Sixth Adhyaya, Fourteenth Khanda (3 mantras)

Mantra 6.14.1.

1. As a person (may be kidnapped and) brought from the country of the Gandhāras blindfolded, and then left in a place where there are no human beings, cries out east and west, north and south, saying: “I have been brought here blindfolded, I have been left here blindfolded.”—462.

Mantra 6.14.2.

2. And as thereupon some (kind-hearted) person might loosen his bandage and say “Go in that direction, there is Gandhara, go in that direction.” Thereupon, being wise and retentive, he would ask his way from village to village, and arrive at last at Gandhāra—in the same way does a man who finds the Teacher obtains the knowledge. For him there is delay only so long as his prārabdha karmas are not exhausted. Then he reaches the perfect.—463.

Mantra 6.14.3.

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. The 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.—464.

Madhva’s commentary called the Bhāṣya:

Śaṅkara introduces this chapter, by explaining the cṛuestion of the son thus “If like the subtle essence of salt, Pure Being who is the cause of the Universe, is capable of being perceived by other means, though it is not perceived by the senses, by the perception of which I would have my end fulfilled and without the perception whereof, I would have those ever unfulfilled; what is the means of perceiving this?” But this explanation is inconsistent with his own theory; the Pure Being is according to him the substrate on which is superimposed the false notion of the world, as the false notion of the snake is superimposed on the rope. Sat is thus the reality under every idea, and so there can be no method of perceiving it. The true meaning of the question is thus given by the Commentator.

The son says “by what method that Viṣṇu may be known, and reached by the Jīva, for though he is so intimately connected with the Jīva, yet, He is so distinct from it and appears to be far off.” To this question Uddālaka answers, “as a blindfolded person, though not seeing the road can find it out and reach his home when another person tells him the direction in which he must go, so through the instruction given by the teacher, the soul reaches the Lord, though he is separate from him but within him.