back to questions
Īśopaniṣad with Śaṅkara's bhāṣya · 2
kurvann eveha karmāṇi jijīviṣecchataṃ samāḥ | evaṃ tvayi nānyatheto 'sti na karma lipyate nare
Translation. Only while performing the prescribed ritual works (karmāṇi) here
should one wish to live a hundred years.
In this way, for you—the man who wishes to live—there is no course other than this:
no evil karma clings to you.
Grammar check: 17 words pass / 0 flagged / 0 beyond the checkerPāṇini-verified
Every word's claimed grammar is re-derived with vidyut-prakriya, software implementing Pāṇini's rules. Flags are shown, never hidden; some are the text taking epic or Vedic liberties the classical rules do not generate.
Word by word
| surface | lemma | grammar |
|---|
| kurvan | kurvat | pass |
| eva | eva | pass |
| iha | iha | pass |
| karmāṇi | karman | pass |
| jijīviṣet | jīv | pass |
| śatam | śata | pass |
| samāḥ | samā | pass |
| evam | evam | pass |
| tvayi | tvad | pass |
| na | na | pass |
| anyathā | anyathā | pass |
| itaḥ | itas | pass |
| asti | as | pass |
| na | na | pass |
| karma | karman | pass |
| lipyate | lip | pass |
| nare | nara | pass |
How the commentary settled it
Where the verse alone is ambiguous, the reading follows Śaṅkara's commentary; the deciding lines are quoted below each decision.
Eva scopes over kurvan: the injunction is to wish to live only while continuing to perform karmāṇi, and these karmāṇi are not generic actions but scripturally prescribed rites such as Agnihotra.→ ‘Only while performing the prescribed ritual works here.’
isup [5]ataḥ śāstravihitāni karmāṇyagnihotrādīni kurvanneva jijīviṣet
Therefore one should wish to live only while performing the scripturally enjoined works such as Agnihotra.
isup [3]tat kurvanneva karmāṇītyetadvidhīyate
What is enjoined is precisely that one should do so only while performing works.
Jijīviṣet is a desiderative optative, ‘should wish to live’; śatam samāḥ denotes a hundred years, treated as the traditionally established maximum human lifespan. The fresh injunction concerns performing rites, while the wish to live for a hundred years is restated as something already given.→ ‘Should one wish to live a hundred years.’
isup [1]jijīviṣejjīvitumicchecchataṃ śatasaṅkhyākāḥ samāḥ saṃvatsarān
Jijīviṣet means ‘should wish to live’; samāḥ are years numbered one hundred—saṃvatsaras.
isup [2]tāvaddhi puruṣasya paramāyurnirūpitam
For precisely that long the maximum human lifespan has been established.
isup [3]prāptānuvādena yajjijīviṣecchataṃ varṣāṇi tat kurvanneva karmāṇītyetadvidhīyate
By restating what is already obtained—wishing to live a hundred years—the performance of works alone is what is enjoined.
Evam and anyathā itaḥ describe mutually exclusive manners of living: for this addressee there is no alternative to the present course of performing rites. Itaḥ therefore belongs with anyathā, ‘otherwise than/from this,’ rather than functioning as an independent ‘from here.’→ ‘In this way … there is no course other than this.’
isup [4]evamevamprakāreṇa
Evam means ‘in this very manner.’
isup [4]ita etasmādagnihotrādīni karmāṇi kurvato vartamānātprakārāt
Itaḥ means ‘from this’—from the present manner of performing works such as Agnihotra.
isup [4]anyathā prakārāntaraṃ nāsti
Anyathā means that there is no other manner.
Tvayi and nare are construed together in the locative, with an understood jijīviṣati: the statement applies ‘to you, the man who wishes to live,’ specifically one whose self-conception is that of a mere human agent.→ ‘For you—the man who wishes to live.’
isup [4]tvayi jijīviṣati nare naramātrābhimānini
‘In you, the man who wishes to live,’ one who identifies himself merely as a man.
Na karma lipyate nare describes immunity from adverse karmic taint while following this ritual course. Lipyate is retained as a formal passive, but translated idiomatically as ‘karma clings’; Śaṅkara’s paraphrase expresses the equivalent result, that the person is not stained by karma.→ ‘No evil karma clings to you.’
isup [4]yena prakāreṇāśubhaṃ karma na lipyate karmaṇā na lipyata ityarthaḥ
‘By which manner evil karma does not adhere’; the meaning is that one is not stained by karma. The final lipyata is quoted verbatim but is likely an unproofread form of lipyate.
The verse belongs to the path of ritual action (karmaniṣṭhā) for one who wishes to continue embodied life; it is not Śaṅkara’s prescription that renunciation and knowledge must be combined with ritual action. The question in line 6 raises this division, and the answer supports it by insisting on the incompatibility of knowledge and action and by distinguishing the two paths.→ The immediate addressee is the person following karmaniṣṭhā, not the renunciate following jñānaniṣṭhā.
isup [6]pūrveṇa saṃnyāsino jñānaniṣṭhoktā dvitīyena tadaśaktasya karmaniṣṭheti
The question formulates the division: the first verse teaches commitment to knowledge for the renunciate, and the second commitment to action for one unable to follow that.
isup [7]jñānakarmaṇorvirodhaṃ parvatavadakampyaṃ yathoktaṃ na smarasi kim
Do you not remember the previously stated incompatibility of knowledge and action, unshakable like a mountain?
isup [11]kriyāpathaścaiva purastātsaṃnyāsaścottareṇa
There is the path of ritual action on the one side and renunciation on the other.
isup [13]tayoḥ saṃnyāsapatha evātirecayati
Of the two, he gives pre-eminence specifically to the path of renunciation.
Śaṅkara's commentary on this unit
1kurvanneva iha nivartayanneva karmāṇyagnihotrādīni jijīviṣejjīvitumicchecchataṃ śatasaṅkhyākāḥ samāḥ saṃvatsarān /
2tāvaddhi puruṣasya paramāyurnirūpitam /
3tathā ca prāptānuvādena yajjijīviṣecchataṃ varṣāṇi tat kurvanneva karmāṇītyetadvidhīyate /
4evamevamprakāreṇa tvayi jijīviṣati nare naramātrābhimāninīta etasmādagnihotrādīni karmāṇi kurvato vartamānātprakārādanyathā prakārāntaraṃ nāsti yena prakāreṇāśubhaṃ karma na lipyate karmaṇā na lipyata ityarthaḥ /
5ataḥ śāstravihitāni karmāṇyagnihotrādīni kurvanneva jijīviṣet /
6kathaṃ punaridamavagamyate pūrveṇa saṃnyāsino jñānaniṣṭhoktā dvitīyena tadaśaktasya karmaniṣṭheti /
7ucyateḥ jñānakarmaṇorvirodhaṃ parvatavadakampyaṃ yathoktaṃ na smarasi kim /
8ihāpyuktaṃ 'yo hi jijīviṣet sa karma kurvan' 'īśāvāsyamidaṃ sarvam' 'tena tyaktena bhuñjīthāḥ' 'mā gṛdhaḥ kasyasviddhanam' iti ca /
9'na jīvite maraṇe vā gṛdhiṃ kurvītāraṇyamiyāditi ca param ; tato na punariyāt' iti saṃnyāsāsanāt /
10ubhayoḥ phalabhedaṃ ca vakṣyati /
11imau dvāveva panthānāvanuniṣkrāntatarau bhavataḥ kriyāpathaścaiva purastātsaṃnyāsaścottareṇa /
12nivṛttimārgeṇa eṣaṇātrayasya tyāgaḥ /
13tayoḥ saṃnyāsapatha evātirecayati /
14"nyāsa evātyarecayat"iti ca taittirīyake /
15"dvāvimāvatha panthānau yatra vedāḥ pratiṣṭhitāḥ /
16pravṛttilakṣaṇo dharmo nivṛttaśca vibhāvitaḥ" //
17ityādi putrāya vicārya niścitamuktaṃ vyāsena vedācāryeṇa bhagavatā vibhāgañcānayoḥ darśayiṣyāmaḥ