Section 5.18 (eighteenth khaṇḍa) (two texts)

Upaniṣad text:

He said to them—‘All of you, knowing the Vaiśvānara-Self differently as it were, eat food. But one who meditates upon this Vaiśvānara-Self as a whole, composed of parts and self-conscious, eats food in all regions, in all beings and in all Selves.’—(1)

Commentary (Śaṅkara Bhāṣya):

Thereupon he said to all those who had held the above-mentioned views regarding Vaiśvānara: All of you;—the particles ‘vai’ and ‘khalu’ are meaningless;—know this Vaiśvānara-Self,—who is one and not diverse,—differently as it were; and knowing him thus, you eat food; and you thus regard the Self as a limited entity, in the same way as a number of persons born blind perceiving the elephant through touching its different parts, come to have diverse notions regarding it (each one regarding it to be like the part that he had touched; and as none of them had touched the whole elephant, none had any idea of the elephant as a whole entity). One who meditates upon this Vaiśvānara-Self as a whole composed of parts, such parts as the Heaven as His head, down to the Earth as His feet. He is prādeśa-mātra which means that (a) he is one who is known, in the physical form through his compound parts, such as the Heaven as his head, ending with the Earth as his feet;—or (b) it may mean that he is inferred as the ‘Eater’, in regard to the organs;—or (c) that he extends from the Heaven down to the Earth;—or (d) ‘Prādeśa’ may be taken as standing for the Heavenly and other regions, in the sense that they are flatteringly described in the scriptures and the Vaiśvānara is of the same size as all these;—(e) in another Vedic text, this Self has been described as ‘prādeśa-mātra’, in its literal sense,—namely, of the same size as the distance between the Head and the Chin; but this is not the sense intended here; as is clear from the summing up contained in the next text. He is also ‘Self-conscious’,—i.e. he is cognised as the Individualised Self in the notion of ‘I’. This is Vaiśvānara,—in the sense of ‘Viśvān narān nayati’, carries all men, to their states in accordance with their merit and demerit;—He, the All-self, the God or He may be called ‘Vaiśvānara’ in the sense of being ‘All-Man’, being the Self of all,—or he may be ‘Vaiśvānara’ in the sense that ‘He is treated by all men as the Individualised Self One who meditates upon this Vaiśvānara-Self eats food in all regions—Heaven and the rest,—in all beings-animate and inanimate, and in all Selves,—Body, Organs, Mind and Intellect,—all these being sometimes spoken of as ‘Self’. The sense is that one who knows the Vaiśvānara eats the food of all living beings,—being the All-self, He eats the food (of all); he is not like the ignorant man who knows only the physical body with which he identifies himself.—(1)

Upaniṣad text:

Of this Vaiśvānara-Self, the Head is the ‘Highly Brilliant’,—the Eye is the ‘Multiform’,—the Life-breath is the ‘Diverse-coursed Soul,’—the Trunk is the ‘Extensive’,—the Bladder is ‘Wealth’,—the Feet are the ‘Earth’;—the Chest is the Altar, the Hairs are the Grass, the Heart is the Gārhapatya Fire, the Mind is the Anvāhāryapacana Fire, and the Mouth is the Āhavanīya Fire.—(2)

Commentary (Śaṅkara Bhāṣya):

“Why is it so (as described above)?”

Because of this same Vaiśvānara-Self, which is the subject-matter of the section,—the Head itself is the ‘Highly Brilliant’, the Eye is the Multiform,—the Life-breath is the Diverse-coursed Soul,—the Trunk is the Extensive,—‘the Bladder is Wealth and the Earth is the Feet. Or the whole of this may be taken as an injunction of meditation—the sense being that one should meditate in this manner. The text proceeds to show how, in the case of the knower of the Vaiśvānara-Self, the act of Eating constitutes the Agnihotra-offering; of this Vaiśvānara-Self,—who is the eater,—the chest is the Altar,—because it resembles this in shape,—the Hairs are the Grass,—the hairs are seen to be spread over the chest, just as grass is seen strewn on the Altar,—the Heart is the Gārhapatya-Fiṛe,—because the Mind is taken out of the Heart (just as the Anvāhāryapacana Fire is taken out of the Āhavanīya and hence is close to it; hence the Mind is the Anvāhāryapacana Fire;—the Mouth is the Āhavanīya Fire;—as like the Āhavanīya Fire, the Mouth is that into which food is thrown in, just as offerings are thrown into the Āhavanīya-Fire—(2)

End of Section (18) of Discourse V