Vinaya Texts

SR No.: 007684
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T W Rhys Davids, Hermann Oldenberg
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1881
Total Pages: 2523
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 47 MB

Page 531

II VALLI, 8 ANUVÂKA, 5.
measure of the bliss of Brahman, and likewise of a great sage who is free from desires.
(5) He1 who is this (Brahman) in man, and he who is that (Brahman) in the sun, both are one 2.
1 Cf. III, 10, 4.
man.
In giving the various degrees of happiness, the author of the Upanishad gives us at the same time the various classes of human and divine beings which we must suppose were recognised in his time. We have Men, human Gandharvas divine Gandharvas, Fathers (pitaras kiralokalokâh), born Gods (âgânagâ devâh), Gods by merit, (karmadevâh), Gods, Indra, Brihaspati, Pragâpati, BrahSuch a list would seem to be the invention of an individual rather than the result of an old tradition, if it did not occur in a very similar form in the Satapatha-brâhmana, Mâdhyandina-sâkhâ XIV, 7,1,31, Kânva-sâkhâ (Brih. Âr. Up. IV, 3, 32). Here, too, the highest measure of happiness is ascribed to the Brahmaloka, and other beings are supposed to share a certain measure only of its supreme happiness. The scale begins in the Mâdhyandina-sâkhâ with men, who are followed by the Fathers (pitaro gitalokâh), the Gods by merit (karmadevâh), the Gods by birth (âgânadevâh, with whom the Srotriya is joined), the world of Gods, the world of Gandharvas, the world of Pragâpati, the world of Brahman. In the Brihadâranyaka-upanishad we have Men, Fathers, Gandharvas, Gods by merit, Gods by birth, Pragâpati, and Brahman. If we place the three lists side by side, we find— TAITTIRIYA-UPAN. SATAPATHA-BRAH. BRIHADÂRAN.-UPAN.
Men
Human Gandharvas
(and Srotriya) Divine Gandharvas
Fathers (kiraloka)
Gods by birth
Gods by merit
Gods
Indra
Men
Fathers (gitaloka)
Gods by merit
Gods by birth
(and Srotriya)
Gods
Gandharvas
Brihaspati
Pragâpati
Pragâpati
Brahman
Brahman
The commentators do not help us much.
61
Men
Fathers (gitaloka)
Gandharvas Gods by merit
Gods by birth (and Srotriya)
Pragâpati Brahman.
Sankara on the Taitti
Digitized by Google