Bhashya
बाह्यानां ज्योतिषां सर्वकरणानुग्राहकाणां प्रत्यस्तमये अ-न्तःकरणद्वारेण हृद्यन्तर्ज्योतिः पुरुष आत्मा अनुग्राहकः क-रणानामित्युक्तम् ।यदापि बाह्यकरणानुग्राहकाणाम् आ-दित्यादिज्योतिषां भावः, तदापि आदित्यादिज्योतिषां परा-र्थत्वात् कार्यकारणसंघातस्याचैतन्ये स्वार्थानुपपत्तेः स्वार्थ-ज्योतिष आत्मनः अनुग्रहाभावे अयं कार्यकारणसंघातः नसमानः बुद्धिसामान्याद्वारेण; 'सर्वमयः' इति च अत एववक्ष्यति ।तेन असौ कुतश्चित्प्रविभज्य मुञ्जेषीकावत् स्वेनज्योतीरूपेण दर्शयितुं न शक्यत इति, सर्वव्यापारं तत्रा-ध्यारोप्य नामरूपगतम्, ज्योतिर्धर्मं च नामरूपयोः, नाम-रूपे च आत्मज्योतिषि, सर्वो लोकः मोमुह्यते— अयमा-त्मा नायमात्मा, एवंधर्मा नैवंधर्मा, कर्ता अकर्ता, शुद्धः अ-शुद्धः, बद्धः मुक्तः, स्थितः गतः आगतः, अस्ति नास्ति—इत्यादिविकल्पैः ।अतः समानः सन् उभौ लोकौ प्रतिपन्न-प्रतिपत्तव्यौ इहलोकपरलोकौ उपात्तदेहेन्द्रियादिसंघातत्या-गान्योपादानसंतानप्रबन्धशतसंनिपातैः अनुक्रमेण संचरति ।धीसादृश्यमेवोभयलोकसंचरणहेतुः, न स्वतः इति— तत्र ना-मरूपोपाधिसादृश्यं भ्रान्तिनिमित्तं यत् तदेव हेतुः, न स्व-तः— इत्येतदुच्यते— यस्मात् सः समानः सन् उभौ लोका-वनुक्रमेण संचरति— तदेतत् प्रत्यक्षम् इत्येतत् दर्शयति— यतःध्यायतीव ध्यानव्यापारं करोतीव, चिन्तयतीव, ध्यानव्यापा-रवर्ती बुद्धिं सः तस्थेन चित्स्वभावज्योतीरूपेण अवभासयन्तत्सदृशः तत्समानः सन् ध्यायति इव, आलोकवदेव—अतः भवति चिन्तयतीति भ्रान्तिर्लोकस्य; न तु परमार्थतोध्यायति ।तथा लेलायतीव अत्यर्थं चलतीव, तेष्वेव कर-णेषु बुद्ध्यादिषु वायुषु च चलत्सु तदवभासकत्वात् तत्स-दृशं तदिति- लेलायति इव, न तु परमार्थतः चलनधर्मकं तत् आत्मज्योतिः ।कथं पुनः एतदवगम्यते, तत्समानत्व- भ्रान्तिरेव उभयलोकसंचरणादिहेतुः न स्वतः- इत्यस्यार्थस्य प्रदर्शनाय हेतुरुपदिश्यते- सः आत्मा, हि यस्मात् स्वप्नो भूत्वा- सः यया धिया समानः, सा धीः यद्यत् भवति, तत्तत् असावपि भवतीव ; तस्मात् यदा असौ स्वप्नो भवति स्वापवृत्तिं प्रतिपद्यते धीः, तदा सोऽपि स्वप्रवृत्तिं प्रतिप- द्यते ; यदा धीः जिजागरिषति, तदा असावपि ; अत आह- स्वप्नो भूत्वा स्वप्रवृत्तिंमवभासयन् धियः स्वाप- वृत्त्याकारो भूत्वा इमं लोकम् जागरितव्यवहारलक्षणं कार्य- करणसंघातात्मकं लौकिकशास्त्रीयव्यवहारास्पदम्, अतिक्रा- मति अतीत्य क्रामति विविक्तेन स्वेन आत्मज्योतिषा स्वप्राप्ति- कां धीवृत्तिंमवभासयन्नवतिष्ठते यस्मात्- तस्मात् स्वयंज्योतिः- स्वभाव एवासौ, विशुद्धः स कर्तृक्रियाकारकफलशून्यः पर- मार्थतः, धीसादृश्यमेव तु उभयलोकसंचारादिसंव्यवहार- भ्रान्तिहेतुः ।मृत्यो रूपाणि- मृत्युः कर्माविद्यादिः, न तस्य अन्यद्रूपं स्वतः, कार्यकारणान्येव अस्य रूपाणि, अतः तानि मृत्यो रूपाणि अतिक्रामति क्रियाफलाश्रयाणि ॥
In plain words
When the outer lights go down — the sun, the moon, the fire, all the helpers of the senses — it is through the mind that the Person, the light within your own heart, becomes the one who carries the organs onward. That much has already been said. But notice: even while the sun is still up, still lighting the world for your eyes, the same thing is true. Sun, moon and fire exist for someone else's sake, and a body made only of matter can't run itself; nothing unconscious ever manages its own affairs. So even in broad daylight, without the Self's own untouched light quietly behind everything, this whole arrangement of body and organs wouldn't hold together for a moment. That, in fact, is why the Upaniṣad will soon call it 'made of everything.' You cannot pull the Self out into view the way you draw a reed's pith out of its grass sheath, showing it bare, in its own light. And because you can't, people mix everything up: they load the doings of name and form onto the Self, they load the Self's own brightness onto name and form, and they load name and form onto that brightness in turn. That's how a whole world ends up arguing — this is the self, this isn't; it has these qualities, it doesn't; it acts, it doesn't act; it's pure, it's stained; it's bound, it's free; it stays, it leaves, it arrives; it exists, it doesn't — round and round. And so, being one and the same all along, it seems to travel between two worlds, the one you're in and the one still ahead, through wave after wave of putting down one body and its senses and picking up another. But look closer: what actually causes that sense of travelling from world to world is nothing but the resemblance of the mind — not anything happening to the Self itself. It's the resemblance between one set of name-and-form and the next, that alone, which breeds the confusion; the Self has no part in causing it. Here's the proof, and it's not abstract — it's something you can watch directly. The Self seems to think, seems to be lost in thought, because it lights up the mind's own thinking the way a lamp lights up whatever stands in front of it — never moving, but taking on the shape of what it shines on, so it looks like it's the one thinking. That's where the illusion 'it thinks' comes from. In truth, it never thinks at all. The same goes for the sense that it trembles or rushes about: it's really the mind and the breath that are moving, and because the Self is what lights them up while they move, it seems to share their motion. In truth, that light never moves an inch. How do we know all this? Because the Upaniṣad itself hands us the proof, drawn straight from something you already know: dream. Whatever your mind becomes, you seem to become right along with it — that's the whole secret. When your mind slips into sleep, you slip into dreaming; the moment your mind starts to stir toward waking, so do you. So it says: 'having become dream,' lighting up its own part in that, taking on the exact shape of the mind's sleep, it leaves behind this waking world of bodies and business, worldly and sacred both, by nothing but its own separate light — and it settles into lighting up the mind's dream instead. That is exactly why it is, by its very nature, its own light: untouched, with no doer, no doing, no tool and no result to its name. All that talk of coming and going between worlds is only ever the mind's resemblance doing the talking. And 'the forms of death' are nothing mysterious either — death just means action and ignorance and their kin; it has no shape of its own besides the causes and effects that make up a body. That is exactly what the Self, in dream, walks straight past: those forms of death, the mere holding-places for action and its fruit.
Close to the Sanskrit
Of the external lights, the aiders of all the organs, at their setting — through the medium of the inner organ, the Person who is the light within the heart, the Self, is the aider of the organs — thus it has been said. Even when there is the presence of the external lights beginning with the sun, the aiders of the external organs, even then — because those lights exist for the sake of another, and because, the effect-and-cause aggregate being non-conscious, its own purpose cannot be established without the aid of the Self whose light is self-sufficient — in the absence of the Self's aid this effect-and-cause aggregate would not be the same by way of the general operation of the intellect. And for this very reason it will be said 'made of everything'. Therefore this one cannot be shown, separated out from something, in its own form of light, like a reed from its sheath; hence, superimposing onto that all the activity belonging to name-and-form, and the property of light onto name-and-form, and name-and-form onto the light of the Self, the whole world becomes deluded — 'this is the Self, this is not the Self,' 'possessing such properties, not possessing such properties,' 'agent, non-agent,' 'pure, impure,' 'bound, liberated,' 'stationary, gone, come,' 'exists, does not exist' — by such alternatives. Therefore, being the same, it moves through both worlds — the one already attained and the one yet to be attained, this world and the other world — by hundreds of connected, continuous successions of abandoning the acquired aggregate of body, senses and the rest and taking up another, moving in due order. It is precisely the resemblance of the intellect that is the cause of transmigration between both worlds, not the Self by itself — in that connection, the resemblance of the name-and-form adjunct, which is the occasion of delusion, is itself the cause, not the Self by itself — this very point is being stated. Since he, being the same, transmigrates through both worlds in due order — that this is directly evident is shown thus: because he seems to think — seems to perform the activity of thought, seems to ponder — he, illumining, by the light that is consciousness by nature, the intellect engaged in the activity of thought, remaining fixed, being similar to it and identical with it, seems to think, exactly as light does. Hence there arises the delusion of people, 'it thinks'; but in ultimate reality it does not think. Likewise it seems to tremble, seems to move about excessively; because, it being the illuminator precisely of those organs beginning with the intellect and of the vital airs while they are in motion, it appears similar to them, it thus seems to tremble; but in ultimate reality that light of the Self does not have the property of movement. How, again, is this understood — that it is precisely the delusion of being identical with that which is the cause of transmigration between both worlds and the like, not the Self by itself? To demonstrate the meaning of this, a reason is now taught. That Self — because, having become dream, he, being identical with whatever intellect he is joined to — whatever that intellect becomes, he too seems to become; therefore, when the intellect assumes the state of sleep, then he too assumes the corresponding activity; when the intellect is about to awaken, then he too. Hence it is said: 'Having become dream,' illumining his own corresponding activity, having taken the form of the intellect's sleep-modification, he transcends — that is, having gone past, he passes — this world characterized by waking transactions, constituted of the effect-and-cause aggregate, the seat of worldly and scriptural dealing, by his own separate light as Self; illumining the modification of the intellect proper to the attainment of dream, he remains established. Therefore he is, of his own nature, self-luminous; he is utterly pure, devoid of agent, action, instrument and result in ultimate reality; but it is precisely the resemblance of the intellect that is the cause of the delusion of transacting such as movement between both worlds. 'The forms of death' — death is action, ignorance and the like; it has no other form of its own; the very effects and causes are its forms; therefore he transcends those forms of death, the receptacles of action and its fruit.