Katha Upanishad with Shankara’s Commentary

by S. Sitarama Sastri | 1928 | 23,822 words

The Katha Upanishad is a collection of philosophical poems representing a conversation between the sage Naciketas and Yama (god of death). They discuss the nature of Atman, Brahman and Moksha (liberation). The book is made up of six sections (Valli). This commentary by Shankara focuses on ‘Advaita Vedanta’, or non-dualism: one of the classical ort...

न प्राणेन नापानेन मर्त्यो जीवति कश्चन ।
इतरेण तु जीवन्ति यस्मिन्नेतावुपाश्रितौ ॥ ५ ॥

na prāṇena nāpānena martyo jīvati kaścana |
itareṇa tu jīvanti yasminnetāvupāśritau || 5 ||

5. Not by prana, not by apana, does any mortal live; but it is by some other on which these two depend that men live.

 

Shankara’s Commentary:

Com.—The theory may be urged ‘that the body becomes destroyed only by the exit of prana, apana, etc., and not by the exit of the atman distinct from these; for, man lives only by prana and the rest’. This is not so; not by prana, not by apana, not by the eyes, etc., does a mortal having a body live. These acting jointly for the benefit of some other cannot be the source of life. The existence of houses, etc., composite in their nature, has not been seen in the world to be undirected by some other not connected with them, for whose benefit they exist; so also, it should be in the case of the combination of prana and the rest. Therefore, it is by some other alone, dissimilar to the combination of prapa and the rest, all these combined maintain their life. On which atman, dissimilar to those combined, the really existent and the highest, these two prana, and apana combined with the eyes and the rest, depend and for the benefit of whom (not so combined) prana, apana and the rest perform their functions in combination, he is established to be other than they.

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