Upanisad Series MAHANARAYANOPANISAD (WITH ACCENTED TEXT) Inti oduction, Translation, Interpretation 1m Sanskrat, and Cretieal and Explanatory Notes BY SWAMI VIMALANANDA SRI RAMAKRISHNA MATH Srr RAMAKRISHNA MATH ROAD MYLAPORE, MADRAS-4 1968Published by © Tue Present Set RAMAKRISHNA MATH MYLAPORE, MaDRas-4 SECOND EDITION 1968 All iights reserved COP—MMMCC—IES Pnnted at Puce Sharada Press Rupees Six Car Street, Mangalore-1PUBLISHER’S NOTE Tue Upamisads are the culmmation of the Vedas 1neretore they aie known as the Vedanta The 1eligious message given by Swami Vivekananda was based on the Vedanta The Swamiji urged his followers to populauise the thoughts treasur- ed in the Upanisads at home and abroad Bearing this idea in mind the second president of this Math started the Upanisad ‘Series thuty-five years ago Each Upanisad belonging to this Series contains the text in bold Devandgari type, woid-by- word meaning, translation based on tradition, Introduction briefly summarizing the subject matter, and elaborate Notes About a dozen Upanisads are specially wuminated by the superb Commentary of Sii Sankardcarya, who lived over one thousand years ago They are the most authoutative Upa- misads, and eleven of them are now made available m this Series Most of them have undergone many editions and 1epumnts, and have gamed popularity in several parts of the world Heartened by this wide welcome given to the Upanisad Series, we now publish the Mahdniidyanopanisad which, as far as we know, has not yet been translated into Enghsh fully and with complete explanation The special importance of this text, which 1s counted as pait of the Krsnayayurveda, to the religious Hmdu 1s perhaps ‘unequalled by any other work of its class We have there- fore endeavoured to bring out a suitable edition of this abstruse text with aids for understanding its traditional import An interpretation of the text in easy Sanskrit is a new feature of this publication This is specially added with a view to help those readers who know only Sansknt and not English. It will also render the recerved meaning clearer to those users of the translation who possess some knowledge of Sanskritiv MAHANARAYANOPANISAD Much religious material has been digested into the critical and explanatory Notes This 1s intented to meet the needs of those who value this sacred teat particularly for its spiritual and devotional use The practice of putting notes on words indicated by superior figures was the custom in the preceding members of the Series It has been given up here in order to make the reading of the explanatory Notes smooth and con- tmuous This Upammad together with its preceding Prapa- thaka—divided into Siksi — Ananda-Bhrgu-Vallis—is chanted solemnly on special religious occasions So the text 1s given heie with accent marks in order to facilitate its recital This will be welcomed by those who have no long trammg in the customary Vedic 1ecitation PRESIDENT PUBLISHER Ramakrishna Math, Madas March, 1957qatar aa at Waa Tage | eetfewstaeaTsaTacaT AAATEI AHH TAMaseneIaget TE TAT Tea fray | Fasfaet ce fafs feroafe ceesat carey wrasar aaniteft geet sitearaararal aeadtasareh seareti- Tend “aanqeart ofremareety cifrat sat aaatrearas ere wa aif wrarwa.” oft ye fade 1 afenq me faais- a froocare Temrer err araaiaearg famracarea eT ATT arer gerorarararfeafearraeras Tease waa AAT afediier amet aa at eit edgeat 1 fareteraatefrear argeaaaateaatet aeTUT argthremgeormerent aa freemen as. aaa saftegeevafeeter qT warfare | Tee gory deer aerareranitafaetatr WeaTTET arireqatrre aft atae aaa aarfasdisg Tae TTT aearrer geem ater “anferaraiifearrggaretig warafe zar- afia aactafafs faferer fiver ATER CTT TRNATTAT AAAI ALATA LTH ASTAT ACTA atfag frafrcar amitgery | armarafrardarnr stray etree wire sofearnfareraq vacttfor- wentearal werfenstigraaaton Taare WATT ISAT] aft asafserata seaj— saifsarafseara akataged afraradtrt | Teer carte sarees frag tt aft fanerars.TRANSLITERATION TABLE According to the practice based on the general consent of Indologists of this century the Sanskrit sounds symbolized by the Devanagari alphabet in the columns below are invari- ably 1epresented by the Roman letters facing them Ha qk qd at a @ kh q dh a ue q 2 fi FT gh Tp ot =o % ph Ba ac qb or @ ch % bh oT a] {m 2) a jh ay 5 7 aq ii tor Ge et ql Ta S th av ato zd qs at au & dh qs +m ea qs h qt Zh qth iINTRODUCTION MODERN investigations have revealed that the 2600 million people on this globe speak 2796 different languages and dialects belonging to different families of speech Of these, those that have a long literary past and are still influencing the thought of millions of people are not very many The collection of hymns, litames and prayers, under the com- prehensive tem Vedas, transmitted by oral tradition for several centuries before the introduction of writing, 1s accepted as the oldest literature available for the purpose of studying the religious thoughts exercising a considerable influence over the people of a significant part of Asia for many millennrums Those languages which have preserved past thoughts im literary form, either as written records or oral traditions, alone have been a recognizable power in the evolution of the intellectual, moral and spiritual life of mankind The scattered splinter- speech communities have not produced any literary herrloom devolving to succeeding generations to reflect upon, adopt, and exemplify, and, consequently, they have not made any deep impression on human civilization The dialects which have sustained the intercourse of many small groups of people have changed and even disappeared without a vestige The literature preserved in the Vedas through the religious fervour of a hughly sensitive people who paid the greatest attention to the caieful traming of the ear for sound, for rhythm, speech melody, and precision of grammar uncontaminated by local idioms, stands almost unique 1m the history of human culture. Today the study of the Vedas has, therefore, attracted the attention and interest of people m various parts of the worldvin MAHANARAYANOPANISAD An account of the nature and division of the Vedas will be found in the Introduction to the Zsavasyopantsad included in the Upanisad Series published by the Ramakrishna Math This publication is the twelfth in the Series In the collection of One-hundred-and-eight Upanisads, published several times. from Bombay and other places, two works are included with the title Narayanopanisad Of these the longer one includes a variety of subjects of great importance in the daily Obse1- vances of a religious Hindu It 1s accepted as a part of the Krsnayajurveda and 1s distinguished generally by the designa~ tion Mahanarayanopanisad The same Upanisad is known also as Yayniki-upanisad on the ground that Yaynatma Nara- yana 1s considered to be the seer of this part of the Veda Like the other Vedas the Yayurveda 1s divided mto samhita and brahmana The Tazffirtya recension of it has the Tartu 1ya- ranyaka as an extension of the brahmana The Taittitya- vanyaka according to Sayanagarya has ten piapathakas of which this Upanisad forms the last one Bhattabhaskara who wrote a Commentary on the whole of Yayurveda, anterioi to Sayana, substitutes the term prasna for the division heading prapathaka, and calls this as the last prasna Both the exegetists accept the name Yaynikyupanisad In preparing the present edition the followmg printed books have been consulted | Taittriyaranyaka with Bhatta- bhaskara’s Commentary, published from Mysore in the Bibliotheca Samskrita Series 2 Tauttiriyaranyaka with the Commentary of Sayanacarya in two parts, published in the Anandasrama Sanskrit Series 3 Mahanarayanopanisad, published in the Bombay Sanskrit Series, edited by Col G A Jacob, with the Dipikatika. 4 Yaymikyupanisad brought out m the Adyar Library SeriesINTRODUCTION 1x The text presented 1n allthese four books 1s not precisely the same Apart fiom the difference in the length of the text, differences of reading, additions and omussions of passages and transposition of textual umits are also observed The oldest commentatoi, Bhattabhaskara, has noticed 2 text having only sisty-four Sections This 4s generally designated as the didvidapatha Sayanacarya also has wntten the Com- mentary on this text The works mentioned as (3) and (4) above also are based on the short text of Bhattabhaskara and. Sayana The Anandasrama edition contains a parisista reproducing the tenth prapathaka under the subtitle N@@ya- nopanisad—This 1s the longer version generally known as the Andmapatha m eighty Sections—togethe: with the Com- mentaty of an untraced author which closely resembles the Commentary of Sayana in respect of those passages which are common with the shorter version The tenth prapathaka of the Taittwiyaranyaka 1s con- sidered khila (1e, supplementary) even by Bhactabhaskara and Séyana The supplementary nature of this part 1s also clear from its structural organization It 1s an assemblage of passages used in various mtualistic contexts, and there 1s the general lack of unity in the treatment of the subject-matter The presence of many significant and well-known Brahma- vidya and updsana passages, either quoted from other parts of the Vedas o1 found only here, in a style closely resembling that of the other Brahmanas and the Upamisads, gives this work an authority above that of many other mmor Upanisads Sri Sankaiacirya has not wutten any Commentary on this Upanisad; but still he refers to statements contained 1n 1t in the course of his Commentary on the Biahmasiinnas II 3 24 and TI] 4 20 Whatever was left over to be mentioned m respect of karma, upasana, and jfiana, after the recital of