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 570

100
BRIHADARANYAKA-UPANISHAD.
SECOND ADHYAYA?
• First BRÂHMANA? 1. There was formerly the proud Gârgya Bâlâki-, a man of great reading. He said to Agâtasatru of Käsi, ‘Shall I tell you Brahman?' Agâtasatru said: 'We give a thousand (cows) for that speech (of yours), for verily all people run away, saying, Ganaka (the king of Mithila) is our father (patron).
2. Gârgya said: “The person that is in the sun, that I adore as Brahman.' Agâta satru said to him : 'No, no! Do not speak to me on this. I adore him
1 Mâdhyandina text, p. 1058.
. Whatever has been taught to the end of the third (according to the counting of the Upanishad, the first) Adhyâya, refers to avidyâ, ignorance. Now, however, vidyâ, the highest knowledge, is to be taught, and this is done, first of all, by a dialogue between Gârgya Driptabâlâki and king Agâtasatru, the former, though a Brâhmana, representing the imperfect, the latter, though a Kshatriya, the perfect knowledge of Brahman. While Gârgya worships the Brahman as the sun, the moon, &c., as limited, as active and passive, Agâtasatru knows the Brahman as the Self.
: Compare with this the fourth Adhyâya of the Kaushîtakiupanishad, Sacred Books of the East, vol. I, p. 300; Gough, Philosophy of the Upanishads, p. 144.
4 Son of Balâkâ, of the race of the Gârgyas.
o Ganaka, known as a wise and liberal king. There is a play on his name, which means father, and is understood in the sense of patron, or of teacher of wisdom. The meaning is obscure; and. in the Kaush. Up. IV. 1, the construction is still more difficult. What is intended seems to be that Agâtasatru is willing to offer any reward to a really wise man, because all the wise men are running after Ganaka and settling at his court.
The commentator expatiates on all these answers and brings them more into harmony with Vedânta doctrines. Thus he adds that the person in the sun is at the same time the person in the eye, who is both active and passive in the heart, &c.
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