After condemning those without brahma-vidyā as verily the destroyers of the self – ātma-hano jānāḥ – the 4th mantra of the īśāvāsyopaniṣat starts describing the self.
anejad ekam manaso javīyo, nainad devā āpnuvan pūrvam arṣat |
tad dhāvato ̍’nyān atyeti tiśḥṭhat, tasminnapo mātariśvā dadhāti || īśa 4
First, it’s interesting to note the connection between the gloss on anejad, and a previous post which discussed jagat as carācaram. Here, bhāṣyakāra glosses kampanam as “calanaṁ, svāvasthā-pracyutiḥ” which fits in quite nicely with that discussion.
The blatant contradiction between anejat and javīya is once explained through nirupādhi and sopādhi points of view. In what sense is the unmoving ātmā quicker than the mind? Because the ātmā, even as it reflects in the jīvā can never be the object of the sense.
mano-vyāpāra-vyavahitatvād ābhāsa-mātramapi ātmano naiva devānāṁ viṣayī-bhavati (bhāṣya)
The maṇiprabhā has a couple of interesting points to add to the bhāṣya on this verse. It explains “pūrvam arśat” and it’s necessity as proving the astitvam of the ātmā which might otherwise be negated because it can’t be the object of the senses.
manasā … aprāpyatvena asattva-śaṅkāṁ prāptāṁ vārayati – pūrvam iti (maṇiprabhā)
When talking about how it runs faster while remaining unmoving (dhāvato ‘nyān atyeti), bhāśyakāra explains what is surpassed –
ātma-vilakṣaṇān mano-vāg-indriya-prabhṛtīn atyeti atītya gacchati. (bhāṣya)
Here, the maṇiprabhā adds the notion of time explicitly to the list –
anyān kāla-vāyvādīn atyeti ullaṅghya yāti (maṇiprabhā)
The last quarter of this mantra is no trivial matter. It is clearly loaded with inner meaning, and is better left to experts. It is interesting to note the occurrence of these words in the brahma-sūtras.
etena mātariśvā vyākhyātaḥ (2.3.8)
āpaḥ (2.3.11)
It is used in a different context in these sutras. Here are the conclusions:
vāyurjāyate (2.3.8)
sad brahma naiva jāyate (2.3.9)
tejaso vāyujanyatvaṁ kathitam (2.3.10)
āpaḥ tejaso jāyante (2.3.11)
No comments:
Post a Comment