Sixth Adhyaya, Tenth Khanda (3 mantras)

Mantra 6.10.1.

1. These rivers (Devatās,) my child, run, the Eastern towards the east, the Western towards the west. They rise from the sea and go back to the sea. But that sea even remains the sea (whether the rivers come out of it or go back to it, nor does it become the river). And as those river-gods, when they are in the sea, do not know ‘I am this river.’ ‘I am that river’ (cannot discriminate the waters that formed their body).—450.

Mantra 6.10.2.

2. In the same manner my child all these creatures when they have come from the Sat (the good), know not that they have come from the Sat. Whatever these creatures are here, whether a tiger or a lion or a wolf or a worm or an insect or a gnat or a mosquito, that they become again and again.—451.

Mantra 6.10.3.

3. (That highest God is) the Essence and Ruler of all, the desired of all, and known through the subtlest intellect. All this universe is controlled by Him, He pervades it all and is the Good. This God is the destroyer of all and full of perfect qualities. Thou O Śvetaketu art not that God (why then this conceit).

“Please sir, instruct me still more” said the son. “Be it so, my child,” replied the father.—452.

Madhva’s commentary called the Bhāṣya:

To this the father replied—

The father answered him thus:—As rivers, who are conscious Devatās, when they fall into the sea, cannot discriminate their particular waters (which formed their bodies) so the creatures (prajās) do not retain their consciousness of lower personalities, when they enter into the Lord, the home of all Personalities.

The river-devatās do not know, when they enter into the sea, the particular portion of the water which constituted their bodies, when they existed separately. So the Jīvas, when they are collected together in the home of Jīvas, the Lord Viṣṇu, do not know their lower vehicles, and hence they do not remember their personalities, but their consciousness is never lost. The son again says “please explain to me further.” Śaṅkara understands this question to mean this:—“In the world we have seen that in the water the various modifications, in the shape of ripples, waves, foam, bubbles and the like, rise up and then disappear in the water becoming destroyed, while the human egos are not destroyed ever, though every day during sleep, at death and at the universal dissolution they are merged in their cause, Pure Being. How is that?”

This explanation of Śaṅkara is not valid, because sea and bubbles are both made up of water; and sea is the material cause of the bubble; but in the illustration in the text given in the next Khaṇḍa there is no such material cause referred to. On the contrary the mention of drinking and rejoicing, shows that the Jīva of the tree is considered as separate and distinct from the tree itself. The Commentator therefore explains what is, the true meaning of this question

Says the son “Admitted that there is a higher Being in my body, distinct from myself, how may I know that the Jīva (myself) is under the control of that Higher Self.” Thus asked, the father replies again, through the illustration of the tree.