Bhashya
यस्मिन्नात्मनि, परिशिष्टो विज्ञानमयः अन्त्ये पर्याये,प्रवेशितः, सोऽयमात्मा ।तस्मिन् अविद्याकृतकार्यकरणसंघा-तोपाधिविशिष्टे ब्रह्मविद्यया परमार्थात्मनि प्रवेशिते, स एव-मुक्तः अनन्तरोऽबाह्यः कृत्स्नः प्रज्ञानघनभूतः, स वै- सएव अयमात्मा अव्यवहितपूर्वपर्याये 'तेजोमयः' इत्यादिनानिर्दिष्टो विज्ञानात्मा विद्वान्, सर्वेषां भूतानामयमात्मा-सर्वै-रुपास्यः- सर्वेषां भूतानामधिपतिः सर्वभूतानां स्वतन्त्रः- नकुमारामात्यवत्- किं तर्हि सर्वेषां भूतानां राजा, राजत्ववि-शेषणम् 'अधिपतिः' इति- भवति कश्चित् राजोचितवृ-त्तिमाश्रित्य राजा, न तु अधिपतिः, अतो विशिनष्टि अधि-पतिरिति ; एवं सर्वभूतात्मा विद्वान् ब्रह्मवित् मुक्तो भवति ।यदुक्तम्- 'ब्रह्मविद्यया सर्वं भविष्यन्तो मनुष्या मन्यन्ते,किमु तद्ब्रह्मावेद्यस्मात्तत्सर्वमभवत्' इतीदम्, तत् व्याख्यातम्एवम्- आत्मानमेव सर्वात्मत्वेन आचार्यागमाभ्यां श्रुत्वा,मत्वा तर्कतः, विज्ञाय साक्षात् एवम्, यथा मधुब्राह्मणेदर्शितं तथा- तस्मात् ब्रह्मविज्ञानात् एवंलक्षणात् पूर्वमपि, ब्रह्मैव सत् अविद्यया अब्रह्म आसीत्, सर्वमेव च सत् असर्वमासीत्- तां तु अविद्याम् अस्माद्विज्ञानात् तिरस्कृत्य ब्रह्मवित् ब्रह्मैव सन् ब्रह्माभवत्, सर्वः सः सर्वमभवत् ।परिसमाप्तः शास्त्रार्थः, यदर्थः प्रस्तुत; तस्मिन् एतस्मिन् सर्वात्मभूते ब्रह्मविदि सर्वात्मनि सर्वं जगत्समर्पितमित्येतस्मिन्नर्थे दृष्टान्त उपादीयते- तद्यथा रथनाभौ च रथनेमौ चाराः सर्वे समर्पिता इति, प्रसिद्धोऽर्थः, एवमेव अस्मिन् आत्मनि परमात्मभूते ब्रह्मविदि सर्वाणि भूतानि ब्रह्मादिस्तम्बपर्यन्तानि सर्वे देवाः अग्न्यादयः सर्वे लोकाः भूरादयः सर्वे प्राणाः वागादयः सर्व एत आत्मानो जलचन्द्रवत् प्रतिशरीरानुप्रवेशिनः अविद्याकल्पिताः; सर्वं जगत् अस्मिन्समर्पितम् ।यदुक्तम्, ब्रह्मवित् वामदेवः प्रतिपेदे- अहं मनुरभवं सूर्यश्चेति, स एष सर्वात्मभावो व्याख्यातः ।स एष विद्वान् ब्रह्मवित् सर्वोपाधिः सर्वात्मा सर्वो भवति; निरुपाधिः निरूपाख्यः अनन्तरः अबाह्यः कृत्स्नः प्रज्ञानघनः अजोऽजरोऽमृतोऽभयोऽचलः नेति नेत्यस्थूलोऽणुरित्येवंविशेषणः भवति ।तमेतमर्थम् अजानन्तस्तार्किकाः केचित् पण्डितंमन्याश्चा-द्रादगाधात् उत्तरिष्यन्ति, नेतरे स्वबुद्धिकौशळानुसारिणः ॥
In plain words
Into this same Self, at the very last stage, the self made of understanding has entered — and that is what 'this Self' means. When that entry happens, through knowledge of brahman, into the ultimately real Self that had seemed limited to a body built by ignorance, it is described the way scripture describes it: without an inside, without an outside, complete, a solid mass of awareness. This is the very same being that, one step back, was called 'made of light, made of immortality' — the knowing self, the knower: the Self of every being, worthy of every being's reverence, the overlord of every being, sovereign — not a minister serving at someone else's pleasure, but a king in the fullest sense. 'Overlord' says more than 'king,' because a person can act kingly and still not be sovereign — that is exactly why the word 'overlord' is added. Whoever knows himself as the Self of all beings, the knower of brahman, is set free. This explains the old saying: 'People think that by knowing brahman they will become everything — but what is that brahman, by knowing which one actually becomes everything?' The answer is: hear about the Self as the nature of everything from a teacher and from scripture, turn it over in reasoning, and then know it directly — exactly as was already shown in the honey teaching. Before that direct knowledge, brahman, though it was always brahman, passed for something less, simply because of ignorance; the whole, though it was always the whole, passed for something partial. Once that ignorance is cleared away by this very knowledge, the knower — who was brahman all along — becomes brahman in full realization, and becomes the whole, being the whole all along. That completes what this teaching set out to do. And to show that the entire world rests in this knower who has become the Self of everything, an image is offered: think of a chariot wheel, where every spoke is fixed into the hub at one end and the rim at the other. In exactly that way, every being from Brahma down to a blade of grass, every god from Agni onward, every world from the earth onward, every faculty from speech onward — every one of these many selves, appearing in each body the way one moon appears in many pools of water, is a shape ignorance gives to the one Self — rests fixed in him. This is what the sage Vāmadeva meant when he said, 'I became Manu, and I became the sun' — the very state of being the Self of everything. Such a knower, holding every limitation and yet identical with all, becomes everything; and seen the other way, he holds no limitation and no name at all — no inside, no outside, whole, pure awareness, never born, never aging, deathless, fearless, unmoving — describable only by saying 'not this, not this,' neither coarse nor a mere point. That is the only way to characterize him. Some clever debaters, without ever grasping this, think themselves wise enough to sound the bottom of it — but those who only trust their own cleverness never do.
Close to the Sanskrit
In which self the remaining self made of understanding, in the last stage, has been made to enter — that is this Self. When it has entered, by knowledge of brahman, into the ultimately real Self characterized by the limiting adjunct that is the aggregate of body and organs produced by ignorance, it is then called: 'without interior, without exterior, entire, become a mass of consciousness.' It, indeed — this very Self, which in the immediately preceding stage was indicated by the term 'made of light' and so on — is the cognizing self, the knower: this Self of all beings, worthy of worship by all, the overlord of all beings, independent among all beings — not like a prince's minister — what then? The king of all beings. 'Overlord' further qualifies mere kingship: someone may become a king by adopting conduct fitting for a king, yet not be an overlord; therefore the text further specifies 'overlord.' Thus the knower whose self is all beings, the knower of brahman, becomes liberated. As it was said: 'By knowledge of brahman men think they will become all; what then is that brahman, knowing which one became that all?' — this saying has been explained thus: having heard of the Self itself as having the nature of all, from teacher and scripture, having reflected on it through reasoning, having directly realized it — just as was shown in the Madhu-Brahmana, so here — therefore, even before this knowledge of brahman of such a character, brahman, though existing, was, through ignorance, non-brahman; and all, though existing, was non-all. But having dispelled that ignorance by this knowledge, the knower of brahman, being brahman indeed, became brahman; being all, he became all. The purport of the teaching, for whose sake this was undertaken, is now complete. Regarding this point — that in this knower of brahman who has become the Self of all, the whole world is deposited — an illustration is adduced: just as, in the hub and rim of a chariot-wheel, all the spokes are fixed, so too, in this Self, which has become the supreme Self, the knower of brahman, all beings from Brahma down to a tuft of grass, all gods beginning with Agni, all worlds beginning with the earth, all vital faculties beginning with speech — all these selves, entering each body like the moon in water, fashioned by ignorance — the whole world is fixed in him. As it was said, the knower of brahman Vāmadeva realized: 'I became Manu, and the sun' — this is the state of being the Self of all, now explained. This knower, the knower of brahman, having every limiting adjunct, whose self is all, becomes all; without limiting adjunct, without designation, without interior, without exterior, entire, a mass of consciousness, unborn, unaging, immortal, fearless, unmoving, describable only as 'not this, not this,' not gross, atomic — he becomes one so characterized. Some logicians, not understanding this meaning but thinking themselves learned, will imagine they have crossed this bottomless depth; but not the others, who merely follow the cleverness of their own intellect.