Verse 1.4

तस्मै स होवाच प्रजाकामो वै प्रजापतिः स तपोऽतप्यत स तपस्तप्त्वा स मिथुनमुत्पादयते । रयिं च प्रणं चेत्येतौ मे बहुधा प्रजाः करिष्यत इति ॥ ४ ॥

tasmai sa hovāca prajākāmo vai prajāpatiḥ sa tapo'tapyata sa tapastaptvā sa mithunamutpādayate | rayiṃ ca praṇaṃ cetyetau me bahudhā prajāḥ kariṣyata iti || 4 ||

4. To him he said: ‘The lord of creatures, wishing for creatures, thought; and having thought out his thought created a pair—food and eater—thinking they would produce creatures for him variously.’

Shankara’s Commentary:

Com.—To him who thus interrogated, he replied for solving the doubt. Wishing to create creatures out of himself, the lord of creatures, the atman of all thinking to create the universe, acting according to the word filled with the thought, being Hiranyagarbha born at the beginning of this Kalpa and being the lord of all created beings and things immoveable and moveable, revolved in his mind the knowledge acquired in the previous birth, the drift of which is revealed by the srutis. Having thus brooded over the knowledge, imparted by the srutis produced a pair, a couple—necessary for creation,—the moon, i.e., food and prana, fire (sun), i.e., the eater. Thinking that agni (sun) and the moon, i e., (the eater and the food) respectively would create diverse creatures, he created the sun and the moon, in the order beginning with anda (globe).