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 2.650
Sanskrit text and transliteration:
चिन्मात्रव्यतिरेकेण सर्वप्रत्ययसाक्षिणः ।
रूपान्तरं न सम्भाव्यं प्रमाभासात्तथा ह्नुतिः ॥ ६५० ॥
cinmātravyatirekeṇa sarvapratyayasākṣiṇaḥ |
rūpāntaraṃ na sambhāvyaṃ pramābhāsāttathā hnutiḥ || 650 ||
English translation of verse 2.650:
The Self which is the witness of all cognitions cannot have a nature other than that of pure consciousness. It is not known to be such because of illusion.
Notes:
It may be argued that the Self which is ever existent is always known like the jñātā, jñeyam and jñānam, which are not-Self. So the Self is not what is to be known through a pramāṇa. In other words, the Self, according to this argument, must be treated as illusory like the not-Self.
This argument is not sound. The Self is of the nature of the self-luminous consciousness. It is the Witness of everything known and unknown (jñātamajñātamapi vastu sākṣicaitanyasya viṣayo hi). It is the locus on which everything including avidyā is superimposed. That which is the locus of avidyā cannot itself be illusory. Being of the nature of eternal consciousness, it cannot have a different nature. It is on account of avidyā that we fail to grasp its nature.