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 3.56
Sanskrit text and transliteration:
प्रजातिः पुत्रपौत्रादिरमृतत्वं ततः पितुः ।
आनन्दः पुरुषार्थोऽत्र सोप्युपस्थाश्रयो भवेत् ॥ ५६ ॥
prajātiḥ putrapautrādiramṛtatvaṃ tataḥ pituḥ |
ānandaḥ puruṣārtho'tra sopyupasthāśrayo bhavet || 56 ||
English translation of verse 3.56:
Procreation, etc., i.e., son, grandson, etc., immortality which a father attains through them, and the pleasure, too, which is desired by man—all these are dependent on the generative organ.
Notes:
This verse explains the meanings of the words contained in the śruti text prajātiramṛtamānanda ityupasthe.
The race is perpetuated through procreation. A person pays off his debt to his ancestors through his progeny, and this enables him through purification to attain the saving knowledge which leads to liberation, which is immortality (putramukhena ṛṇāpākaraṇapūrvakaṃ jñānena sampādito mokṣo'trāmṛtatvamityucyate). Ānanda here refers to sexual enjoyment.
When śruti speaks about the various parts of the body including the generative organ and the different functions such as speech, respiration, movement, alimentation, and procreation, it is with a view to stress on the spiritual aspirant the significance of the human body as a symbol for sublime thought on Brahman.