Bhashya
अथ ह एनं प्रकृतं याज्ञवल्क्यम्, उषस्तो नामतः, चक्रस्यापत्यं चाक्रायणः, पप्रच्छ ।यत् ब्रह्म साक्षात् अव्यवहितं केनचित् द्रष्टुः अपरोक्षात्- अगौणम्- न श्रोत्रब्रह्मादिवत्- किं तत्? य आत्मा- आत्मशब्देन प्रत्यगात्मोच्यते, तत्र आत्मशब्दस्य प्रसिद्धत्वात्; सर्वस्याभ्यन्तरः सर्वान्तरः; यद्यःशब्दाभ्यां प्रसिद्ध आत्मा ब्रह्मेति- तम् आत्मानम्, मे मह्यम्, व्याचक्ष्वेति- विस्पष्टं शृङ्गे गृहीत्वा यथा गां दर्शयति तथा आचक्ष्व, सोऽयमित्येवं कथयस्वेत्यर्थः ।एवमुक्तः प्रत्याह याज्ञवल्क्यः- एषः ते तव आत्मा सर्वान्तरः सर्वस्याभ्यन्तरः; सर्वविशेषणोपलक्षणार्थं सर्वान्तरग्रहणम्; यत् साक्षात् अव्यवहितम् अपरोक्षात् अगौणम् ब्रह्म बृहत्तमम् आत्मा सर्वस्य सर्वस्याभ्यन्तरः, एतैर्गुणैः समस्तैर्युक्तः एषः, कोऽसौ तवात्मा? योऽयं कार्यकारणसंघातः तव सः येनात्मना आत्मवान् स एष तव आत्मा-तव कार्यकारणसंघातस्येत्यर्थः ।तत्र पिण्डः, तस्याभ्यन्तरे लिङ्गात्मा करणसंघातः, तृतीयो यश्च संदि-
In plain words
So Uṣasta -- Cakra's son -- put his question to the very Yājñavalkya we already know. What Uṣasta wants is this: that brahman standing directly in front of every seer, with nothing between -- not a figure of speech, not like people loosely calling the ear 'brahman' -- what actually is it? By 'self' he means the innermost self, since that is simply what the word always means. And 'within all' just says: inside everything there is. Since both his words -- 'which' and 'who' -- point to a self that is brahman, he is asking Yājñavalkya to show it to him the way you'd grab a cow by the horns and point: there, that one. Yājñavalkya answers: this -- your very own self -- is the one inside everything. And that phrase, 'inside everything,' is meant to gather up every quality that could apply. It's directly present, unmediated, no fiction, the vastest reality there is, the self at the heart of everything, wearing every one of those qualities at once. But which self of yours is it, exactly? Not this bundle of body and instruments that gets things done and has things done to it -- that isn't you. It's what animates that bundle. That is your self. And within that bundle: first the gross body, then, inside it, the subtle self -- the assembly of your inner organs -- and a third layer besides -- and there the account breaks off, mid-word, at the edge of the source page.
Close to the Sanskrit
Then indeed he questioned this Yājñavalkya, already the one under discussion -- Uṣasta by name, Cākrāyaṇa, the offspring of Cakra. As to: that brahman which is directly present, unmediated by anything to any seer, not hidden, not figurative -- not like 'the ear is brahman' and so on -- what is it? 'The self' -- by the word 'self' the inner self is meant, since the word 'self' is conventionally established in that sense; the one within everything is 'within-all'; since the two relative words 'which' and 'who' establish that this self is brahman -- that self, to me, explain -- clearly, as one shows a cow having grasped it by the horn, so tell it: 'this is that one' -- such is the meaning. So questioned, Yājñavalkya replies: 'This is your self, within all, within everything' -- the term 'within-all' serves to indicate every such qualification; that brahman which is directly present, unmediated, not hidden, not figurative, the vastest, the self of everything, within everything -- endowed with all these qualities together, this one -- which self of yours is that? This cause-and-effect aggregate that is yours -- that is not it; rather, that by which it is ensouled, that self, this is your self -- that is, of your cause-and-effect aggregate. There: the gross body; within it, the subtle self, the aggregate of instruments; and a third, which... [text breaks off here].