Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣadबृहदारण्यक उपनिषद्

Madhu Kanda. Adhyaya 1, Brahmana 3. The contest of the vital breath

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Each mantra is given four ways: the Sanskrit in its Devanagari script, the same sounds in Roman letters, an English translation set in our own voice, and then the line once more in plain words, for a first and unhurried reading.

Not every passage is opened to the same depth. A few central mantras carry the full cross-school commentary, where the schools are set side by side. The rest are kept here whole and faithful, set in their place but not expounded, so the book stays entire and nothing is dropped for being thought minor.

Where the schools read a line differently, the difference is kept open. None is crowned and none is corrected. Each is met on its own terms, and where they contradict, the contradiction is left standing for you to sit with.

॥ 1.3.4 ॥

Sight is struck with evil

अथ ह चक्षुरूचुस्त्वं न उद्गायेति । तथेति तेभ्यश्चक्षुरुदगायत् । यश्चक्षुषि भोगस्तं देवेभ्य आगायत् । यत्कल्याणं पश्यति तदात्मने । तेऽविदुरनेन वै न उद्गात्रात्येष्यन्तीति । तमभिद्रुत्य पाप्मनाविध्यन् । स यः स पाप्मा यदेवेदमप्रतिरूपं पश्यति । स एव स पाप्मा ॥

In transliteration

atha ha cakṣurūcustvaṃ na udgāyeti | tatheti tebhyaścakṣurudagāyat | yaścakṣuṣi bhogastaṃ devebhya āgāyat | yatkalyāṇaṃ paśyati tadātmane | te'viduranena vai na udgātrātyeṣyantīti | tamabhidrutya pāpmanāvidhyan | sa yaḥ sa pāpmā yadevedamapratirūpaṃ paśyati | sa eva sa pāpmā ||

In English

Then they said to the eye: Chant the Udgitha for us. So be it, said the eye, and chanted for them. The enjoyment that is in the eye it secured for the gods by chanting; whatever fine thing it saw, that it kept for itself. The demons knew: through this chanter they mean to surpass us. They rushed at it and struck it with evil. That evil is just this: the seeing of what is unfitting. That, then, is that evil.

In plain words

Then the gods asked the eye (cakshus) to chant. It agreed and chanted, winning the good of sight for the gods, but keeping for itself whatever pleasant things it saw. The demons pierced it too with evil. Its evil is this: the seeing of what is improper. That flaw entered the eye.

In the commentaries

Sri SankaraAdvaita

Sankara: the eye also is overcome, defiled by the urge to look upon what is improper; the same pattern repeats, the organ tied to its object cannot carry the chant past death.

Sri Sankara, Brhadaranyaka-bhasya 1.3.4 (via Madhavananda)

All mantras