^263:4 Besides brahmapyayam, i.e. brahmany apyayam, ekibhavam, another reading is brahmavyayam, i.e. brahma kavyayam ka.

^264:1 All the MSS. seem to read keta, not ketta.

^264:2 See Katha-upanishad V, 12-15.

^264:3 Sankara explains that the acts of living beings are due to their organs, but do not affect the Highest Self, which always remains passive (nishkriya).

^264:4 I have formerly translated this verse, according to the reading nityo 'nityanam ketanas ketananam, the eternal thinker of non-eternal thoughts. This would be a true description of the Highest Self who, though himself eternal and passive, has to think (givatman) non-eternal thoughts. I took the first ketanah in the sense of ketta, the second in the sense of ketanam. The. commentators, however, take a different, and it may be, from their point, a more correct view. Sankara says: 'He is the eternal of the eternals, i.e. as he possesses eternity among living souls (givas), these living souls also may claim eternity. Or the eternals may be meant for earth, water, &c. And in the same way he is the thinker among thinkers.'

Sankarananda says: 'He is eternal, imperishable, among eternal, imperishable things, such as the ether, &c. He is thinking among thinkers!

Vignanatman says: 'The Highest Lord is the cause of eternity in eternal things on earth, and the cause of thought in the thinkers on earth.' But he allows another construction, namely, that he is the eternal thinker of those who on earth are endowed with eternity and thought. In the end all these interpretations come to the same, viz. that there is only one eternal, and only one thinker, from whom all that is (or seems to be) eternal and all that is thought on earth is derived.

^265:1 See Kath. Up. V, 15; Mund. Up. II, 2, 10; Bhagavadgita XV, 6.

^265:2 Hamsa, frequently used for the Highest Self, is explained here as hanty avidyadibandhakaranam iti hamsah.

^265:3 Cf. III, 8.

^265:4 Again the MSS. read kalakalo, as in verse 2. They also agree in putting gnah before kalakalo, as in verse 2.

^265:5 Pradhanam avyaktam, kshetragno vignanatma.

^265:6 He binds, sustains, and dissolves worldly existence.

^265:7 He who seems to exist for a time in the form of kshetragna and pradhana.

^265:8 The MSS. vary between atmabuddhiprakasam and atmabuddhiprasadam. The former reading is here explained by Sankarananda as svabuddhisakshinam.

^266:1 Explained as Hiranyagarbha.

^266:2 Niranganam nirlepam.