अन्तरा भूतग्रामवत्स्वात्मनः ॥ ३५ ॥
antarā bhūtagrāmavatsvātmanaḥ || 35 ||
antarā—As being innermost of all; bhūtagrāmavat—as in the case of the elements; svātmanaḥ—(teaching) of the same Self.
35. The same Self (is taught) as being the innermost of all, as in the case of the elements.
In the Brihadaranyaka we find Ushasta questioning Yajnavalkya thus: “Explain to me the Brahman that is immediate and direct—the self that is within all”; and Yajnavalkya replies : “That which breathes through Prana is your self, that is within all” (Brih. 3. 4. 1). In the same Upanishad 8.5.1, to the same question put by Kahola, Yajnavalkya replies: “That which transcends hunger and thirst, grief and delusion, decay and death. Knowing this very Self” etc. The opponent holds that these two are separate Vidyas, because the answers given being different, the objects referred to must be different. The Sutra refutes this and says that the object is one, the Supreme Self, for it is impossible to conceive two Selves being simultaneously innermost of all in the same body, even as none of the five elements constituting the body can be the innermost of all in the true sense of the term, though relatively one element can be inside another. Similarly one Self alone can be the innermost of all. Therefore the same Self is taught in both the answers.