भवत ओदनः ।
मृत्युर्यस्योपसेचनं क इत्था वेद यत्र सः ॥ २५ ॥yasya brahma ca kśatraṃ ca ubhe bhavata odanaḥ |
mṛtyuryasyopasecanaṃ ka itthā veda yatra saḥ || 25 ||25. Of whom, the Brahma and the Kshatriya classes are the food, and Death but pickles (to supplement it); how can one thus know where that atman is.
Shankara’s Commentary:
Com.—As for him who is not of this description, the sruti says: Of whom Brahmins and Kshatriyas, though the stay of all virtue and the protectors of all, are the food; and Death, though destroyer of all, is only a pickle being insufficient as food. How can one of worldly intellect, devoid of helps above described, know where that atman is, in this manner, as one who is furnished with the helps above described?
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॥ इति काठकोपनिषदि प्रथमाध्याये द्वितीया वल्ली ॥
|| iti kāṭhakopaniṣadi prathamādhyāye dvitīyā vallī ||
Here ends the Second Part.
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