[Advaita-l] Shankara cites the Kaṭharudropaniṣad

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

Namaste,

>From Puranas make it easier to understand by saying that Lord Vishnu appeared with his Maya, and from Tantra we also know that the Adi-Mahavidya (or Ad--Shakti) Kali is the Vaishnavi, the  female form of Lord Vishnu (I do not have the references ready at hand). From Lord Vishnu came Lord Brahma. Lord Brahma has a shorter longevity than Lord Vishnu and Lord Vishnu (Hari) has a shorter longevity than Lord Ardha-narishvara Shiva (or Hari-Hatra). At the beginning there is Lord Shiva and at the end also is the Lord Lord Shiva. Purana and Tantra  probably made it easier to understand this way.

Regards,
Sunil KB


--------------------------------------------
On Wed, 1/25/17, V Subrahmanian via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

 Subject: [Advaita-l] Shankara cites the Kaṭharudropaniṣad
 To: "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>, "Advaitin" <advaitin at yahoogroups.com>
 Date: Wednesday, January 25, 2017, 5:11 AM
 
 Shankara cites the
 Kaṭharudropaniṣad
 
 In the Bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣad 3.5.1 (kahola
 brāhmaṇam) bhāṣyam Shankara
 discusses the śruti-prāmāṇya for sannyāsa and while
 replying an objection
 says:
 
 न, ‘यज्ञोपवीतं
 वेदांश्च सर्वं
 तद्वर्जयेद्यतिः’ (क.
 रु. २) इति श्रुतेः ।
 [From the Advaitaśāradā]  [Swami Madhvananda's
 translation: Reply : No, for
 the Śruti says, 'The monk should give up the holy thread,
 the study of the
 Vedas, and all such things' (Ks. 4 ; Kr. 2).]
 
 At the beginning of the book, Swami M gives the
 abbreviations:
 
 Kr.  Katharudra Upaniṣad
 Kś  Kathaśruti Upaniṣad
 
 Olivelle in his book 'Samnyāsa Upaniṣads: Hindu
 scriptures on
 Renunciation....' says on p.8:
 
 //Some of the later Upaniṣads appear to be expansions of
 older ones.
 Others, such as the Laghu-Samnyāsa and the Kuṇḍikā, as
 well as the
 Kaṭhaśruti and the Kaṭharudra (which occurs only in SR
 - Southern
 Recension), appear to be different recensions of the same
 text.//
 
 
 The Kaṭharudra Upaniṣad, at the beginning itself details
 the Sannyāsa
 krama. The 'Yatidharma sangraha' on p.19 of the pdf (by Sri
 Viśveśvara
 Saraswati, Guru of Sri Madhusūdana Saraswati 15CE) cites
 from this
 Upaniṣad:
 
 
 // यज्ञोपवीतं वेदांश्च
 सर्वं
 तद्वर्जयेद्यतिः // [This is
 the line cited by
 Shankara in the Br.Up.bhāṣyam stated above]
 
 
 In the Panchadaśī 10.2 is this verse:
 
 परमात्माऽद्वयानन्दपूर्णः
 पूर्वं स्वमायया ।
 स्वयमेव जगद्भूत्वा
 प्राविशज्जीवरूपतः ॥ १
 ॥
 
 1. Before the projection of the world the Supreme Self, the
 secondless,
 all-bliss and ever complete, alone existed. Through His Maya
 He became the
 world and entered into it as the Jiva, the individual Self.
 
 विष्ण्वाद्युत्तमदेहेषु
 प्रविष्टो देवताभवत् ।
 
 मर्त्याद्यधमदेहेषु
 स्थितो भजति
 मर्त्यताम् ॥ २ ॥
 
 2. Entering the superior bodies like that of Vishnu, He
 became the deities;
 and remaining in the inferior bodies like that of men He
 worships the
 deities.
 
 From the above verses we come to know that it is Brahman
 with association
 of Māyā takes the bodies, forms, such as Viṣṇu. That
 shows that the forms
 such as Viṣṇu are products of Māyā.
 
 That the bodies such as Viṣṇu are entities within
 creation is brought out
 by many Upaniṣads such as the Atharvaśirā/śikhā, etc.
 The Kaṭharudropaniṣad
 too says explicitly:
 
 After stating the Supreme Creation is at the hands of
 Śiva:
 
 
 तानि भूतानि
 सूक्ष्माणि
 पञ्चीकृत्येश्वरस्तदा
 ।
 तेभ्य एव विसृष्टं
 तद्ब्रह्माण्डादि
 शिवेन ह ॥ १५॥
 
 
 Upon effecting the panchīkaraṇam of the sūkṣma
 bhūta-s (subtle elements),
 Śiva created the world consisting of Brahmāṇḍa, etc.
 from those elements. (That
 is the reason perhaps the Upaniṣad got the name
 'kaṭharudra')
 
 The Upaniṣad continues:
 
 While there is a popular expression 'brahmādi-stambānta'
 (starting from
 Brahmā up to the smallest creature) to denote the entire
 gamut of the jīva
 category, the KR uses a unique expression:
 
 अस्यैवानन्दकोशेन
 स्तम्बान्ता
 विष्णुपूर्वकाः ।
 भवन्ति सुखिनो नित्यं
 तारतम्यक्रमेण तु ॥
 २९॥
 
 
 [All (jīva-s) up to the tiniest creature, starting from
 Viṣṇu (instead of
 Brahmā) onward, always derive joy from this ānanda kośa
 on a relative scale
 depending on their status.] In the Taittiriya we have the
 ānanda tāratamya
 from the human up to Brahmā. The ānanda derived by these
 entities are
 finite and Brahman-Ānanda alone is infinite.
 
 Om Tat Sat
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