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...
Verse 2.2.7
योनिमन्ये प्रपद्यन्ते शरीरत्वाय देहिनः ।
स्थाणुमन्येऽनुसंयन्ति यथाकर्म यथाश्रुतम् ॥ ७ ॥yonimanye prapadyante śarīratvāya dehinaḥ ।
sthāṇumanye'nusaṃyanti yathākarma yathāśrutam ॥ 7 ॥7. Some jivas (dehinah) go into wombs to be embodied; others pass into the immoveable, according to their karma and to their knowledge.
Shankara’s Commentary:
Com.—Into wombs, combined with semen virile. Some ignorant fools go to take a body. The meaning is that the jivas having a body enter the womb. Others, yet inferior after death, become immoveable, such as trees and the rest; ‘according to their karma, means according to karma performed by them, i.e., by the form of karma performed by them, in this birth. Similarly also , ‘ according to their knowledge,’ i.e., according to the nature of knowledge acquired by them. The meaning is that they take a body corresponding to them; for, another sruti says ‘they are born according to their knowledge.’