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 1.20
Sanskrit text and transliteration:
पूर्वोपचितकर्मभ्यस्तस्मात्कर्तारमेति या ।
प्रत्यवायक्रिया तस्या लक्षणार्थः शता भवेत् ॥ २० ॥
pūrvopacitakarmabhyastasmātkartārameti yā |
pratyavāyakriyā tasyā lakṣaṇārthaḥ śatā bhavet || 20 ||
English translation of verse 1.20:
(Since a positive something cannot come out of what is negative), the suffix śatṛ is, therefore, used in the sense of indication of sin which accrues to the agent as a result of the deeds done in the past.
Notes:
The Mimāṃsaka may argue that there is pramāṇa to show that a positive something may come out of what is negative. He may cite the smṛti text (Manu, XI, 44) which says, "Omitting the prescribed rites... man will have a fall.” This text, according to the Mīmāṃsaka, supports the view that the non-performance of obligatory rites is the cause of sin which is positive. But this argument is not acceptable. The suffix śatṛ (śatṛpratyaya) in the word akurvan is used not only in the sense of cause, but also in the sense of indication (lakṣaṇārtha). The text which says that the non-performance of what is enjoined (akurvan vihitaṃ karma) is the cause of a man’s fall has to be properly interpreted; Here non-performance of obligatory duties is not the cause, but only an indication, of the sin accumulated in the past.