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I ADHYAYA, I PÂDA, 22.
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being within the Self of all beings. The statement, finally, about the limitation of Brahman's might, which depends on the distinction of what belongs to the gods and what to the body, has likewise reference to devout meditation only. From all this it follows that the being which Scripture states to be within the eye and the sun is the highest Lord.
21. And there is another one (i.e. the Lord who is different from the individual souls animating the sun, &c.), on account of the declaration of distinction.
There is, moreover, one distinct from the individual souls which animate the sun and other bodies, viz. the Lord who rules within; whose distinction (from all individual souls) is proclaimed in the following scriptural passage, He who dwells in the sun and within the sun, whom the sun does not know, whose body the sun is, and who rules the sun within ; he is thy Self, the ruler within, the immortal' (Bri. Up. III, 7, 9). Here the expression, 'He within the sun whom the sun does not know, clearly indicates that the Ruler within is distinct from that cognising individual soul whose body is the sun. With that Ruler within we have to identify the person within the sun, according to the tenet of the sameness of purport of all Vedânta-texts. It thus remains a settled conclusion that the passage under discussion conveys instruction about the highest Lord.
22. The âkâsa, i.e. ether (is Brahman) on account of characteristic marks (of the latter being mentioned).
In the Khandogya (I, 9) the following passage is met with, "What is the origin of this world?' 'Ether,' he replied. 'For all these beings take their rise from the ether only, and return into the ether. Ether is greater than these, ether is their rest.'-Here the following doubt arises. Does the word
ether' denote the highest Brahman or the elemental ether? - Whence the doubt ?—Because the word is seen to be used in both senses. Its use in the sense of 'elemental ether' is well established in ordinary as well as in Vedic speech ;
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