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 2.623
Sanskrit text and transliteration:
स्वशकत्यननुरूपं चेत्कार्यं वाक्यशतैरपि ।
नियुक्तोऽपि न तत्सिद्धावलं शक्ये स हीश्वरः ॥ ६२३ ॥
svaśakatyananurūpaṃ cetkāryaṃ vākyaśatairapi |
niyukto'pi na tatsiddhāvalaṃ śakye sa hīśvaraḥ || 623 ||
English translation of verse 2.623:
Though prompted even by one hundred injunctive texts a person cannot accomplish an act, if it is impossible for him to do. He is competent only in respect of that which is possible for him to do.
Notes:
Knowledge does not fall within the scope of an injunction, because it is not something which can be done, or undone, or otherwise done by a person at will. An action which is to be accomplished is dependent on a person (puruṣatantra), but knowledge of an object is dependent on the object as well as on the pramāṇa (pramāṇa-vastu-tantra). Since knowledge is not dependent on the will of a person, it is not something which can be accomplished by him, chough prompted by hundreds of injunctive texts. But the position is different in the case of yāga, etc., which are dependent on the will of a person. With regard to these, he is free to do, not to do, or do it otherwise. Further, he can accomplish all these acts. So unlike these acts, knowledge does not fall within the scope of an injunction.