यस्मिन्पञ्च पञ्चजना आकाशश्च प्रतिष्ठितः ।
तमेव मन्य आत्मानं विद्वान्ब्रह्मामृतोऽमृतम् ॥ १७ ॥yasminpañca pañcajanā ākāśaśca pratiṣṭhitaḥ |
tameva manya ātmānaṃ vidvānbrahmāmṛto’mṛtam || 17 ||17. That in which the five groups of five and the (subtle) ether are placed, that very Ātman I regard as the immortal Brahman. Knowing (Brahman) I am immortal.
Moreover, that Brahman in which the five groups of five, the celestial minstrels etc., who are five in number, viz. the celestial minstrels, the Manes, the gods, the Asuras and the Rākṣasas—or the four castes with the Caṇḍālas as the fifth—and the ether called the Undifferentiated, which pervades the Sūtra, are placed—it has been said, ‘By this Immutable, O Gārgī, is the (unmanifested) ether pervaded’ (III. viii. 11)—that very Ātman I regard as the immortal Brahman. I do not consider the Self as different from that. What then is it? Knowing Brahman, I am immortal. I was mortal only through ignorance. Since that is gone, I, the knowing one, am indeed immortal.