Chandogya Upanishad (Madhva commentary)

by Srisa Chandra Vasu | 1909 | 169,805 words | ISBN-13: 9789332869165

The English translation of the Chandogya Upanishad including the commentary of Madhva called the Bhasya. This text describes in seven sections the importance of speech, the importance of knowledge and the journey towards salvation.. It is one of the largest Upanishads and is associated with the Sama Veda. The Mundaka Upanishad is variously spelled...

First Adhyaya, Ninth Khanda (3 mantras)

Mantra 1.9.1.

1. Then Śālāvatya asked “What is the goal of Brahmā?” “The All-luminous Viṣṇu,” replied Pravāhaṇa. “For these (mighty) Beings take their rise from the All-luminous and have their setting in the All-luminous. The All-luminous is greater than these, The All-luminous is their great refuge. He indeed is higher than the high. He, the Udgītha, is the Infinite.—69.

Mantra 1.9.2.

2. He who meditates on Udgītha as the Greater than the Great, knowing it, thus to be the Supreme goal, the Greater than the Great becomes his Protector, and he obtains the worlds which are Greater than the Great (such as Vaikuṇṭha, etc).—70.

Mantra 1.9.3.

3.‘Those among mankind who will know this Udgītha’—thus said Atidhanvan son of Śunaka to his disciple Udara-Śāṇḍilya—‘will live for the entire length of the age in which they get this knowledge, and for them the Supreme Brahman will be their life in this world, for that length, and also in the other world. He who knowing thus meditates on Him, the Supreme Brahman becomes his life in the next world, yea in the next world.’—71.

[Note.—Bhaviṣyati, will be. Those among mankind who know this Udgītha, for example in the Tretā, live up to the end of that Yuga, and with regard to such knowers of Udgītha, the Supreme Brahman will become their life in this world, till the beginning of the next Yuga. Not only is their life in this world increased but in the next also.]

Madhva’s commentary called the Bhāṣya:

The word Ākāśa is a name of Viṣṇu. As we find in the Sat-Tattva:—“Hari alone is verily the Supreme because He illumines all and is the best of all and is Infinite.”

(The word Ākāśa here does not denote ‘ether’ because in a subsequent passage it is called Parovarīyas, the Supreme, the best and Ananta, the Infinite, words which cannot apply to ether. See also Vedānta Sūtra, 1.1.22.)

In the last section, the word Sāman was explained, as meaning fire, Svara to mean Varuṇa, etc. The Commentator now quotes an authority in support of his interpretation.

Says the Brahma Tarka:—“The Agni or fire is called Sāman, because it equally (sāmyāt) burns that which is good and auspicious, and that which is bad and inauspicious. Varuṇa is called Svara, because Sva means Viṣṇu and Ra means “takes delight in.” That in whom Sva takes delight. As Viṣṇu takes delight in ocean, therefore, Varuna is called Svara. The Sun is called Prāṇa, because by his rising, he regulates (praṇetṛ) the world (sets its activities in motion) and because he presides over the lower prāṇa.

Dakṣa is called Anna or food, because as ‘food’ and ‘the eater’ are opposed terms, so Dakṣa is the opponent of Rudra, who is called ‘the Great Eater’ (or Destroyer).

Since attā or eater is the name of Rudra, therefore, the name of his traditional opponent Dakṣa is anna [annam] or eaten. Sadā Śiva is called Svarga, as it literally means ‘He whose goal is Svara’ (or Vāyu). Svara is the name of Vāyu or Chief Life, so called because he takes delight (ra) or moves about freely (ramate) in sva (or independent) or Viṣṇu. He who takes delight or rejoices in Viṣṇu is called Vāyu or Svar. He who goes (ga=gacchati) to svar or Vāyu in mukti is called svarga (Sadā Śiva enters or merges in Vāyu in Mukti). It is thus the name of Sadā Śiva. He is also called ‘Asau Loka,’ ‘the luminous or all-wise (loka = jñāna) the being dwelling in life (asau = in asu or in life) because He lives in life (asu). Brahmā is called “Ayam Loka”—“the luminous or all-wise being dwelling in this;” because Brahmā is inside of all Devas. The word Loka means intelligence, that whose form is knowledge. Hari is the highest of all these Intelligences.”

Indra is called Apaḥ, because he protects all thoroughly (āpālanāt). The word ‘parovarīyas’ means ‘supremely high.’ That parovarīyas becomes his Protector. The word ‘yāvattaḥ’ means ‘so long as.’ The words “Yuga lasts” must be supplied to complete the sense. Thus if a person gets this knowledge in the Satya, the parovarīyas becomes his protector, so long as the Tretā lasts, viz., to the beginning of Dvāpara.

Note.—Śaṅkara explains the word “yāvatta” as “yāvat te” (1.9.3) by saying

“So long as, in the line of your descendants, they (your descendants) will know this Udgītha, their life will be higher and better than the lives that are ordinarily known.” This explanation is wrong. The word prajāyām “among descendants or creatures” is used generally. There is no such word as “thy (te)” in the above Śruti. The proposition is a universal one applying to all creatures.

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