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 2.3
तान्वरिष्ठः प्राण उवाच । मा मोहमापद्यथाऽहमेवैतत्पञ्चधात्मानं प्रविभज्यैतद्बाणमवष्टभ्य विधारयामीति तेऽश्रद्दधाना बभूवुः ॥ ३ ॥
tānvariṣṭhaḥ prāṇa uvāca | mā mohamāpadyathā'hamevaitatpañcadhātmānaṃ pravibhajyaitadbāṇamavaṣṭabhya vidhārayāmīti te'śraddadhānā babhūvuḥ || 3 ||
3. Prana, the greatest, said to them, ‘Do not cherish this foolish vanity. I alone, having divided myself five-fold, hold this body together and support it.’ They did not believe.
Shankara’s Commentary:
Com.—Prana, pre-eminent, said to them who were thus vain, ‘do not from want of discernment cherish this vanity; for, I alone hold together and support this body, having divided myself into five distinct conditions such as prana, etc.’; and when he said he supported it, they did not believe in him and thought how it could be thus.