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Chandogya Upanishad (english Translation)

by Swami Lokeswarananda | 165,421 words | ISBN-10: 8185843910 | ISBN-13: 9788185843919

This is the English translation of the Chandogya-upanishad, including a commentary based on Swami Lokeswarananda’s weekly discourses; incorporating extracts from Shankara’s bhasya. The Chandogya Upanishad is a major Hindu philosophical text incorporated in the Sama Veda, and dealing with meditation and Brahman. This edition includes the Sanskrit t...

Verse 7.15.1

प्राणो वा आशाय� भूयान्यथ� वा अर� नाभौ समर्पिता एवमस्मिन्प्राण� सर्वंसमर्पित� प्राणः प्राणे� याति प्राणः प्राणं ददात� प्राणा� ददात� प्राणो � पिता प्राणो माता प्राणो भ्राता प्राणः स्वस� प्रा� आचार्य� प्राणो ब्राह्मण� � �.१५.� �

prāṇo vā āśāyā bhūyānyathā vā arā nābhau samar辱 evamasminprāṇe sarvaṃsamarpita� ṇa� prāṇena پ ṇa� prāṇa� 岹پ ṇҲ 岹پ prāṇo ha 辱 prāṇo prāṇo bhrātā ṇa� svasā prāṇa ācārya� prāṇo brāhmaṇa� || 7.15.1 ||

1. ʰṇa [the vital force] is certainly superior to hope. Just as spokes on a wheel are attached to the hub, similarly everything rests on prāṇa. ʰṇa works through its own power [i.e., prāṇa is the means as well as the end]. ʰṇa gives prāṇa to prāṇa, and prāṇa directs prāṇa to prāṇa. ʰṇa is the father, prāṇa is the mother, prāṇa is the brother, prāṇa is the sister, prāṇa is the teacher, and prāṇa is the brāhmin.

Word-for-word explanation:

ʰṇa� vāva āśāyā� bhūyān, prāṇa [the vital force] is certainly superior to hope; yathā vai arā�, just as the spokes; nābhau samar辱�, are attached to the hub; evam, in the same way; asmin prāṇe, on this prāṇa; sarvarn, all this; samarpitam, are resting; ṇa� prāṇena پ, prāṇa works by its own power; ṇa� prāṇam 岹پ, prāṇa gives prāṇa; ṇҲ, to prāṇa; 岹پ, [and again] gives; ṇa� ha , prāṇa is the father; ṇa� , prāṇa is the mother;

Commentary:

ʰṇa, the vital force, is superior to hope. Suppose you are dead. Can hope do anything for you then? You must have life. If you are not living then there can be no hope, no memory—nothing.

The 貹Ծṣa says that prāṇa is the resting place of everything. It is like a wheel with its spokes. All the spokes are fixed on the hub of the wheel. Similarly, my mind and my organs are all fixed on prāṇa. My eyes are very powerful, but if I am dead they may still be intact but they cannot see.

ʰṇa functions on the individual level in you, in me, in plants and insects and animals. But we represent only a small portion of this life force, because prāṇa also functions on the cosmic level. On the cosmic level prāṇa is ᾱṇy, the first manifestation of Brahman. The whole cosmos is governed and activated by prāṇa. Brahman is beyond thought and

If I stop breathing my body and organs can no longer function, and eventually they disintegrate. Similarly, if the cosmic life force withdraws itself from this universe, everything comes to a halt. The sun does not shine; the air does not blow. The whole life process comes to a standstill.

We see so many beings around us. Someone is your mother, someone your father, someone your brother, someone your sister, but they are all prāṇa. ʰṇa is in the form of your mother. ʰṇa is in the form of your father, or your sister, or your teacher, and so on. Our family, society, the entire humanity, all living beings—all are prāṇa in different forms. ʰṇa takes various forms and then assumes different relationships.

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