यो रेतसि तिष्ठन् रेतसोऽन्तरः, यं रेतो न वेद, यस्य रेतः शरीरम्, यो रेतोऽन्तरो यमयति, एष त आत्माऽन्तर्याम्यमृतः; अदृष्टो द्रष्टा, अश्रुतः श्रोता, अमतो मन्ता, अविज्ञतो विज्ञाता; नान्योऽतोऽस्ति द्रष्टा, नान्योऽतोऽस्ति श्रोता, नान्योऽतोऽस्ति मन्ता, नान्योऽतोऽस्ति विज्ञात, एष त आत्मान्तर्याम्यमृतः, अतोऽन्यदार्तम्; ततो होद्दालक आरुणिरुपरराम ॥ २३ ॥
इति सप्तमं ब्राह्मणम् ॥yo retasi tiṣṭhan retaso’ntaraḥ, yaṃ reto na veda, yasya retaḥ śarīram, yo reto’ntaro yamayati, eṣa ta ātmā’ntaryāmyamṛtaḥ; adṛṣṭo draṣṭā, aśrutaḥ śrotā, amato mantā, avijñato vijñātā; nānyo’to’sti draṣṭā, nānyo’to’sti śrotā, nānyo’to’sti mantā, nānyo’to’sti vijñāta, eṣa ta ātmāntaryāmyamṛtaḥ, ato’nyadārtam; tato hoddālaka āruṇirupararāma || 23 ||
iti saptamaṃ brāhmaṇam ||23. He who inhabits the organ of generation but is within it, whom the organ does not know, whose body is the organ, and who controls the organ from within, is the Internal Ruler, your own immortal self. He is never seen, but is the Witness; He is never heard, but is the Hearer; He is never thought, but is the Thinker; He is never known, but is the Knower. There is no other witness but Him, no other hearer but Him, no other thinker but Him, no other knower but Him. He is the Internal Ruler, your own immortal self. Everything else but Him îs mortal. Thereupon Uddālaka, the son of Aruṇa, kept silent.
Now with reference to the body. He who inhabits the nose together with the vital force, the organ of speech, the eye, the ear, the mind (Manas), the skin, the intellect and the organ of generation (lit. the seed). Why is it that the deities of the earth etc., in spite of their exceptional powers, fail to see, like men etc., the Internal Ruler who lives in them and controls them? This is being answered: He is never seen, never the object of anybody’s ocular perception, but being close to the eye as Pure Intelligence, He Himself is the Witness. Similar He is never heard, or perceived by anybody through the ear, but He Himself, with His never-failing power of hearing, is the Hearer, being dose to all ears. Likewise He is never thought, never becomes the object of deliberation by the mind, for people think of those things that they have seen or heard, and the Internal Ruler, never being seen or heard, is never thought; but He is the Thinker, for His thinking power never wanes, and He is close to all minds. Similarly He is never known or definitely grasped like colour etc., or like pleasure and so forth; but He Himself is the Knower, tor His intelligence never fails, and He is close to the intellect. Now the statements, ‘Whom the earth does not know,’ and ‘Whom no being knows.’ may mean that the individual selves (the earth etc.) that are controlled are different from the Internal Ruler who controls. To remove this presumption of difference the text goes on to say: There is no other witness but Him, this Internal Ruler; similarly, no other hearer but Him, no other thinker but Him. and no other knower but Him. He, except whom there is no other witness, hearer, thinker and knower. who is never seen but is the Witness, who is never heard but is the Hearer, who is never thought but is the Thinker, who is never known but is the Knower, who is immortal, devoid of all relative attributes, and is the distributor of the fruits of everybody’s actions— is the Internal Ruler, your own immortal self. Everything else but Him, this Īśvara or Ātman, is mortal. Thereupon Uddālaka, the son of Aruṇa, kept silent.