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...

उत्पत्तिमायतिं स्थानं विभुत्वं चैव पञ्चधा ।
अध्यात्मं चैव प्राणस्य विज्ञायामृतमश्नुते विज्ञायामृतमश्नुत इति ॥ १२ ॥

utpattimāyatiṃ sthānaṃ vibhutvaṃ caiva pañcadhā |
adhyātmaṃ caiva prāṇasya vijñāyāmṛtamaśnute vijñāyāmṛtamaśnuta iti || 12 ||

12. Knowing the birth, the coming, the staying, and the five-fold sovereignty of Prana and its stay in the body, one attains immortality; one attains immortality.

 

Shankara’s Commentary:

Com.—Birth] from the Paramatman. Coming] coming into this body, by the activity of the mind. Staying] in the lower apertures and other places. Five-fold sovereignty] the posting, as by a sovereign, of the different aspects of Prana, in five forms. Its external manifestation] as the sun, &c. Within the-body] as eye, &c. Knowing Prana thus one attains immortality (relative).

 

———

॥ इति प्रश्नोपनिषदि तृतीयः प्रश्नः ॥

|| iti praśnopaniṣadi tṛtīyaḥ praśnaḥ ||

Here ends the Third Prasna.

———

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