Bhashya
तत् तत्रयथा लोके अनः शकटम्, सुसमाहितं सुष्ठु भृशं वा समा-हितम् भाण्डोपस्करणेन उलूखलमुसलशूर्पपिठरादिना अन्ना-द्येन च संपन्नम् संभारेण आक्रान्तमित्यर्थः ; तथा भाराक्रा-न्तं सत्, उत्सर्जत् शब्दं कुर्वत्, यथा यायात् गच्छेत् शा-कटिकेनाधिष्ठितं सत्; एवमेव यथा उक्तो दृष्टान्तः, अयंशारीरः शरीरे भवः— कोऽसौ? आत्मा लिङ्गोपा-धिः, यः स्वप्नबुद्धान्ताविव जन्ममरणाभ्यां पाप्मसंस्-र्गवियोगलक्षणाभ्याम् इहलोकपरलोकावनुसंचरति, यस्यो-त्क्रमणमनु प्राणाद्युत्क्रमणम्— सः प्राज्ञेन परेण आ-त्मना स्वयंज्योतिःस्वभावेन अन्वारूढः अधिष्ठितः अवभा-स्यमानः— तथा चोक्तम् ‘आत्मनैवायं ज्योतिषास्ते पल्य-यते’ इति—उत्सर्जन्द्याति ।तत्र चैतन्यात्मज्योतिषा भास्येलिङ्गे प्राणप्रधाने गच्छति, तदुपाधिरप्यात्मा गच्छतीव ;तथा श्रुत्यन्तरम्— ‘कस्मिन्न्वहम्’ इत्यादि, ‘ध्यायतीव’इति च ; अत एवोक्तम्— प्राज्ञेनात्मनान्वारूढ इति ; अ-न्यथा प्राज्ञेन एकीभूतः शकटवत् कथम् उत्सर्ज्यन् याति ।तेन लिङ्गोपाधिरात्मा उत्सर्जन् मर्मसु निकृत्यमानेषु दुःख-वेदनया आर्तः शब्दं कुर्वन् याति गच्छति ।तत् कस्मि-न्काले इत्युच्यते— यत्र एतद्भवति, एतदिति क्रियाविशे-षणम्, ऊर्ध्वोच्छ्वासी, यत्र ऊर्ध्वोच्छ्वासित्वमस्य भवतीत्यर्थः ।
In plain words
Picture an ordinary cart in the street, loaded well past comfort: pots and tools piled on, a mortar and pestle, a winnowing basket, a cooking pot, food for the road, everything heaped up together. Loaded like that, it creaks and groans as the driver gets it moving. Keep that picture. Now look at the embodied self the same way. Who is it, really? It is the self wrapped in its subtle body, the one that wanders between this world and the next through birth and death — taking on one entanglement, shedding another — and wherever it goes, breath and the senses go out right behind it. And carried within all of that is the deeper self, the one that is light by its own nature, simply present, simply shining — the scriptures say it plainly: by that light alone, this one lives, and moves about. But the creaking, the strain, the actual departure — that belongs to the self bound up with the body, not to the light itself. If the two were simply the same thing, there would be nothing left in it to groan. Instead, at the vital points, cut one by one, it cries out in real pain and goes. And this is exactly what 'breath going upward' means: the moment the breath begins climbing instead of settling back down.
Close to the Sanskrit
There [in this connection]: just as in the world a cart — 'susamāhitam' meaning well, or exceedingly, loaded — with equipment such as pots and implements, with mortar, pestle, winnowing-basket, cooking-pot and the like, and furnished with food and provisions, that is, overladen with its burden — thus, being laden with weight, creaking, making a sound, would go, would proceed, driven by a carter — in just this way, as the illustration stated, this one belonging to the body — who is that? — the self conditioned by the subtle body, which wanders between this world and the other through birth and death marked by conjunction with and separation from sin, following whose departure the departure of the vital breaths and so on follows — that self, mounted, governed, illumined by the supreme self whose nature is self-luminosity — as it is said, 'by the self alone this one abides in light and wanders about' — departs creaking. There, by the light of consciousness that is the self, it is the subtle body, in which breath is chief, that goes and is illumined; its adjunct, the self, seems to go too; likewise another scriptural text says, 'in whom am I', and 'as if meditating'; hence it is said 'mounted by the self that is prājña'; otherwise, if it had become one with the prājña like the cart, how could it go creaking? Therefore the self conditioned by the subtle body, departing while its vital parts are being cut, crying out from the pain of that suffering, goes, departs. At what time is this? — it is said: when this occurs — 'this' being an adverbial qualifier — one whose breath goes upward, when the state of upward breathing belongs to him — that is the meaning.