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 2.391
Sanskrit text and transliteration:
ब्रह्मवित्परमाप्नोतीत्युक्त्वा सत्यादिलक्षणम् ।
प्रवेशयद् गुहां तच्च तदनात्मत्वशान्तये ॥ ३९१ ॥
brahmavitparamāpnotītyuktvā satyādilakṣaṇam |
praveśayad guhāṃ tacca tadanātmatvaśāntaye || 391 ||
English translation of verse 2.391:
After stating that the knower of Brahman attains the supreme Brahman which has been defined as real, etc., śruti makes it enter the cave with a view to free it from being not-Self.
Notes:
The central theme of the Upaniṣad is the non-difference of Brahman and Ātman. It is this knowledge of Brahman-Ātman which the Upaniṣad seeks to convey. The account of creation is given only with a view to state the truth of non-duality. Since the entry of Brahman into the universe can be explained in some other way, there is no room for the defects mentioned above.
After stating that the knower of Brahman attains the supreme Brahman, the Upaniṣad defined Brahman as real, knowledge, and infinite. It would appear from this definition that Brahman is what is remote from us. With a view to establish that Brahman is not mediate. but immediate, that it is not far away from us, but is our inward Self, the śruti text in the sequel said that Brahman which has been defined as real, etc., is sealed in the cave, i.e., in the intellect (nihitaṃ guhāyām). By emphasizing chat Brahman is no other than Ātman, the inward Self, the Upaniṣad tries to remove the wrong notion that Brahman is different from the Self (anātmatvaśānti).