Chandogya Upanishad (Shankara Bhashya)
by Ganganatha Jha | 1942 | 149,749 words | ISBN-10: 8170842840 | ISBN-13: 9788170842842
This is the English translation of the Chandogya Upanishad, an ancient philosophical text originally written in Sanksrit and dating to at least the 8th century BCE. Having eight chapters (adhyayas) and many sub-sections (khandas), this text is counted among the largest of it's kind. The Chandogya Upanishad, being connected to the Samaveda, represen...
Section 4.9 (ninth khaṇḍa) (three texts)
Upaniṣad text:
He reached the Teacher’s House. The Teacher said to him—‘Satyakāma’. He answered—‘Yes, Sir,’—(1)
Commentary (Śaṅkara Bhāṣya):
Having thus come to know Brahman, the Boy reached—came to—the Teacher’s House.—The Teacher said to him—‘Satyakāma’.—He answered—‘Yes, Sir’.—(I)
Upaniṣad text:
‘My boy, thou appearest as if thou knew Brahman; now who has taught thee?—He answered—‘People other than human beings. But I wish that you alone, Revered Sir, should teach me’.—(2)
Commentary (Śaṅkara Bhāṣya):
‘My boy, thou appearest as if thou knew Brahman;’ one who knows Brahman is always happy with his senses, wears a smiling face, is free from all anxiety and fully satisfied; hence the Teacher, noticing these, said—‘Thou appearest as if thou knew Brahman.—Now who—indicating surmise,—has taught thee?’.—Satyakāma answered—‘People other than human beings’—i.e. deities—have taught me; the sense is—‘who else should dare to teach me, who am your disciple?’. Hence he answered that ‘People other than human beings have taught me’.—‘But you alone, Revered Sir, should teach me,—so I wish,—i.e. if my wish counts;—what would be the use of anybody else saying anything?—That is ‘I do not attach any importance to that’.—(2).
Upaniṣad text:
‘For I have heard from persons like Your Reverence that it is only knowledge learnt from the Teacher that becomes the best.’—Thereupon the Teacher taught the same thing, and nothing was omitted—yea nothing was omitted.—(3)
Commentary (Śaṅkara Bhāṣya):
‘Further, it has been heard by me, in this connection, from sages like Your Reverence, that it is only knowledge learnt from the Teacher that becomes best,— acquires its highest character; hence Your Reverence alone should teach me.’—Being thus addressed, the Teacher expounded to him the same thing,—the same Philosophy—that had been taught by the deities (Bull, Agni, Flamingo, Acquatic Bird); and of that philosophy of the sixteen Factors, nothing—not the least part was omitted—left out. The repetition is meant to indicate the end of the exposition of this particular philosophy.—(3)
End of Section (9) of Discourse IV