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 2.309
Sanskrit text and transliteration:
श्रद्धया उत्तमाङ्गत्वं स्मृतिरश्रद्धयेति च ॥ ३०९ ॥
śraddhayā uttamāṅgatvaṃ smṛtiraśraddhayeti ca || 309 ||
English translation of verse 2.309:
Faith is its head. The smṛti text beginning with “without faith” also emphasizes its pre-eminence.
Notes:
This verse explains the meaning of the śruti text tasya śraddhaiva śiraḥ. Head is considered to be the principal or the most important limb (uttamāṅga) among the human organs. It has already been stated that vijñāna stands for certitude, determinative cognition. So vijñāna-maya is constituted by well-ascertained knowledge. Such a knowledge is necessary before one undertakes to do any course of action. In the case of a person who has well-ascertained knowledge, there arises first of all faith (śraddhā) with regard to the things to be done by him. Since faith is the first and primary factor with regard to any thing to be done, it is characterized as the head as it were of vijñānamaya. The importance of faith is well brought out in the Gītā (XVII, 28) when it says that “whatever is sacrificed, given, or done, and whatever austerity is practised, without faith (aśraddhayā) is called asat.”