Sixth Adhyaya, Fifteenth Khanda (3 mantras)

Mantra 6.15.1.

1. As a man suffering from disease, and surrounded by his kinsmen who ask: “Do you know me, do you know me,” (goes on answering) so long as the speech (Umā) is not merged in the mind (Rudra), the Mind in Breath (Christ), the Breath in the Fire (Śrī, the Holy Ghost), and the Fire in the Highest God (Viṣṇu): he knows so long.—465.

Mantra 6.15.2.

2. But when his speech is merged in the Mind, the Mind in Breath, the Breath in Fire, the Fire in the Highest God, then he knows them not.—466.

Mantra 6.15.3.

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.—467.

Madhva’s commentary called the Bhāṣya:

Śaṅkara introduces this Chapter thus The son asks, please explain to me, by further illustrations, the method by which one with a Teacher reaches the True Being.” According to him, the question supposed to be asked is:—“By what degrees a man, who has been properly instructed in the knowledge of Brahman, obtains the Sat or returns to the True. To judge from the text both he who knows the True and he who does not, reach when they die, the Sat, passing from speech to mind and breath and heat (fire). But whereas he who knows, remains in the Sat, they who do not know, return again to a new form of existence.” But this explanation is wrong. For it was taught before (VI. 8-6) that when a man dies the speech enters the mind and so on. What was the necessity of repeating the same teaching again. In fact, this illustration of the entering of the speech into the mind and so on, shows that the Jīva is dependent upon another and has no freedom of his own. When the Lord gives life to the Jīva, then it knows and perceives all; when He withdraws that life, it becomes unconscious. The Commentator explains the true purport of the question and answers thus:—

The son asks “Sir, prove to me how the man is not independent, for every one feels that he has freedom of will.” To this the father says “the want of free will in man is proved by the fact that he knows only so long as the sense Devas help him: and when they depart, he becomes perfectly helpless, this proves his dependence and want of freedom.”

The son says “I have understood how in the tree the Jīva of the tree is dependent upon Lord, but man has free will. Prove to me by an illustration, how Jīva in the body of man is also dependent upon the Lord, just like the Jīva in the tree.” The answer to this is given in this Chapter.