अत्ता चराचरग्रहणात् ॥ ९ ॥
attā carācaragrahaṇāt || 9 ||
attā—The eater; carācaragrahaṇāt—because the movable and immovable (i.e. the whole universe) is taken (as his food).
9. The eater (is Brahman), because both the movable and immovable (i.e. the entire universe) is taken (as his food).
“Who thus knows where He is, to whom the Brahmanas and Kshatriyas are (as it were) but food and death itself a condiment” (Kath. 1. 2. 25)?
This passage says that there is some eater. Who is this eater referred to by ‘He’? Is it the fire referred to in another text as eater : “Soma indeed is food, and fire the eater” (Brih. 1. 4. 6); or is it the individual soul referred to as eater in, “One of them eats the sweet fruit” (Mu. 3. 1. 1). This Sutra says it is neither, but the Supreme Lord, for the text says that in Him the whole of creation, movable and immovable, is reabsorbed. The fact that death, which destroys everything else, is swallowed up as a condiment, shows that the entire creation is referred to as His food. The Brahmanas and Kshatriyas are mentioned as mere examples, since they are the foremost of created beings. The eater of such a stupendous thing can be Brahman alone and none else.