[Advaita-l] Rig mantras referred to in the Taittiriya Upanishad?

[V Subrahmanian]

2016-08-23 20:59 GMT+05:30 Venkatraghavan S via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>:

> Namaste all,
>
> In studying the bhAshya to the Ananda valli of the Taittiriya Upanishad, I
> was surprised to see that the upanishad is quoting Rig mantras in several
> places.
>
> For example, the Upanishad is said to quote from the Rig Veda in defining
> Brahman, the means to attain it and the benefit of attaining it "सत्यं
> ज्ञानमनन्तं ब्रह्म । यो वेद निहितं गुहायां परमे व्योमन् । सोऽश्नुते सर्वान्
> कामान् सह । ब्रह्मणा विपश्चितेति". Shankaracharya, in providing the
> commentary of  तदेषा अभ्युक्ता says तत् तस्मिन्नेव ब्राह्मणवाक्योक्तार्थे
> एषा ऋक् अभ्युक्ता आम्नाता.
>
> I also understand that whenever the Upanishad says तदप्येष श्लोको भवति -
> the sloka refers to a rig mantra.
>
> Has anyone traced these quotations to any existing mantras in Rig Veda? If
> so, please can you provide the reference.
>

Namaste

Actually those mantras are not from the Rg veda per se.  Ṛk is also a
generic term to denote a mantra with a certain pāda, akṣara. If you give
'ऋचा’ in the search in the Advaitashāradā resource, you will get several
results with the words 'ऋचा मन्त्रेण’. You will see Shankara using this
word 'Ṛk' in the context of Chandogya, Mundaka, etc. which are all not Rg
veda upanishads. So, Rk is simply mantra with a definite pāda akṣara
construct.
Mundaka 3.2.10:
तदेतदृचाभ्युक्तम् —
क्रियावन्तः श्रोत्रिया ब्रह्मनिष्ठाः स्वयं जुह्वत एकर्षिं श्रद्धयन्तः ।
तेषामेवैतां ब्रह्मविद्यां वदेत शिरोव्रतं विधिवद्यैस्तु चीर्णम् ॥ १० ॥

 The word shloka too refers to a mantra :  तस्यैव दृढीकरणाय मन्त्र
उदाह्रियते श्लोकशब्दवाच्यः —BUB 4.4.6/7.

Here we have a demonstration by the Upanishad itself:  Prashna 1..7:

स एष वैश्वानरो विश्वरूपः प्राणोऽग्निरुदयते ।* तदेतदृचाभ्युक्तम् *॥ ७ ॥
भाष्यम्
स एषः अत्ता प्राणो वैश्वानरः सर्वात्मा विश्वरूपः विश्वात्मत्वाच्च प्राणः
अग्निश्च स एवात्ता उदयते उद्गच्छति प्रत्यहं सर्वा दिशः आत्मसात्कुर्वन् ।
तदेतत् उक्तं वस्तु ऋचा मन्त्रेणापि अभ्युक्तम् ॥
विश्वरूपं हरिणं जातवेदसं परायणं ज्योतिरेकं तपन्तम् ।
सहस्ररश्मिः शतधा वर्तमानः प्राणः प्रजानामुदयत्येष सूर्यः ॥ ८ ॥
You can see the above Rk in a definite construct
The above is my understanding.  Any more inputs to correct the above are
welcome.

regards
subrahmanian.v

>
> Regards,
> Venkatraghavan
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