This set consists of 3 titles:
"That which is this subtle essence, all this has got That is the Self. That is Truth. That is the Self. Thou art That" - Ch. Up. VI.8.7. The Chandogya gives a practical hint as to how one can be in the constant presence of Reality in he midst of daily duties. - Introduction
The Chandogya Upanisad forms a part of the Brahmana of the Talavakara section of the SamaVeda. We present to the readers a translation of the text and the Commentary of Sri Sankaracarya, with notes of Ananda Gin added wherever found necessary. For the text and commentary we have generally depended on the publication of Gita Press, Gorakhpur, but some other publications have also been consulted. The translator is thankful to Swamis Sumedhananda and Atmaramananda, as also to the Advaita Ashrama, for the invaluable help rendered by them, without which this difficult task would not have been possible.
The major portion of this Upanisad consists of upasanãs, the import of which is a little difficult to understand, Therefore, the translator’s article under the heading ‘Upanisadic Meditation’ contributed to The Cultural Heritage of India, Vol. I, with some important discussions on updsana incorporated into it, is included below with the permission of the authorities of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Calcutta. It is hoped that this will facilitate easier understanding of the antiquated process of preparing the mind to enter into the abstruse philosophy of the Upanisads.
Upasana, which is here roughly translated as Upaniadic meditation aimed in part at engendering higher mental attitudes with regard to the daily avocations social contacts and religious pre-occupations. This path of inner transformation in the midst of outward conformity was worked out in all its philosophical bearings and practical details by men of action among whom were some Upanisadic king saints who were conscious of the efficacy of the path as well as their monopoly of this. In the Brhadarnyaka Upanisad King Pravathana Jaivali says to the Brahmana Gautama Before this knowledge did not reside in any Brahmana in the chandogya too the same king says to Brahmana and hence in all the worlds the Ksatriyas had their supremacy.
To out forebears no philosophy had any claim to recognition unless it had some bearing on life. To illustrate the point let us cite some concrete examples from the Upanisadic texts.
The chanting of the Vedas was the daily duty of the students of those days. But lest it should degenerate into a mechanical process the students were encouraged to add a little reflection in the form of upasana to this routine work. the Chandogya says one should reflect on the sama with which one would eulogize on the Rk on which the sama rests on the seer who saw the Rk verses and one should reflect on the deity which one would eulogize. In the Tatitrriya we read of the samhita upanisad or the meditation based on use conjunction of letters where the idea is to lead the pupil’s mind from the mere composition of the words to the universal fact of four factors involved in all conjunctions, viz the two component parts of a pair their actual association and the resulting whole.
Take another and a more sublime meditation the well known pancagni vidya the whole world sentient and insentient is here though of as a group of factors in a cosmic sacrifice involving five successive fires arranged in the order of their subtleness and they are all knit together through a spirit of self sacrifice so that a new creation may emerge new life may come into existence at every stage. Thus faith is poured as an oblation in heaven which is the highest of the fires and as a consequence the lunar world the world of manes comes into existence. The moon is then poured as an oblation in the second fire viz the rain god and so rain pours on earth which is the third fire. From this sacrifice grows food which is offered to man who is considered as the fourth fire from whom comes the seed. The fifth fire is the wife. The most familiar emergence of life is witnessed at child birth. The ancients were bold enough to look on all things and processes from a higher intellectual and spiritual plane. To their spiritual vision the father the mother and the gods who presided over the organs were all agents in a sacrifice bringing new life into existence. As the cosmic counterpart of this outlook on conjugal relationship, we are asked to think of the other world, i.e. heaven, as fire, the sun as its fuel, the rays as the smoke of that fire, day as the light of the fire, the directions as charcoal; or of the cloud-god as fire, the year as its fuel, the clouds as smoke, lightning as light, thunder as charcoal; and so on and so forth.
One of the grandest conceptions of life as a sacrifice is to be found in the Chandogya (111.16—17), which by the way, is the richest storehouse of Upaniadic meditation. This Upaniad says, ‘Man himself is a sacrifice’, and shows in detail how this can he so. Man’s life, divided into three stages, is compared to the three periods in a sacrifice called savanas. Each period is given to its proper deities. The first stage is presided over by the Vasus, who work for life’s stability, for life requires the utmost attention during this period. They are succeeded in youth by the Rudras, the energetic gods, who are often cruel. Consequently, a man must be extremely judicious in what he does in his youth. Old age is presided over by the Adityas who attract everything towards them. Men, then attracted by the higher forces, prepare for the final departure after making their best contribution to the world. In this connection, we are also asked to look on distress caused by hunger and thirst as dilsca (initiation) into a higher life of struggle and achievement; on charity, non-killing, truth, etc. as dakciza (offerings to the performers of our sacrifice, i.e. to our good neighbors); on merriment and laughter as hymns and songs to the gods; and on death as the bath after the sacrifice is completed.
There are many other practical hints for transforming life into a spiritual discipline. The Brhadaranyaka instructs us to look on death and disease as tapasya. This indeed is excellent austerity that a man suffers when he is ill. This indeed is excellent austerity that a man after death is carried to the forest. This indeed is excellent tapasya that a man after death is placed on the fire.
We have great pleasure in presenting to our readers the English translation of the Chandogya Upanisad. After the publication of the English translations of all other Upanisads on which Sri Sankara wrote his commentaries, there was a great and persistent demand for the publication of the Chandogya Upanisad and with its coming out, the series is now completed.
We are sure; this edition will be received with the same enthusiasm and eagerness by the reading public as the earlier ones. Swami Swahananda has translated the Upanisad into English. In interpreting the text, the commentary of Sri Sankara has been systematically followed, mainly in the light of its gloss by Anandagiri.
In preparing the book, much help was derived from a Bengali edition of the book by Swami Gambhirananda. Available English editions were also consulted. Swami Vimalananda has written the Introduction. Our thanks go to him and to Prof.
K. Subrahmanyam, M.A. L.T., Vice-Principal, Vivekananda College, for kindly revising the long manuscript.
I. THE VEDAS: Their relation to the Chandogyapanisad: Veda hyamrtah’—the Vedas are immortal and eternal. Prajapati brooded upon the worlds. From them thus brooded upon issued forth trayividya. Virat, or Kasyapa, practised concentration of thought in order to grasp the essence for the benefit of the world. As a result three fold knowledge flashed in his mind. According to this interpretation by Sri Sankaracarya, of the text quoted above from the C, it is evident that the C accepts the verbal inspiration of the Vedas, a conception that appears in the Puruasukta of the Rgveda and other places in the Vedic literature. The ninth stanza of the Puruasukta runs to this effect: From that total sacrifice of the Virat b and samans originated; the collection of chandas and yajus also originated. Chandas in the plural here can hardly be the Atharvaveda as it is proposed by expounders. If the textual words permit the construction ‘rcah jajnire, samani chandamsi jajnire’, which is quite tenable, that would clearly show the identity of saman and chandas, the appositional use being indicative of words as well as the tune of the Samaveda. The word chandas is usually traced to the root chad’ meaning ‘to cover’; it can very well be a derjvative of the root ‘chand’ having the meaning ‘to please’. The melody of saman is certainly delightful to the ear and the heart, and so the Samaveda is called chandas in this sense. The gruti affirms this svargo vai lokab Samaveda5 ‘—the Samaveda is verily the heavenly world. Heavenly melody lifts one to the highest divine experience in the opinion of Yajnavalkya:
He who knows the actual play of Vina, an expert in the science of melody and time, easily attains to Brahman.’ This pre-eminence of the Samaveda can very well be the purport of Sri Krta’s declaration I am the Samaveda among the Vedas ‘. Patanjali, too, concedes the pride of place to the Samaveda by putting’ it first in order while enumerating the Vedas which the ancients used to learn by imitating the intonations of the preceptor. All these facts lead us to the conclusion that the Samaveda merited special recognition for its musical form, spiritual import and liturgical significance as revealed in great acts of worship like Jyotistoma connected with it. The present upanisad forms part of the Samaveda and shares the authority and honour due to that gruti. In the Sarirakabhasya Sankaracarya introduces passages cited from the C, at times as the sruti of the Tandins or as the Chandogya- brahmana.’ According to him chandogya is the singer of the saman—chando sama gayati iti chandogah— and hence chandogya is what belongs to the followers of the Samaveda. The upaniads that are found in an existing samhita or brahmana are specially deemed genuine and authoritative. The C fulfils this condition as it forms the latter four-fifths of a Chandogyabrahmana in ten chapters. About one hundred and thirty topics are discussed in the course of this upanisad, and a good number of them forms the foundation of later developments in religion and philosophy witnessed in India. This upanisad was a favourite of the author of the Brahmasutra’s who makes copious references to its topics.
The author of the Sarirakabhasya on the Brahmasutras who also paid his special esteem to this upanisad has not only cited profusely from it, but also has written a separate commentary on it with great care and insight. This is the oldest commentary now available on the C. In it Sri Sankaracarya has interpreted and explained all the passages, directly or indirectly, and interrelated the notions scattered all over the text. The -great acarya has worked the ideas of all •the outstanding upanisads into the structure of a single system which fact alone claims for his work unparalleled worth and significance. The translation and notes appearing in the body of this publication are based on sankarabhasya and therefore this Introduction, too, follows the same lead.
The Word Index is mainly useful for the researchers. Basic vocables of verbs and nouns following forms and the reference numbers are mentioned in sequence. Compounds are mentioned along with their components.
It’s a great pleasure to present the forth volume which comprises two principle Upanisads (Brhadaranyaka, Svetasvatara).
Word Index to the Brahmasutra Sankarabhasya is edited by T.M.P.Mahadevan and Published by the Centre of Advanced Study in Philosophy, University of Madras, in 1971. Word Index to the Bhagavadgita - Sankarabhasya is also available, edited by Fransa's X D'sa. S. J. and published by the Institute for the study of Religion, Pune, in 1985.
But, up till now the Word Index to the Upanisat -Sankarabhasya was awaited. Therefore the task was taken up. Before preparing the Word Index to the Upanisat -Sankarabhasya, other two works viz. the Word Index to the Brahmasutra - Sankarabhasya and the Word Index to the Bhagavadgita. - Sankarabhasya were minutely observed. In these two works the vocables are mentioned and the references are noted. But in the Word Index to the Upanisat - Sankarabhasya, a vocable, declensions of a noun of a particular form of a verb and reference numbers are noted, e.g in the entry of the noun atman, one will find the vocable as atman and the successive declensions used in the text along with the reference numbers. Same is the case with the verbs. The stem or the basic root and then the forms begin with present tense - first person etc. are noted. It may be easier to the researcher and an asset to the work.
It is a voluminous work, needs some help to complete. It was begun single handedly. But at times Dr. Madhavi Godbole has assisted for preparing the cards of Chandogya Upanisat. Therefore, she deserves sincere thanks.
We are grateful to Dr. Rajashree Mohadikar for ever encouraging attitude for the completion of all the four volumes.
The wholehearted support of our family members must be noted here, because, without their positive attitude and support the completion of the work may be cumbersome.
Mr. Deepak Subhash Jain, New Bharatiya Book Corporation, Delhi owes sincere thanks for bringing the volume to light.
The suggestions and comments of the researchers are welcome.
Book's Contents and Sample Pages
For privacy concerns, please view our Privacy Policy
Vedas (1356)
Upanishads (659)
Puranas (844)
Ramayana (880)
Mahabharata (313)
Dharmasastras (162)
Vedanta (310)
Gita (1021)
Goddess (458)
Bhakti (240)
Saints (1177)
Gods (1293)
Shiva (328)
Journal (132)
Send as free online greeting card
Email a Friend
Manage Wishlist