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Īśopaniṣad with Śaṅkara's bhāṣya · 8
sa paryagāc chukram akāyam avraṇam asnāviraṃ śuddham apāpaviddham | kavir manīṣī paribhūḥ svayambhūr yāthātathyator 'thān vyadadhāc chāśvatībhyaḥ samābhyaḥ
Translation. That Self has gone all around—bright, bodiless,
unwounded, sinewless, pure, untouched by evil (pāpa),
far-seeing and seeing all, the mind’s ruler and omniscient Lord,
above all, self-existent;
in accordance with actuality (yāthātathyataḥ), he apportioned the objects—the things to be performed—
for the eternal Years, the Prajāpatis called “Years.”
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 |
|---|
| saḥ | tad | pass |
| paryagāt | gā | pass |
| śukram | śukra | pass |
| akāyam | akāya | pass |
| avraṇam | avraṇa | pass |
| asnāviram | asnāvira | pass |
| śuddham | śuddha | pass |
| apāpaviddham | apāpaviddha | pass |
| kaviḥ | kavi | pass |
| manīṣī | manīṣin | pass |
| paribhūḥ | paribhū | pass |
| svayambhūḥ | svayambhū | pass |
| yāthātathyataḥ | yāthātathyataḥ | pass |
| arthān | artha | pass |
| vyadadhāt | dhā | pass |
| śāśvatībhyaḥ | śāśvatī | pass |
| samābhyaḥ | samā | 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.
saḥ denotes the previously described Self, while paryagāt means that it has gone all around in the sense of pervading everything like space.→ All-pervasion of the previously described Self.
isup [1]sa yathokta ātmā paryagāt pari samantādagādgatavānākāśavadvyāpī ityarthaḥ /
‘That’ is the Self described above. ‘Paryagāt’: it went all around, went everywhere; the meaning is that it pervades like space.
The successive epithets negate the subtle, gross, and causal bodies and all contact with merit and demerit; the negative compounds are therefore interpreted possessively or privatively rather than as unrelated descriptions.→ A graded negation of embodiment: akāya excludes the subtle body; avraṇa and asnāvira exclude the gross body; śuddha excludes the causal body; apāpaviddha excludes merit, demerit, and related pāpa.
isup [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]śukraṃ śuddhaṃ jyotiṣmaddīptimānityarthaḥ /
akāyamaśarīro liṅgaśarīravarjita ityarthaḥ /
avraṇam akṣatam /
asnāviraṃ snāvāḥ śirā yasminna vidyanta ityasnāviram /
avraṇamasnāviramityābhyāṃ sthūlaśarīrapratiṣedhaḥ /
śuddhaṃ nirmalamavidyāmalarahitamiti kāraṇaśarīrapratiṣedhaḥ /
apāpaviddhaṃ dharmādharmādipāpavarjitam /
Śukram means pure, luminous, shining. Akāyam means bodiless, free from the subtle body. Avraṇam means unwounded. Asnāviram is one in whom sinews or veins do not exist. Avraṇam and asnāviram negate the gross body; śuddham, being spotless and free from the impurity of ignorance, negates the causal body; apāpaviddham means free from pāpa such as merit and demerit. In the unproofread line 5, vidyanta is evidently intended for vidyante.
Although śukram through apāpaviddham have formally neuter accusative singular surface forms, they are translated as masculine predicates of saḥ because Śaṅkara explicitly requires a masculine syntactic transformation (pariṇāma).→ Retain the checkable surface morphology while following Śaṅkara’s masculine predicative construal in translation.
isup [9, 10]śukramityādīni vacāṃsi pulliṅgatvena pariṇeyāni /
sa paryagādityupakramya kavirmanīṣītyādinā pulliṅgatvenopasaṃhārāt /
The expressions beginning with śukram must be transformed into the masculine, because the passage begins with sa paryagāt and concludes in the masculine with kaviḥ, manīṣī, and the rest.
The four masculine epithets describe the Self as all-seeing, ruler of the mind and omniscient Lord, above all, and self-existent.→ ‘Far-seeing and seeing all; ruler of the mind, the omniscient Lord; above all; self-existent.’
isup [11, 12, 13, 14]kaviḥ krāntadarśī sarvādṛk /
"nānyo 'to 'sti draṣṭā"(bṛ. u. 3 /
8 /
11) ityādiśruteḥ /
Kaviḥ means far-seeing, seeing all, in accordance with the revelation ‘There is no other seer than this’ and similar texts.
isup [15]maniṣī manasa īṣitā sarvajña īśvara ityarthaḥ /
Manīṣī means the ruler of the mind—the omniscient Lord.
isup [16]paribhūḥ sarveṣāṃ paryupari bhavatīti paribhūḥ /
He is paribhūḥ because he exists over and above all.
isup [17, 18]svayambhūḥ svayameva bhavatīti /
yeṣāmupari bhavati yaścopari bhavati sa sarvaḥ svayameva bhavatīti svayambhūḥ /
He is svayambhūḥ because he exists by himself; the whole comprising both those above whom he stands and that which stands above exists as himself.
yāthātathyataḥ expresses assignment in accordance with things as they actually are, especially the appropriate means and fruits of action; arthān denotes the things to be performed, and vyadadhāt means that the Lord assigned or apportioned them appropriately.→ ‘In accordance with actuality, he appropriately apportioned the objects—the things to be performed.’
isup [19]sa nityamukta īśvaro yāthātathyataḥ sarvajñatvādyathātathābhāvo yāthātathyaṃ tasmādyathābhūtakarmaphalasādhanator'thān karttavyapadārthān vyadadhādvihitavān yathānurūpaṃ vyabhajadityarthaḥ, śāśvatībhyo nityābhyaḥ samābhyaḥ saṃvatsarākhyebhyaḥ prajāpatibhya ityarthaḥ
That eternally liberated Lord acts from yāthātathya, the state of things exactly as they are, because he is omniscient. In accordance with the actual means and fruits of action, he assigned the objects—the things to be performed; that is, he prescribed and appropriately apportioned them. The unproofread sādhanator'thān is read as sādhanato 'rthān, matching the explicit gloss arthān karttavyapadārthān.
śāśvatībhyaḥ samābhyaḥ is dative rather than ablative or a temporal idiom: Śaṅkara identifies the recipients as eternal Prajāpatis called ‘Years.’→ Dative recipients: ‘for the eternal Years—the Prajāpatis called Years.’
isup [19]śāśvatībhyo nityābhyaḥ samābhyaḥ saṃvatsarākhyebhyaḥ prajāpatibhya ityarthaḥ
‘For the śāśvatī samāḥ’ means ‘for the eternal Prajāpatis called Years.’
Śaṅkara's commentary on this unit
1sa yathokta ātmā paryagāt pari samantādagādgatavānākāśavadvyāpī ityarthaḥ /
2śukraṃ śuddhaṃ jyotiṣmaddīptimānityarthaḥ /
3akāyamaśarīro liṅgaśarīravarjita ityarthaḥ /
4avraṇam akṣatam /
5asnāviraṃ snāvāḥ śirā yasminna vidyanta ityasnāviram /
6avraṇamasnāviramityābhyāṃ sthūlaśarīrapratiṣedhaḥ /
7śuddhaṃ nirmalamavidyāmalarahitamiti kāraṇaśarīrapratiṣedhaḥ /
8apāpaviddhaṃ dharmādharmādipāpavarjitam /
9śukramityādīni vacāṃsi pulliṅgatvena pariṇeyāni /
10sa paryagādityupakramya kavirmanīṣītyādinā pulliṅgatvenopasaṃhārāt /
11kaviḥ krāntadarśī sarvādṛk /
12"nānyo 'to 'sti draṣṭā"(bṛ. u. 3 /
138 /
1411) ityādiśruteḥ /
15maniṣī manasa īṣitā sarvajña īśvara ityarthaḥ /
16paribhūḥ sarveṣāṃ paryupari bhavatīti paribhūḥ /
17svayambhūḥ svayameva bhavatīti /
18yeṣāmupari bhavati yaścopari bhavati sa sarvaḥ svayameva bhavatīti svayambhūḥ /
19sa nityamukta īśvaro yāthātathyataḥ sarvajñatvādyathātathābhāvo yāthātathyaṃ tasmādyathābhūtakarmaphalasādhanator'thān karttavyapadārthān vyadadhādvihitavān yathānurūpaṃ vyabhajadityarthaḥ, śāśvatībhyo nityābhyaḥ samābhyaḥ saṃvatsarākhyebhyaḥ prajāpatibhya ityarthaḥ