Taittiriya Upanishad Bhashya Vartika
by R. Balasubramanian | 151,292 words | ISBN-10: 8185208115 | ISBN-13: 9788185208114
The English translation of Sureshvara’s Taittiriya Vartika, which is a commentary on Shankara’s Bhashya on the Taittiriya Upanishad. Taittiriya Vartika contains a further explanation of the words of Shankara-Acharya, the famous commentator who wrote many texts belonging to Advaita-Vedanta. Sureshvaracharya was his direct disciple and lived in the 9...
Verse 2.177
Sanskrit text and transliteration:
प्रमाणोत्पन्नया दृष्ट्या योऽविद्यां द्रष्टुमिच्चति ।
दीपेनासौ ध्रुवं पश्येद् गुहाकुक्षिगतं तमः ॥ १७७ ॥
pramāṇotpannayā dṛṣṭyā yo'vidyāṃ draṣṭumiccati |
dīpenāsau dhruvaṃ paśyed guhākukṣigataṃ tamaḥ || 177 ||
English translation of verse 2.177:
He who desires to see avidyā through the knowledge generated by a pramāṇa could as well certainly see the darkness in the interior of a cave by means of a lamp.
Notes:
Avidyā is made known by the Witness-consciousness. According to Advaita, Brahman-Ātman is the sole reality. This Brahman-
Ātman which is of the nature of consciousness (svarūpa-caitanya) is the locus (adhiṣṭhāna) of avidyā. While svarūpajñāna is not opposed to avidyā, vṛtti-jñāna, the knowledge which arises through the mental mode, is opposed to it. So avidyā cannot be known through the knowledge generated by a pramāṇa. for such a knowledge which has to come through a mental mode (vṛtti) is opposed to it. Any such attempt to know avidyā through pramāṇa-jñāna is as futile and absurd as the attempt to see the darkness of a mountain-cave by means of a lamp. The light of a lamp will remove darkness. In the same way pramāṇa-jñāna, instead of revealing avidyā, will remove it.