Kena upanishad (Madhva commentary)

by Srisa Chandra Vasu | 1909 | 11,760 words | ISBN-13: 9789332869165

This is Mantra 2.2 of the Kena-upanishad (Kenopanishad), the English translation and commentary of Madhva (Madhvacharya) called the Bhasya. The Kena Upanishad deals with topics such as Brahman and Atman (soul) and also discusses the symbolic representation of the Gods as forces of nature. It is an important text in the Vedanta schools of Hindu philsophy. This is Mantra 2 of section 2 called ‘Dvitiya-Khanda’.

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Kena-upaniṣad mantra 2.2:

नाहं मन्ये सुवेदेति नो न वेदेति वेद च ।
यो नस्तद्वेद तद्वेद नो न वेदेति वेद च ॥ २ ॥

nāhaṃ manye suvedeti no na vedeti veda ca |
yo nastadveda tadveda no na vedeti veda ca || 2 ||

na aham—not I, ie, even I Brahmā; manye—think; (Madhva reads it as “anye”—“others”—“na ahaṃ, anye”; suveda—I well know (or I fully know Brahman); iti—thus; no—not; Na veda—I not know, (ie, I do not know at all); iti—thus (nor is this knowledge an uncertain thing, for); Veda ca—and I know (and knowing it, I do not know; It is no object as I have no idea of difference between me and it for I know); yaḥ—who (different from me); naḥ—amongst us (pupils); tad—that (as I have described above, ie, not fully known, nor totally unknown, but known as near one); veda—knows; tad—that; Veda knows. no—not; Na veda—I do not know; iti—thus; veda—he knows; ca—and.

2. I do not think I know Him fully; though others (say) ‘we know Him fully.’ Nor do I say I know Him not at all, for I know. Amongst us who says “I know Him,” he knows Him not. He who says “I do not know Him,” he knows indeed.—10.

Notes:

The words “I think I know or it is known,” are taken by Madhva as part of the next verse.

Note.—(Admitted that none knows Brahman completely except thee, O Brahma! But thou at least knowest Him fully, for such we have always heard. Therefore, it is not correct to say that Brahman is unknown to all the Devas: To this Brahmā replies)

I do not think that Brahman is fully known by me.

(How does then the world say that thou knowest Brahman fully? The world says so, through ignorance.)

The others (namely, the ignorant only) say that I (Brahma) know Brahman fully.

(Dost thou then know nothing of Brahman?)

It is not a fact that I do not know Brahman at all. I know him a little.

(If thou dost not know Brahman fully, then thou art also an ignorant being and cannot be the Teacher of the whole universe. To this Brahma replies, I am not an ajñānin but a jñānin. For he is an ajñānin or a non-knower of Brahman who thinks that he knows Brahman fully: while he, who thinks that he does not know Brahman fully, is called a jñānin. Thus Brahmā establishes the truth that Brahman is unknowable in His entirety, but knowable in part only.]

Amongst us, that person, who says “I know that Brahman completely” is a nonknower of Brahman, (for he would not have said so had he known Brahman—for he takes the partial knowledge of Brahman to be full knowledge, and thinks Brahman to be a limited Being that can be fully known).

But he, who says “I do not fully know that Brahman,” knows Him (for he has not limited Brahman by the littleness of his knowledge).

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