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 532

62
TAITTIRIYAKA-UPANISHAD.
He who knows this, when he has departed this world, reaches and comprehends the Self which consists of food, the Self which consists of breath, the Self which consists of mind, the Self which consists of understanding, the Self which consists of bliss.
On this there is also this Sloka : rîyaka-upanishad explains the human Gandharvas as men who have become Gandharvas, a kind of fairies; divine Gandharvas, as Gandharvas by birth. The Fathers or Manes are called Kiraloka, because they remain long, though not for ever, in their world. The âgânaga Gods are explained as born in the world of the Devas through their good works (smârta), while the Karmadevas are explained as born there through their sacred works (vaidika). The Gods are the thirty-three, whose lord is Indra, and whose teacher Brihaspati. Pragâpati is Virág, Brahman Hiranyagarbha. Dvivedaganga, in his commentary on the Satapatha-brâhmana, expia the Fathers as those who, proceeding on the Southern path, hava conquered their world, more particularly by having themselves offered in their life sacrifices to their Fathers. The Karmadevas, according to him, are those who have become Devas by sacred works (srauta), the Agânadevas those who were gods before there were men. The Gods are Indra and the rest, while the Gandharvas are not explained. Pragậpati is Virâg, Brahman is Hiranyagarbha. Lastly, Sankara, in his commentary on the Brihadâranyakaupanishad, gives nearly the same explanation as before; only that he makes âgânadevâh still clearer, by explaining them as gods âgânatah, i.e. utpattitah, from their birth.
The arrangement of these beings and their worlds, one rising above the other, reminds us of the cosmography of the Buddhists, but the elements, though in a less systematic form, existed evidently before. Thus we find in the so-called Gargî-brâhmana (Satapathabrâhmana XIV, 6, 6, 1) the following succession: Water, air, ethera, the worlds of the skyb, heaven, sun, moon, stars, gods, Gandharvase, Pragâpati, Brahman. In the Kaushîtaki-upanishad I, 3 (Sacred Books of the East, vol. i, p. 275) there is another series, the worlds of Agni, Vayu, Varuna, Indra, Pragâpati, and Brahman. See Weber, Ind. Stud. II, p. 224. a Deest in Kânva-sâkhâ.
Between sky and sun, the Kanva-sâkhâ places the Gandharvaloka (Brih. Âr. Up. III, 6, 1, p. 609).
. Instead of Gandharvas, the Brih. Âr. Up. places Indra.
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