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 2.328
Sanskrit text and transliteration:
अत्ययो वाऽथ सम्प्राप्तिः सङ्क्रान्तिः स्यात्परात्मनः ।
नात्मत्वादात्मनः प्राप्तिस्तदु नात्येति कश्चन ॥ ३२८ ॥
atyayo vā'tha samprāptiḥ saṅkrāntiḥ syātparātmanaḥ |
nātmatvādātmanaḥ prāptistadu nātyeti kaścana || 328 ||
English translation of verse 2.328:
The saṅkrānti of the supreme Self must be either transcending it or attaining it. Since (the jīva) is the Self, there is no attainment of the Self, śruti declares: “None ever transcends that (Brahman).”
Notes:
If the ānandamaya is said to be the supreme Self, then what is the meaning of the word saṅkrānti which has been used in this context by śruti? It must mean either transcending it or attaining it. The former does not hold good, because no one, as stated in the Kaṭha
Upaniṣad (II, i, 9), can transcend the supreme Brahman. For one thing, the jīva is non-different from Brahman. One cannot transcend oneself. If so, how can the jīva transcend Brahman with which it is identical? Further, since Brahman is all-pervasive, it can never be transcended. It cannot be said that the word saṅkrānti has been used in the sense of attaining it. Since Brahman is non-different from the jīva, there is no attainment of it by the jīva. So when the Upaniṣad says in the sequel etaṃ ānandamayamātmānaṃ upasaṅkrāmati, it only refers to the conditioned self and not to the supreme Self inasmuch as saṅkrānti is not possible with regard to the latter.