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 1.8
Sanskrit text and transliteration:
यदज्ञानात्प्रवृत्तिर्या तज्ज्ञानात्सा कुतो भवेत् ।
तस्मात्सर्वप्रवृत्तीनामलं विद्योपशान्तये ॥ ८ ॥
yadajñānātpravṛttiryā tajjñānātsā kuto bhavet |
tasmātsarvapravṛttīnāmalaṃ vidyopaśāntaye || 8 ||
English translation of verse 1.8:
When the Self is known, how can there be the pursuit of activity which is due to the ignorance of the Self? So, knowledge (of the Self) is competent to put an end to all activities.
Notes:
It may be argued that there is activity even for a person who has attained the liberating knowledge of the Self. A jīvanmukta, it may be said, is seen to be engaged in various activities. But this argument is based on a mistaken view of the so-called activities of a jīvanmukta. Since avidyā which is the cause of bondage has been put an end to, the embodied condition of a jīvanmukta and the so-called activities in which he is supposed to be engaged from the standpoint of others do not bind him any more. Since the root cause of the pursuit of activity has been annihilated, the prārabdha-karma which accounts for the continuance of the physical body in the case of a jīvanmukta has really been made ineffective. What we see in his case is not real action, but a semblance of action. This apart, there is no pursuit of any action for one who has realized the Self.