Prashna Upanishad with Shankara’s Commentary
by S. Sitarama Sastri | 1928 | 19,194 words
The Prashna Upanishad is a series philosophical poems presented as questions (prashna) inquired by various Hindu sages (Rishi) and answered by Sage Pippalada. The questions discuss knowledge about Brahman, the relation of the individual (Purusha) with the universal (Atman), meditation, immortality and various other Spiritual topics. This commentar...
Verse 2.7
प्रजापतिश्चरसि गर्भे त्वमेव प्रतिजायसे । तुभ्यं प्राण प्रजास्त्विमा बलिं हरन्ति यः प्रणैः प्रतितिष्ठसि ॥ ७ ॥
prajāpatiścarasi garbhe tvameva pratijāyase | tubhyaṃ prāṇa prajāstvimā baliṃ haranti yaḥ praṇaiḥ pratitiṣṭhasi || 7 ||
7. As lord of creatures, you move in the womb and yourself are afterwards born. These creatures bring offerings, Oh Prana, to you who are sitting with the pranas.
Shankara’s Commentary:
Com.—Again, being yourself the lord of creatures, you move in the womb and are born, being another embodiment of the father and the mother. That you are both father and mother is already established by your being the lord of creatures. The meaning is you Prana, though one, are the atman of all, in the guise of the forms of all bodies and souls. For you, Oh Prana, these creatures, men and the rest, bring offerings through the apertures of the eyes, etc. As you are within all bodies along with the Pranas, i.e., the eyes and other senses, it is but proper they should bring you offerings. As you are the eater, all the rest is, indeed, food for you.