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 2.500
Sanskrit text and transliteration:
बाह्यैराध्यात्मिकैश्चैव सम्पन्नः साधनैः पुमान् ।
लभते यमसौ ह्लादं नरानन्दः स उच्यते ॥ ५०० ॥
bāhyairādhyātmikaiścaiva sampannaḥ sādhanaiḥ pumān |
labhate yamasau hlādaṃ narānandaḥ sa ucyate || 500 ||
English translation of verse 2.500:
The delight which a person attains, being thus endowed with the external arid bodily accessories, is said to be (one unit of) human bliss.
Notes:
The meaning of the text sa eko mānuṣa ānandaḥ is stated in this verse.
Śruti is going to work out a calculus of pleasure starting with the happiness enjoyed by a person who has all the bodily accomplishments and who is the ruler of the entire world. The happiness enjoyed by such a person is reckoned as one unit of the highest human happiness (manuṣyāṇāṃ prakṛṣṭa eka ānandaḥ). Śruti does not take into consideration the happiness of other human beings who do not command all the resources required for the fullest satisfaction in all respects as the ruler of the entire earth can do. Consequently, the happiness enjoyed by the latter is considered to be the highest human happiness, and is calculated as one unit of human happiness (eko mānuṣa ānandaḥ).