Because the clause 'What is Ka the same is Kha' speaks of ether as
characterised by pleasure, the ether which is denoted by 'Kha' is no
other than the highest Brahman. To explain. On the Fires declaring
'Breath is Brahman, Ka is Brahman, Kha is Brahman,' Upakosala says, 'I
understand that breath is Brahman, but I do not understand Ka and Kha.'
The meaning of this is as follows. The Fires cannot speak of meditation
on Brahman under the form of breath and so on, because they are engaged
in giving instruction to me, who am afraid of birth, old age, death, &c.,
and desirous of final Release. What they declare to me therefore is
meditation on Brahman itself. Now here Brahman is exhibited in co-
ordination with certain well-known things, breath and so on. That
Brahman should be qualified by co-ordination with breath is suitable,
either from the point of view of Brahman having the attribute of
supporting the world, or on account of Brahman being the ruler of breath,
which stands to it in the relation of a body. Hence Upakosala says, 'I
understand that breath is Brahman.' With regard to pleasure and ether,
on the other hand, there arises the question whether they are exhibited
in the relation of qualifying attributes of Brahman on the ground of
their forming the body of Brahman, and hence being ruled by it, or
whether the two terms are meant to determine each other, and thus to
convey a notion of the true nature of Brahman being constituted by
supreme delight. On the former alternative the declaration of the Fires
would only state that Brahman is the ruler of the elemental ether and of
all delight depending on the sense-organs, and this would give no notion
of Brahman's true nature; on the latter alternative the Fires would
declare that unlimited delight constitutes Brahman's true nature. In
order to ascertain which of the two meanings has to be taken, Upakosala
therefore says, 'I do not understand Ka and Kha.' The Fires,
comprehending what is in his mind, thereupon reply, 'What is Ka the same
is Kha, what is Kha the same is Ka,' which means that the bliss which
constitutes Brahman's nature is unlimited. The same Brahman therefore
which has breath for its attribute because breath constitutes its body,
is of the nature of unlimited bliss; the text therefore adds, 'They
taught him that (viz. Brahman) as breath and as ether.' What the text,
'Ka is Brahman, Kha is Brahman,' teaches thus is Brahman as consisting
of unlimited bliss, and this Brahman is resumed in the subsequent text
about the Person seen within the eye. That Person therefore is the
highest Self.
17. And on account of the statement of the way of him who has heard the
Upanishads.
Other scriptural texts give an account of the way--the first station of
which is light--that leads up to the highest Person, without any
subsequent return, the soul of him who has read the Upanishads, and has
thus acquired a knowledge of the true nature of the highest Self. Now
this same way is described by the teacher to Upakosala in connexion with
the instruction as to the Person in the eye, 'They go to light, from
light to day,' &c. This also proves that the Person within the eye is
the highest Self.
18. Not any other, on account of non-permanency of abode, and of
impossibility.
As the reflected Self and the other Selfs mentioned by the Pûrvapakshin
do not necessarily abide within the eye, and as conditionless
immortality and the other qualities (ascribed in the text to the Person
within the eye) cannot possibly belong to them, the Person within the
eye cannot be any Self other than the highest Self. Of the reflected
Self it cannot be said that it permanently abides within the eye, for
its presence there depends on the nearness to the eye of another person.
The embodied Self again has its seat within the heart, which is the root
of all sense-organs, so as to assist thereby the activities of the
different senses; it cannot therefore abide within the eye. And with
regard to the divinity the text says that 'he rests with his rays in him,
i.e. the eye': this implies that the divine being may preside over the
organ of sight although itself abiding in another place; it does not
therefore abide in the eye. Moreover, non-conditioned immortality and
similar qualities cannot belong to any of these three Selfs. The Person
seen within the eye therefore is the highest Self.
We have, under Sû. I, 2, 14, assumed as proved that the abiding within
the eye and ruling the eye, which is referred to in Bri. Up. III, 7, 18
('He who dwells in the eye,' &c.), can belong to the highest Self only,
and have on that basis proved that the Self within the eye is the
highest Self.--Here terminates the adhikarana of that 'within.'--The
next Sûtra now proceeds to prove that assumption.
19. The internal Ruler (referred to) in the clauses with respect to the
gods, with respect to the worlds, &c. (is the highest Self), because the
attributes of that are designated.
The Vâjasaneyins, of the Kânwa as well as the Mâdhyandina branch, have
the following text: 'He who dwelling in the earth is within the earth,
whom the earth does not know, whose body the earth is, who rules the
earth within, he is thy Self, the ruler within, the Immortal.' The text
thereupon extends this teaching as to a being that dwells in things, is
within them, is not known by them, has them for its body and rules them;
in the first place to all divine beings, viz. water, fire, sky, air, sun,
the regions, moon, stars, ether, darkness, light; and next to all
material beings, viz. breath, speech, eye, ear, mind, skin, knowledge,
seed--closing each section with the words, 'He is thy Self, the ruler
within, the Immortal.' The Mâdhyandinas, however, have three additional
sections, viz. 'He who dwells in all worlds,' &c.; 'he who dwells in all
Vedas,' &c.; 'He who dwells in all sacrifices'; and, moreover, in place
of 'He who dwells in knowledge' (vijñàna) they read 'He who dwells in
the Self.'--A doubt here arises whether the inward Ruler of these texts
be the individual Self or the highest Self.
The individual Self, the Pûrvapakshin maintains. For in the
supplementary passage (which follows upon the text considered so far)
the internal Ruler is called the 'seer' and 'hearer,' i.e. his knowledge
is said to depend on the sense-organs, and this implies the view that
the 'seer' only (i.e. the individual soul only) is the inward Ruler; and
further the clause 'There is no other seer but he' negatives any other
seer.
This view is set aside by the Sûtra. The Ruler within, who is spoken of
in the clauses marked in the text by the terms 'with respect of the gods,'
'with respect of the worlds,' &c., is the highest Self free from all
evil, Nârâyana. The Sûtra purposely joins the two terms 'with respect to
the gods' and 'with respect to the worlds' in order to intimate that, in
addition to the clauses referring to the gods and beings (bhûta)
exhibited by the Kânva-text, the Mâdhyandina-text contains additional
clauses referring to the worlds, Vedas, &c. The inward Ruler spoken of
in both these sets of passages is the highest Self; for attributes of
that Self are declared in the text. For it is a clear attribute of the
highest Self that being one only it rules all worlds, all Vedas, all
divine beings, and so on. Uddâlaka asks, 'Dost thou know that Ruler
within who within rules this world and the other world and all beings?
&c.--tell now that Ruler within'; and Yâjñavalkya replies with the long
passus, 'He who dwells in the earth,' &c., describing the Ruler within
as him who, abiding within all worlds, all beings, all divinities, all
Vedas, and all sacrifices, rules them from within and constitutes their
Self, they in turn constituting his body. Now this is a position which
can belong to none else but the highest Person, who is all-knowing, and
all whose purposes immediately realise themselves. That it is the
highest Self only which rules over all and is the Self of all, other
Upanishad-texts also declare; cp. e.g. 'Entered within, the ruler of
creatures, the Self of all'; 'Having sent forth this he entered into it.
Having entered it he became sat and tyat,' &c. (Taitt. Up. II, 6).
Similarly the text from the Subâla-Up., which begins, 'there was not
anything here in the beginning,' and extends up to 'the one God,
Nârâyana,' shows that it is the highest Brahman only which rules all, is
the Self of all, and has all beings for its body. Moreover, essential
immortality (which the text ascribes to the Ruler within) is an
attribute of the highest Self only.--Nor must it be thought that the
power of seeing and so on that belongs to the highest Self is dependent
on sense-organs; it rather results immediately from its essential
nature, since its omniscience and power to realise its purposes are due
to its own being only. In agreement herewith scripture says, 'He sees
without eyes, he hears without ears, without hands and feet he grasps
and hastes' (Svet. Up. III, 19). What terms such as 'seeing' and
'hearing' really denote is not knowledge in so far as produced by the
eye and ear, but the intuitive presentation of colour and sound. In the
case of the individual soul, whose essentially intelligising nature is
obscured by karman, such intuitive knowledge arises only through the
mediation of the sense-organs; in the case of the highest Self, on the
other hand, it springs from its own nature.--Again, the clause 'there is
no other seer but he' means that there is no seer other than the seer
and ruler described in the preceding clauses. To explain. The clauses
'whom the earth does not know,' &c., up to 'whom the Self does not know'
mean to say that the Ruler within rules without being perceived by the
earth, Self, and the other beings which he rules. This is confirmed by
the subsequent clauses, 'unseen but a seer', 'unheard but a hearer,' &c.
And the next clauses, 'there is no other seer but he,' &c., then mean to
negative that there is any other being which could be viewed as the
ruler of that Ruler. Moreover, the clauses 'that is the Self of thee,'
'He is the Self of thee' exhibit the individual Self in the genitive
form ('of thee'), and thus distinguish it from the Ruler within, who is
declared to be their Self.
20. And not that which Smriti assumes, on account of the declaration of
qualities not belonging to that; nor the embodied one.
'That which Smriti assumes' is the Pradhâna; the 'embodied one' is the
individual soul. Neither of these can be the Ruler within, since the
text states attributes which cannot possibly belong to either. For there
is not even the shadow of a possibility that essential capability of
seeing and ruling all things, and being the Self of all, and immortality
should belong either to the non-sentient Pradhâna or to the individual
soul.--The last two Sûtras have declared that the mentioned qualities
belong to the highest Self, while they do not belong to the individual
soul. The next Sûtra supplies a new, independent argument.