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...

परमेवाक्शरं प्रतिपद्यते स यो ह वै तदच्छायमशरीरम्लोहितं शुभ्रमक्शरं वेदयते यस्तु सोम्य । स सर्वज्ञः सर्वो भवति तदेष श्लोकः ॥ १० ॥

paramevākśaraṃ pratipadyate sa yo ha vai tadacchāyamaśarīramlohitaṃ śubhramakśaraṃ vedayate yastu somya | sa sarvajñaḥ sarvo bhavati tadeṣa ślokaḥ || 10 ||

10. The supreme, undecaying one, he surely attains. Who knows that, shadowless, bodiless, devoid of attributes, pure and undecaying. Who knows that good-looking youth! becomes omniscient and becomes all. There is this verse.

 

Shankara’s Commentary:

Com.—The fruits of one who realises the oneness of the atman are stated. He surely attains the supreme, undecaying atman, hereafter described. He who being freed from all desires, knows that, shadowless, i.e., free from Tamas or ignorance, bodiless, i.e., devoid of body subject to conditions of name, form, etc., alohitam, i.e., devoid of all gunas (attributes) such as Rajas; because thus, therefore, pure; undecaying, because devoid of all attributes the eternal known as purusha having no Prana, not perceivable by the mind, bliss in its nature and free from all misery, existing without and within all, unborn. Who renounces everything, good-looking youth! there can be nothing which is not known by him. Owing to ignorance he was not omniscient before; subsequently, by the removal of ignorance, by knowledge, he becomes all. The following verse briefly conveys the drift stated.

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