Mantra 1.2

2. (U²). The Full (designated by Om) is verily this imperishable Brahman. This conscience or controller (Ātman) in Śrī, Brahmā, etc., is Brahman. He has four parts or aspects.—2.

Notes:

[Note.—Sarvam—the Full, possessing ail auspicious guṇas. The “Full” is a name of Brahman, as we know from the text]

[Note.—Brahma—the supreme Brahma, denoted by Oṅkāra; and called the Imperishable (akṣara).]

[Note.—The goddess Śrī and the Jīvas like Brahmā, etc., are seen to have no independence of their own; and so we infer that there is some Higher Self who dwelling in Śrī, etc., causes all their activities. This Higher Self must also be called the “Full” and beyond the Threefold time.” The Upaniṣad endorses this view and says “ayam ātmā brahma “This Higher Self in all is Brahman.” The true self in all, which also appears to be full, is not something different. He is this Brahman. The Jīvas find that they are not independent, some one within them controls them. This inner controller of all Jīvas is Brahman too, and not somebody else. As the inner controller of all Jīvas, Brahman has four aspects.]

Madhva’s commentary called the Bhāṣya:

In the sentence “sarvam hy etad brahma,” the word Brahma denotes the Supreme, the Highest.

[Note.—Brahman is derived from the √bṛh. ‘to increase’ and means “full.”]

The word “hi” implies that it is a well-known thing that Brahman means “full.” As in the text: “tad eva brahma paramam kavinām (that alone is the highest fullness of the sages).” “purṇam [pūrṇam?] adaḥ, etc.”—“That is full, etc.” Therefore the Śruti says “sarvam hy etad brahma”—“verily this Full is Brahman.”

[Note.—The phrase “ayam ātmā brahma” is generally translated as “this self is Brahman” and is taken by the Advaitins to mean that this jivātmā [jīvātmā?] is Brahman. The word Ātman, however, here does not mean ‘self’).]

He who dwelling in the bodies of all beings such as Śrī, Brahmā, etc., is inferred to be the controller of all their actions of giving, taking, eating, etc. (ādāna-kartā-ātmā) that being (whose existence is so inferred) is Brahman. For Jīvas (like us) are seen to be not independent in their actions (for they do not do that which they know to be good, and do that which they know to be evil. This want of free-will in the jīvas shows that there is some one else controlling all their actions). This real agent behind all jīvas is Brahman, and this is declared by the phrase “ayam ātmā brahma,”—“this (un-known) agent is Brahman” and is designated also by the name Om, the Imperishable.

[Note.—In these two verses four propositions have been laid down—1. sarvam oṅkāra eva—The full alone is designated by the word Om. 2. anyat trikālātītam tad apy oṅkāra eva: That one who is beyond the three times is alone designated by the word Om. 3. sarvam hy etad brahma:—The full is verily this well-known Brahman. 4. ayam ātmā brahma: this true Agent in all beings is Brahman. Śrī Madhva now quotes the authority of Harivaṃsa for the interpretation that he has placed on these verses.]

Thus we read in the Harivaṃsa “Hari alone is full and no one else can ever be full. Nor is anything beyond the three times, except the Prakṛti and the Supreme. The time space and the Vedas are included in the word Prakṛti. But the epithet ‘anyat,’ other than, shows that Brahman is higher than the ordinary trikālātīta. This phrase also means that which remains unchanged in three times, and as time, space and the Vedas remain unchanged in three times, they are also trikālātīta. Therefore, when the Śruti says, “He is other than that trikālatita [trikālātīta?] which is Prakṛti”—it excludes time, space, etc., also. The Jīvas, moreover, cannot be said to be ‘beyond the three times,’ for though they bo essentially timeless, yet every Jīva identifies itself with its vehicle and thinks that it is high or low, lives and dies. Nor can the Perfected (Muktas) Jīvas be called timeless, for they were under the dominion of time before their Release. The all-prevading Fullness of Viṣṇu is verily called Ātmā, in all the Vedas, because unperceived by them, He is the real agent in all acts of taking, eating, etc., of all beings, yea of such even high entities as Ramā, Brahmā, Rudra, Ananta, etc. Varuṇa in the shape of a frog discovered this Śruti-Truth.”

(Note.—The Commentator next explains the phrase “this Ātma has four feet,” by the following extract from the Mahāyoga).