Taittiriya Upanishad Bhashya Vartika
by R. Balasubramanian | 151,292 words | ISBN-10: 8185208115 | ISBN-13: 9788185208114
The English translation of Sureshvara’s Taittiriya Vartika, which is a commentary on Shankara’s Bhashya on the Taittiriya Upanishad. Taittiriya Vartika contains a further explanation of the words of Shankara-Acharya, the famous commentator who wrote many texts belonging to Advaita-Vedanta. Sureshvaracharya was his direct disciple and lived in the 9...
Verse 2.288
Sanskrit text and transliteration:
तस्मादित्यादिवाक्यस्य त्वर्थं पूर्वमवादिषम् ।
प्राधान्यं यजुषो ज्ञेयं हविःप्रक्षेपकारणात् ॥ २८८ ॥
tasmādityādivākyasya tvarthaṃ pūrvamavādiṣam |
prādhānyaṃ yajuṣo jñeyaṃ haviḥprakṣepakāraṇāt || 288 ||
English translation of verse 2.288:
The meaning of the sentence tasmāt, etc., was stated earlier. The Yajur-mantras must be known as pre-eminent, since an oblation is offered (along with a Yajur-mantra).
Notes:
The śruti text tasmādvā etasmāt prāṇamayāt, anyo'ntara ātmā manomayaḥ is now taken up for explanation.
The meanings of the words tasmāt, vai, and etasmāt must be construed in the same way as explained earlier in verses (266) and (267). The word tasmāt refers to the being at the cosmic level; the particle vai has been used to help us recollect that being; and the word etasmāt refers to the being at the individual level. Since the two words tasmāt and etasmāt are put in co-ordinate relation, the idea which is conveyed here is the non-difference between the being at the cosmic level and that at the individual level.
Śruti says that than this one formed of prāṇa (etasmāt prāṇamayāt) there is another (anyaḥ) inner (antaraḥ) self (ātmā) formed of manas. The manomaya-kośa is not only different from, but is also inward to, the sheath of vitality. It is said to be the self of the prāṇamaya. since it is pervaded by the supreme Self (paramārthātma-vyāptatvāt) and since it does not have a nature of its own different from that Self (tadatirikta-svarūpābhāvāt).
Like the sheath of vitality, the manomaya-kośa also is represented as of a human shape, with the Yajur-mantras as its head, the Ṛg-mantras as the right wing, the Sāma-mantras as the left wing, the Brāhmaṇa portion of the Vedas as the self, and the Mantra portion seen by the Atharvāṅgiras as the tail.
The number of letters and feet as well as the length of lines are not restricted in the Yajur-mantra. The latter is represented as the head of the manomaya-kośa because of its importance; and its importance is due to the fact that an oblation is offered uttering the Yajur-mantra.