किंदेवतोऽस्यां प्राच्यां दिश्यसीति; आदित्यदेवत इति; स आदित्यः कस्मिन् प्रतिष्ठित इति; चक्शुषीति; कस्मिन्नु चक्शुः प्रतिष्ठितमिति; रूपेष्विति, चक्शुषा हि रूपाणि पश्यति; कस्मिन्नु रूपाणि प्रतिष्ठितानीति; हृदय इति होवाच, हृदयेन हि रूपाणि जानाति, हृदये ह्येव रूपाणि प्रतिष्ठितानि भवन्तीति; एवमेवैतद्याज्ञवल्क्य ॥ २० ॥
kiṃdevato’syāṃ prācyāṃ diśyasīti; ādityadevata iti; sa ādityaḥ kasmin pratiṣṭhita iti; cakśuṣīti; kasminnu cakśuḥ pratiṣṭhitamiti; rūpeṣviti, cakśuṣā hi rūpāṇi paśyati; kasminnu rūpāṇi pratiṣṭhitānīti; hṛdaya iti hovāca, hṛdayena hi rūpāṇi jānāti, hṛdaye hyeva rūpāṇi pratiṣṭhitāni bhavantīti; evamevaitadyājñavalkya || 20 ||
20. ‘What deity are you identified with in the east?’ ‘With the deity, sun.’ ‘On what does the sun rest?’ ‘On the eye.’ ‘On what does the eye rest?’ ‘On colours, for one sees colours with the eye.’ ‘On what do colours rest?’ ‘On the heart (mind),’ said Yājñavalkya, ‘for one knows colours through the heart; it is on the heart that colours rest.’ ‘It is just so, Yājñavalkya.’
‘What deity are you identified with in the east?—what deity have you who are identified with the quarters?’ Yājñavalkya, realising his own heart or mind—divided in five forms according to the quarters and identified with the quarters—and through it the whole universe, as his own self, stood facing the east, with the conviction that he was the quarters. We gather this from his claim that he knew the quarters with their supports. Śākalya according to Yājñavalkya’s statement asks, ‘What deity are you identified with in this quarter?’ Everywhere in the Vedas it is stated that in this very life one becomes identified with and attains the god one meditates upon. It will be stated further on, ‘Being a god, he attains the gods’ (IV. i. 2). The idea is this: You are identified with the quarters; who is your presiding deity in the east?—as the east, which deity are you united with? Yājñavalkya said: ‘With the deity, sun—the sun is my deity in the east.’ This is in substantiation of his claim that he knew the quarters with their deities; the other part, that relating to their supports, remains to be dealt with; so the text goes on: ‘On what does the sun rest?’ ‘On the eye,’ for the Vedic Mantras and their explanatory portions—for instance, ‘From the eye the sun was produced’ (R. X. xc. 13, etc.) and ‘From the eye came the sun’ (Ai. I. 4)—say that the sun is produced from the eye that is in the body; and an effect rests on its cause. ‘On what does the eye rest?’ ‘On colours.’ The eye, itself a modification of colours, is directed by them so as to perceive them; it is produced by those very colours that direct it to perceive them. Therefore the eye, together with the sun, and the east, and all that lie in the east, rests on colours; the entire east, together with the eye, is but colours. ‘On what do these colours rest?’ ‘On the heart,’ said Yājñavalkya. Colours are made by the heart; it is the heart that is transformed into them, ‘for everybody knows colours through the heart.’ ‘Heart’ here refers to the intellect and Manas taken together (i.e. mind). Therefore ‘it is on the heart that colours rest.’ The idea is that since one remembers colours, lying as impressions, through the heart, therefore colours rest on the heart. ‘It is just so, Yājñavalkya.’