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...

अथैकयोर्ध्व उदानः पुण्येन पुण्यं लोकं नयति पापेन पापमुभाभ्यामेव मनुष्यलोकम् ॥ ७ ॥

athaikayordhva udānaḥ puṇyena puṇyaṃ lokaṃ nayati pāpena pāpamubhābhyāmeva manuṣyalokam || 7 ||

7. Now by one nerve, udana ascending, conducts to virtuous worlds by virtue, to sinful worlds by sin and to the world of men by virtue and sin combined.

 

Shankara’s Commentary:

Com.—By one of these hundred and one nerves, i.e., by that nerve named sushumna which goes up, udana moving in all portions, from the foot to the head, conducts one to virtuous worlds, such as the abode of the Devas by virtuous deeds enjoined by the sastras; by sinful deeds contrary to virtue, to sinful worlds, such as birth among horizontal creatures, i.e., beasts. By both equally combined, i.e., virtue and sin, to the world of men. ‘Conducts’ should be supplied.

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