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Chandogya Upanishad (Shankara Bhashya)

by Ganganatha Jha | 1942 | 149,749 words | ISBN-10: 8170842840 | ISBN-13: 9788170842842

This is the English translation of the Chandogya Upanishad, an ancient philosophical text originally written in Sanksrit and dating to at least the 8th century BCE. Having eight chapters (adhyayas) and many sub-sections (khandas), this text is counted among the largest of it's kind. The Chandogya Upanishad, being connected to the Samaveda, represen...

Section 5.18 (eighteenth khaṇḍa) (two texts)

Upaniṣad text:

He said to them—‘All of you, knowing the ղśԲ- differently as it were, eat food. But one who meditates upon this ղśԲ- as a whole, composed of parts and self-conscious, eats food in all regions, in all beings and in all Selves.’�(1)

Commentary (Śaṅkara Bhāṣya):

Thereupon he said to all those who had held the above-mentioned views regarding ղśԲ: All of you;—the particles �vai� and �khalu� are meaningless;—know this ղśԲ-,—who is one and not diverse,�differently as it were; and knowing him thus, you eat food; and you thus regard the Self as a limited entity, in the same way as a number of persons born blind perceiving the elephant through touching its different parts, come to have diverse notions regarding it (each one regarding it to be like the part that he had touched; and as none of them had touched the whole elephant, none had any idea of the elephant as a whole entity). One who meditates upon this ղśԲ- as a whole composed of parts, such parts as the Heaven as His head, down to the Earth as His feet. He is ś-ٰ which means that (a) he is one who is known, in the physical form through his compound parts, such as the Heaven as his head, ending with the Earth as his feet;—or (b) it may mean that he is inferred as the ‘Eater�, in regard to the organs;—or (c) that he extends from the Heaven down to the Earth;—or (d) �ʰś� may be taken as standing for the Heavenly and other regions, in the sense that they are flatteringly described in the scriptures and the ղśԲ is of the same size as all these;�(e) in another Vedic text, this Self has been described as �ś-ٰ�, in its literal sense,—namely, of the same size as the distance between the Head and the Chin; but this is not the sense intended here; as is clear from the summing up contained in the next text. He is also �Self-conscious�,—i.e. he is cognised as the Individualised Self in the notion of ‘I�. This is ղśԲ,—in the sense of �Viśvān narān nayati�, carries all men, to their states in accordance with their merit and demerit;—He, the All-self, the God or He may be called �ղśԲ� in the sense of being ‘All-Man�, being the Self of all,—or he may be �ղśԲ� in the sense that ‘He is treated by all men as the Individualised Self One who meditates upon this ղśԲ- eats food in all regions—Heaven and the rest,—in all beings-animate and inanimate, and in all Selves,�Body, Organs, Mind and Intellect,—all these being sometimes spoken of as ‘Self�. The sense is that one who knows the ղśԲ eats the food of all living beings,—being the All-self, He eats the food (of all); he is not like the ignorant man who knows only the physical body with which he identifies himself.�(1)

Upaniṣad text:

Of this ղśԲ-, the Head is the ‘Highly Brilliant�,—t Eye is the ‘Multiform�,—t Life-breath is the ‘Diverse-coursed Soul,’—the Trunk is the ‘Extensive�,—t Bladder is ‘Wealth�,—t Feet are the ‘Earth�;—the Chest is the Altar, the Hairs are the Grass, the Heart is the 󲹱貹ٲⲹ Fire, the Mind is the Աⲹ貹Բ Fire, and the Mouth is the Ā󲹱īⲹ Fire.�(2)

Commentary (Śaṅkara Bhāṣya):

“Why is it so (as described above)?�

Because of this same ղśԲ-, which is the subject-matter of the section,�the Head itself is the ‘Highly Brilliant�, the Eye is the Multiform,—t Life-breath is the Diverse-coursed Soul,—t Trunk is the Extensive,—‘the Bladder is Wealth and the Earth is the Feet. Or the whole of this may be taken as an injunction of meditation—the sense being that one should meditate in this manner. The text proceeds to show how, in the case of the knower of the ղśԲ-, the act of Eating constitutes the Agnihotra-offering; of this ղśԲ-,—who is the eater,—t chest is the Altar,—because it resembles this in shape,�the Hairs are the Grass,—t hairs are seen to be spread over the chest, just as grass is seen strewn on the Altar,�the Heart is the 󲹱貹ٲⲹ-ṛe,—because the Mind is taken out of the Heart (just as the Աⲹ貹Բ Fire is taken out of the Ā󲹱īⲹ and hence is close to it; hence the Mind is the Աⲹ貹Բ Fire;—the Mouth is the Ā󲹱īⲹ Fire;—as like the Ā󲹱īⲹ Fire, the Mouth is that into which food is thrown in, just as offerings are thrown into the Ā󲹱īⲹ-Fire�(2)

End of Section (18) of Discourse V

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