Chandogya Upanishad (english Translation)

by Swami Lokeswarananda | 165,421 words | ISBN-10: 8185843910 | ISBN-13: 9788185843919

This is the English translation of the Chandogya-upanishad, including a commentary based on Swami Lokeswarananda’s weekly discourses; incorporating extracts from Shankara’s bhasya. The Chandogya Upanishad is a major Hindu philosophical text incorporated in the Sama Veda, and dealing with meditation and Brahman. This edition includes the Sanskrit t...

Verse 1.2.14

आगाता ह वै कामानां भवति य एतदेवं विद्वानक्षरमुद्गीथमुपास्त इत्यध्यात्मम् ॥ १.२.१४ ॥
॥ इति द्वितीयः खण्डः ॥

āgātā ha vai kāmānāṃ bhavati ya etadevaṃ vidvānakṣaramudgīthamupāsta ityadhyātmam || 1.2.14 ||
|| iti dvitīyaḥ khaṇḍaḥ ||

14. If a person knows the real meaning of prāṇa and worships it as udgītha akṣara [i.e., as Akṣara Brahman] he himself becomes Akṣara Brahman. He then worships everyone he wants to worship [i.e., in singing for prāṇa he sings for all], and he attains all he desires. This is the attainment on the level of the body [adhyātma]. [The inner attainment is that he becomes one with prāṇa—that is, Akṣara Brahman.]

Word-for-word explanation:

Yaḥ, he who; evam, as such; vidvān, knows;; etat, this [prāṇa]; udgītham akṣaram, as udgītha akṣara [akṣara means both ‘syllable’ and ‘the undecaying,’ which is a name of Brahman]; upāste, worships [or meditates on]; vai kāmānām āgātā ha bhavati, he thereby becomes the udgātā [singer] of all that he desires; iti adhyātmam, this is so far as the udgītha relating to the body is concerned. Iti dvitīyaḥ khaṇḍaḥ here ends the second section.

Commentary:

Singing for prāṇa is the same as singing for all, for prāṇa is all. You may even achieve all you desire through it.

This is so far as the individual is concerned. Praising Om has a threefold reward: relating to the body (adhyātma), relating to animals (adhibhūta), and relating to the elements (adhidaiva).

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