Chandogya Upanishad (Shankara Bhashya)
by Ganganatha Jha | 1942 | 149,749 words | ISBN-10: 8170842840 | ISBN-13: 9788170842842
This is the English translation of the Chandogya Upanishad, an ancient philosophical text originally written in Sanksrit and dating to at least the 8th century BCE. Having eight chapters (adhyayas) and many sub-sections (khandas), this text is counted among the largest of it's kind. The Chandogya Upanishad, being connected to the Samaveda, represen...
Section 2.11 (eleventh khaṇḍa) (two texts)
Upaniṣad text:
Mind is the syllable �ᾱ��; Speech is the ʰ屹; the Eye is 岵īٳ; the Ear is ʰپ; Breath is the Nidhana. This is the ⲹٰ (峾) interwoven with the Sense-organs.�(1)
Commentary (Śaṅkara Bhāṣya):
Without actually naming the meditations, the text has so far described the meditation of the five-fold and seven-fold 峾; it now describes other forms of meditation on 峾 leading to particular results,—and supplies their names as �ⲹٰ� and the rest. On the same lines, in the same order, are the various 峾s used as sacrificial Rites. �Mind is the syllable ‘ᾱṃ� because Mind stands for the first of all the sense-functions,—By reason of its sequence to the Mind, Speech is the ʰ屹; The Eye is the 岵īٳ, because of superior importance.�The Eye is the ʰپ, because it is drawn within (pratihṛta).—Breath is Nidhana; because all the aforesaid organs become merged in Breath, at the time of sleep.�This is the ⲹٰ-峾, interwoven with the sense-organs; it is so called because the ⲹٰ has been eulogised as �Breath�.�(1)
Upaniṣad text:
One who knows this ⲹٰ (Sama) as interwoven with the sense-organs, retains his sense-organs, attains full life, lives gloriously, and becomes great with off-spring and cattle and great in fame. His observance is that ‘he should be high-minded�.�(2)
Commentary (Śaṅkara Bhāṣya):
One who knows the 峾 thus as interwoven with the sense-organs retains his sense-organs; tlíat is, his organs remain efficient.�He attains full life,—a hundred years constitute the ‘full life.� of man,—as declared in the Veda.�He lives gloriously,—i.e., a glorious life.—He becomes great with off-springs etc.,—and great also in fame.—For one who meditates upon the ⲹٰ 峾 the observance is that ‘he should be high-minded�; i.e.. he should not be mean-minded.�(2)
End of Section (11) of Discourse II