Prashna Upanishad with Shankara’s Commentary
by S. Sitarama Sastri | 1928 | 19,194 words
The Prashna Upanishad is a series philosophical poems presented as questions (prashna) inquired by various Hindu sages (Rishi) and answered by Sage Pippalada. The questions discuss knowledge about Brahman, the relation of the individual (Purusha) with the universal (Atman), meditation, immortality and various other Spiritual topics. This commentar...
Verse 2.1
अथ हैनं भार्गवो वैदर्भिः पप्रच्छ । भगवन्कत्येव देवाः प्रचां विधारयन्ते कतर एतत्प्रकशयन्ते कः पुनरेषां वरिष्ठ इति ॥ १ ॥
atha hainaṃ bhārgavo vaidarbhiḥ papraccha | bhagavankatyeva devāḥ pracāṃ vidhārayante katara etatprakaśayante kaḥ punareṣāṃ variṣṭha iti || 1 ||
1. Next Bhargava of Vidarbha questioned him ‘Oh Bhagavan! How many Devas support the creature? Which of them enlighten that? Who again is of all of them, the greatest.’
Shankara’s Commentary:
Com.—It has been said that prana is the eater, the lord of creation. This question is begun for the purpose of determining how he is such lord and eater in this body. Next Bhargava of Vidarbha questioned him, Oh Bhagavan! how many Devas (senses) mainly support the creature, i.e., the body? Which, among the senses divided into intellectual and active, manifest their glory outside. Who again of these is the greatest, i.e., the most important of these which are in the nature of cause and effect.