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 2.607
Sanskrit text and transliteration:
अविद्याघातिनः शब्दादहं ब्रह्मेति धीर्भवेत् ।
नश्यत्यविद्यया सार्धं हत्वा रोगमिवौषधम् ॥ ६०७ ॥
avidyāghātinaḥ śabdādahaṃ brahmeti dhīrbhavet |
naśyatyavidyayā sārdhaṃ hatvā rogamivauṣadham || 607 ||
English translation of verse 2.607:
From the (scriptural) utterance there arises the cognition, “I am Brahman,” which destroys ignorance. This cognition disappears along with ignorance after destroying it, in the same way as the medicine disappears after destroying the disease.
Notes:
The unitary, non-relational, cognition through the mental ṃode (akhaṇḍākāra-vṛtti-jñāna) generated by the śruti text removes ignorance. The question that arises here is whether the unitary, non-relational, cognition continue; to exist after removing ignorance. If it exists, what is It that removes it? If it cannot be removed, it will undermine nondualism, because it has to be reckoned as an entity in addition to Brahman.
According to Advaita, none of these difficulties arise. Only if the akhaṇḍākāra-vṛtti-jñāna persists after removing ignorance, the standpoint of non-dualism will be at stake, as in addition to Brahman there is this final vṛttijñāna. But it disappears after destroying ignorance, in the same way as a medicinal drug gets itself removed after destroying the disease.