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 2.589
Sanskrit text and transliteration:
तस्मात्प्राप्तिर्न सङ्क्रान्तिर्न च कोशात्मकर्तृका ।
पञ्चकोशातिरिक्तात्मकर्तृका परिशिष्यते ॥ ५८९ ॥
tasmātprāptirna saṅkrāntirna ca kośātmakartṛkā |
pañcakośātiriktātmakartṛkā pariśiṣyate || 589 ||
English translation of verse 2.589:
Therefore, saṅkrānti (here) does not mean attainment. Nor does it mean that any of these sheaths is the agent (of saṅkramaṇa). The Self which is different from the five sheaths is what remains as the agent of (knowledge).
Notes:
The word saṅkramaṇa here means only realization, mere knowledge. Who is it that attains this realization or knowledge? It cannot be any of the sheaths, because every one of them is insentient (na kośānāmanyatamaḥ saṅkramaṇa-kartā, acetanasya jñānakartṛtvāyogāt). Since the entity that is left over is the Self, we have to say that the Self is the knower, i.e., that which attains the knowledge which removes the erroneous identification with the sheaths (pañcakośa-tādātmyābhimāna-nivartaka-jñānakartṛbhavati). When we say that saṅkramaṇa means mere knowledge (jñānamātra [jñānamātram]), we do not mean the pure consciousness, but the mental mode which remains unified and undifferentiated in the form of Brahman (jñānaṃ cātra brahmākārāntaḥkaraṇavṛttiḥ).
How can the immutable. Self which is pure consciousness be the knower (jñātā)? This will be answered in the next verse.