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Īśopaniṣad with Śaṅkara's bhāṣya · 3
asuryā nāma te lokā andhena tamasāvṛtāḥ | tāṃste pretyābhigacchanti ye ke cātmahano janāḥ
Translation. Asuric (asurya) are those worlds—the fruits of action, births—covered by blind darkness, namely ignorance (ajñāna);
after leaving this body, all those people reach them who, being ignorant, are called “killers of the Self” (ātmahan).
Grammar check: 15 words pass / 1 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 |
|---|
| asuryāḥ | asurya | pass |
| nāma | nāma | pass |
| te | tad | pass |
| lokāḥ | loka | pass |
| andhena | andha | pass |
| tamasā | tamas | pass |
| āvṛtāḥ | āvṛta | pass |
| tān | tad | pass |
| te | tad | pass |
| pretya | iṇ | pass |
| abhigacchanti | gam | pass |
| ye | yad | pass |
| ke | kim | pass |
| ca | ca | pass |
| ātmahanaḥ | ātmahan | fail |
| janāḥ | jana | 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.
Interpret asuryāḥ as a predicative adjective agreeing with lokāḥ and meaning “Asuric,” i.e. belonging to Asuras; the designation is relative to the nondual state of the Supreme Self and can include even gods.→ “Asuric (asurya) are those worlds.”
isup [1]asuryāḥ paramātmabhāvamadvayamapekṣya devādayo 'pyasurāsteṣāñca svabhūtā lokā asuryā nāma /
Relative to the nondual state of the Supreme Self, even the gods and others are Asuras, and the worlds belonging to them are called Asuric.
Treat nāma as an expletive particle and do not translate it as “named,” “indeed,” or “certainly.”→ No separate English equivalent is supplied for nāma.
isup [2]nāmaśabdo 'narthako nipātaḥ /
The word nāma is a semantically empty particle.
Retain “worlds” for lokāḥ but explain them as karmic results, specifically experienced births, rather than merely geographical or cosmological regions.→ “those worlds—the fruits of action, births.”
isup [3, 4]te lokāḥ karmaphalāni /
lokyante dṛśyante bhujyanta iti janmāni /
Those worlds are the fruits of action. Because they are observed, seen, and experienced, they are births.
Construe andhena as agreeing with instrumental tamasā and interpret the phrase as ignorance whose nature is non-seeing; construe āvṛtāḥ as “covered” or “concealed.”→ “covered by blind darkness, namely ignorance.”
isup [5]andhenādarśanātmakenājñānena tamasāvṛtā ācchāditāḥ tāṃsthāvarāntānpretya tyaktvemaṃ dehamabhigacchanti yathākarma yathāśrutam /
Covered—concealed—by darkness, by ignorance whose nature is non-seeing, they reach those births extending down to immovable beings after departing, that is, after abandoning this body, according to their action and learning.
Analyze pretya as an absolutive from iṇ with pra, not as a finite imperative; its contextual sense is “after abandoning this body.” Tān is the object of abhigacchanti and refers to the previously mentioned worlds or births.→ “after leaving this body, … reach them.”
isup [5]tāṃsthāvarāntānpretya tyaktvemaṃ dehamabhigacchanti yathākarma yathāśrutam /
They reach those [births], extending down to immovable beings, after departing—after abandoning this body—according to their action and learning.
Read the second te as the subject correlated with ye ke ca; the relative expression denotes all such people, whom the commentary identifies as the ignorant.→ “all those people reach them who, being ignorant…”
isup [7]ke te janāḥ ye 'vidvāṃsaḥ /
Who are those people? Those who are ignorant.
isup [10]tena hyātmahananadoṣeṇa saṃsaranti te
For through that fault of killing the Self, they undergo transmigration.
Analyze ātmahanaḥ as one compound stem ātmahan, an object/upapada-tatpuruṣa whose object relation is ātmānam + han. Translate it as the designation “killers of the Self,” not as an independent sequence ātma + hanaḥ. Although the verifier does not support the compound relation and derives ātmahānaḥ, Śaṅkara’s explicit vigraha establishes the object relation, while the checked mūla supports nominative plural ātmahanaḥ.→ “‘killers of the Self’ (ātmahan).”
isup [6]ātmānaṃ ghnantītyātmahanāḥ /
Because they kill the Self, they are ‘killers of the Self.’
Do not understand “killing the Self” as physical suicide or literal destruction of an eternal Self. It is the ignorant concealment of the already existent Self, by which its result—awareness characterized by freedom from aging and death—becomes hidden as though destroyed.→ The translation marks “killers of the Self” as an attributed designation and explicitly identifies the people as ignorant.
isup [7]ke te janāḥ ye 'vidvāṃsaḥ /
Who are those people? Those who are ignorant.
isup [9]avidyādoṣeṇa vidyamānasyātmanaḥ tiraskaraṇāt vidyamānasya ātmano yatkāryaṃ phalamajarāmaratvādisaṃvedanalakṣaṇaṃ taddhatasyeva tirobhūtaṃ bhavatīti
Because the existent Self is concealed through the defect of ignorance, the result belonging to that existent Self—awareness characterized by freedom from aging and death and so forth—becomes hidden as if the Self had been slain.
Śaṅkara's commentary on this unit
1asuryāḥ paramātmabhāvamadvayamapekṣya devādayo 'pyasurāsteṣāñca svabhūtā lokā asuryā nāma /
2nāmaśabdo 'narthako nipātaḥ /
3te lokāḥ karmaphalāni /
4lokyante dṛśyante bhujyanta iti janmāni /
5andhenādarśanātmakenājñānena tamasāvṛtā ācchāditāḥ tāṃsthāvarāntānpretya tyaktvemaṃ dehamabhigacchanti yathākarma yathāśrutam /
6ātmānaṃ ghnantītyātmahanāḥ /
7ke te janāḥ ye 'vidvāṃsaḥ /
8kathaṃ ta ātmānaṃ nityaṃ hiṃsanti /
9avidyādoṣeṇa vidyamānasyātmanaḥ tiraskaraṇāt vidyamānasya ātmano yatkāryaṃ phalamajarāmaratvādisaṃvedanalakṣaṇaṃ taddhatasyeva tirobhūtaṃ bhavatīti prākṛtāvidvāṃso janāḥ janāḥ ātmahana ucyante /
10tena hyātmahananadoṣeṇa saṃsaranti te