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 2.187
Sanskrit text and transliteration:
देहोत्पत्तिमनूत्पन्नो व्योमवद् घटजन्मना ।
अस्त्यादयोऽप्यतो न स्युः सति जन्मनि ते यतः ॥ १८७ ॥
dehotpattimanūtpanno vyomavad ghaṭajanmanā |
astyādayo'pyato na syuḥ sati janmani te yataḥ || 187 ||
English translation of verse 2.187:
The Self is said to be originated (as it were) following the origination of the body, in the same way as ether is said to be originated following the origination of a pot. Hence, existence and other (mutable) states do not exist (for the Self) since these states would be possible only if there is origination (for the Self).
Notes:
It is wrong to think that the Self is also originated like the senses. The Self is eternal (nitya). It is immutable (kūṭastha). But it appears to have birth (janma) due to the limiting adjunct (upādhi), viz., the body, which has birth and other mutable states. Every object is subject to six changes (ṣaḍbhāva vikāra)—(1) birth (janma), (2) existence (sattā), (3) growth (vṛddhi), (4) transformation (pariṇāma), (5) decline (apakṣaya), and (6) death (vināśa). Only if an object has birth or origination, the subsequent states such as existence, growth, etc., will be possible for it. Since the Self has no birth, it is free from the subsequent states which follow it (ātmano janmābhāvāt taduttara-bhāvinaḥ pañcavikārā na bhavanti).