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 2.349-350
Sanskrit text and transliteration:
तारतम्यं सुखस्यापि वैचित्र्यादुपपद्यते . ।
पुण्यस्य कर्मणस्तस्मादात्मैवाऽऽनन्द उच्यते ॥ ३४९ ॥
तस्मात्कामादिहानेन ह्युत्तरोत्तरवृद्धितः ।
श्रोत्रियस्येति वाक्येन काष्ठाऽऽनन्दस्य भण्यते ॥ ३५० ॥
tāratamyaṃ sukhasyāpi vaicitryādupapadyate . |
puṇyasya karmaṇastasmādātmaivā''nanda ucyate || 349 ||
tasmātkāmādihānena hyuttarottaravṛddhitaḥ |
śrotriyasyeti vākyena kāṣṭhā''nandasya bhaṇyate || 350 ||
English translation of verse 2.349-350:
The gradations of happiness are justifiable because of the variety of the good deeds (which evoked them). So the Self itself is bliss. The acme of the happiness which increases progressively due to the destruction of desire, etc., is stated (in the sequel) by the śruti text, “Of the man versed in the Vedas...”
Notes:
The highest bliss is no other than the supreme Self. The jīva in its essential nature is non-different from the supreme Brahman-Ātman. A person who knows Brahman enjoys the highest bliss, that is to say, remains as Brahman which is bliss, since he is free from all desires. This idea will be stated in the sequel when the Upaniṣad (II, viii) refers to a hierarchy of happiness all of which falls within the scope of a person who is well-versed in the Vedas and who is not smitten by desires (śrotriyasya, akāmahatasya). Freedom from desire is the pre-eminent condition for the attainment of the highest bliss which is Brahman.