इदं वै तन्मधु दध्यङ्ङाथर्वनोऽश्विभ्यामुवाच । तदेतदृषिः पश्यन्नवोचत् ।
रूपं रूपं प्रतिरूपो बभूव, तदस्य रूपं प्रतिचक्षणाय ।
इन्द्रो मायाभिः पुरुरूप ईयते, युक्ता ह्यस्य हरयः शता दश ॥ इति ।
अयं वै हरयः, अयं वै दश च सहस्राणि, बहूनि चानन्तानि च; तदेतद्ब्रह्मापूर्वमनपरमनन्तरमबाह्यम्, अयमात्मा ब्रह्म सर्वानुभूः, इत्यनुशासनम् ॥ १६ ॥
इति पञ्चमं ब्राह्मणम् ॥idaṃ vai tanmadhu dadhyaṅṅātharvano’śvibhyāmuvāca | tadetadṛṣiḥ paśyannavocat |
rūpaṃ rūpaṃ pratirūpo babhūva, tadasya rūpaṃ praticakṣaṇāya |
indro māyābhiḥ pururūpa īyate, yuktā hyasya harayaḥ śatā daśa || iti |
ayaṃ vai harayaḥ, ayaṃ vai daśa ca sahasrāṇi, bahūni cānantāni ca; tadetadbrahmāpūrvamanaparamanantaramabāhyam, ayamātmā brahma sarvānubhūḥ, ityanuśāsanam || 19 ||
iti pañcamaṃ brāhmaṇam ||19. This is that meditation on things mutually helpful which Dadhyac, versed in the Atharva-Veda, taught the Aśvins. Perceiving this the Rṣi said, ‘(He) transformed Himself in accordance with each form; that form of Hi$ was for the sake of making Him known. The Lord on account of Māyā (notions superimposed by ignorance) is perceived as manifold, for to Him are yoked ten organs, nay hundreds of them. He is the organs; He is ten, and thousands— many, and infinite. That Brahman is without prior or posterior, without interior or exterior. This self, the perceiver of everything, is Brahman. This is the teaching.
This is that meditation. etc., is to be explained as before.. (He) transformed Himself in accordance with each form, or (to put it differently) assumed the likeness of each form. A son has the same form as, or resembles, his parents. A quadruped is not born of bipeds, nor vice versa. The same Lord, in the process of manifesting name and form, ‘transformed Himself in accordance with each form.’ Why did He come in so many forms? That form of His was for the rake of making Him known. Were name and form not manifested, the transcendent nature of this Self as Pure Intelligence would not be known. When, however, name and form are-manifested as the body and organs, it is possible to know Its nature. The Lord on account of Māyā or diverse knowledge, or (to give an alternative meaning) the false identifications created by name, form and the elements, not in truth— is perceived as manifold, because of these notions superimposed by ignorance, although He is ever the same Pure Intelligence. Why? For to Him ‘are yoked, like horses to a chariot, ten organs —called ‘Hari’ because they draw —nay hundreds of them. for the purpose of revealing their objects; ‘hundreds/ because there are a great many beings. Since there are a large number of sense-objects (the Supreme Self appears as manifold). It is to reveal them, and not the Self, that the organs are yoked. As the Kaṭha Upaniṣad says, ‘The self-born Lord injured the organs by making them outgoing in their tendencies’ (IV. i). Therefore the Self is known not in Its true nature as homogeneous Pure Intelligence, but merely as the sense-objects.
Question: Then this Lord is one entity, and the organs another?
Reply: No; He is the organs; he is ten, and thousands—many, and infinite—because there are an infinite number of beings. In short, that Brahman which is the self is without prior, i.e. cause, or posterior, i.e. effect, without interior or exterior, i.e. it has no other specifes within It or without It. What is this homogeneous Brahman? This self. What is it? The inner self that sees, hears, thinks, understands, knows; the perceiver of everything, because as the self of all it perceives everything. This is the teaching of all Vedānta texts—the gist of them. It leads to immortality and fearlessness. The import of the scriptures has been fully dealt with.