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 6.12 (twelfth khaṇḍa) (three texts)

Upaniṣad text:

‘Fetch a fruit of that Banyan-tree.’—‘Here it is, Sir.’—‘Break it.—‘It is broken, Sir.’—‘What dost thou see there?’—‘These are very small seeds, Sir.’—Break one of these, my dear.’—‘It is broken, Sir’—‘What dost thou see there?’—‘Nothing, Sir.’—(1)

Commentary (Śaṅkara Bhāṣya):

‘If you wish to have direct evidence of this, then fetch a fruit of this large—Banyan-tree.’—Thus told he did so, and said ‘Here it is, sir; I have fetched the fruit.’—When he had shown the fruit, the father said to him Break it’—The other said—‘It is broken.’—The father said to him—‘What dost thou see here?’—the son said—‘These very small seeds, I see, Sir.’—‘Of those seeds, my dear boy, break one’—Thus told, he said—‘It is broken, Sir’—‘If the seed has been broken, what dost thou see in that broken seed?’—He answered—‘I see nothing, sir.’—(I)

Upaniṣad text:

He said to him—‘My child, the Subtle Essence which thou dost not perceive,—it is from that Subtle Essence that this large Banyan-tree grows up’.—Have faith: my son.’—(2)

Commentary (Śaṅkara Bhāṣya):

He said to his son—‘On breaking the Banyan-seed, that Subtle Essence—of the Banyan—seed—which thou dost not perceive—see,—and yet, my boy, it is from Subtle Essence of the seed,—which is not visible,—that the large Banyan-tree, fully equipped with thick branches, trunk, fruits, and leavesgrows up—as the product—or it is produced and rises up,—the ‘ut’ being understood before the term ‘tiṣṭhati.’—Have faith my son, when I say that it is from this Subtle Essence of Being that there grows Universe with its names and forms, grows up as the product. Though when a certain fact has been established by reasoning and scriptural authority, it is always understood to be so (and true),—yet, in the case of extremely subtle things, a man who has his mind taken up by external things, and follows the natural bent of his activities, could find it difficult to understand if he were not imbued with a large degree of faith; hence, the father said—‘Have faith;’ when there is faith, the mind becomes concentrated on the subject desired to understand, and then the due understanding follows. That this is so is clear from such Vedic texts as ‘I had my mind elsewhere.’—(2)

Upaniṣad text:

‘That which is this Subtle Essence,—in that has all this its Self; That is True; That is the Self; That thou art, O, Śvetaketu’.—‘Revered Sir, please explain this to me again.’—‘Be it so, my boy’,—he said.—(3)

Commentary (Śaṅkara Bhāṣya):

That which etc., etc., this has been already explained. “If that Being is the root of the Universe, then why is it not perceived?—Please explain this to me again, Revered Sir,—by means of illustrations ‘Be it so, my boy.’—said the father.—(3)

End of Section (12) of Discourse VI.

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