Bhashya
एकी भवति करणजातं स्वेन लिङ्गात्मना, तदा एनंपार्श्वस्था आहुः- पश्यतीति ; तथा घ्राणदेवतानिवृत्तौ घ्राण-मेकी भवति लिङ्गात्मना, तदा न जिघ्रतीत्याहुः ।समान-मन्यत् ।जिह्वायां सोमो वरुणो वा देवता, तन्निवृत्त्यपेक्षयान रसयते इत्याहुः ।तथा न वदति न शृणोति न मनुते नस्पृशति न विजानातीत्याहुः ।तदा उपलक्ष्यते देवतानिवृत्तिः,करणानां च हृदये एकीभावः ।तत्र हृदये उपसंहृतेषु करणेषुयोऽन्तर्व्यापारः स कथ्यते- तस्य ह एतस्य प्रकृतस्य हृ-दयस्य हृदयच्छिद्रस्येत्येतत्, अग्रम् नाडीमुखं निर्गमनद्वा-रम्, प्रद्योतते, स्वप्रकाश इव, स्वेन भासा तेजोमात्रादान-कृतेन, स्वेनैव ज्योतिषा आत्मनैव च ; तेन आत्मज्योतिषाप्रद्योतेन हृदयाग्रेण एष आत्मा विज्ञानमयो लिङ्गोपाधिःनिर्गच्छति निष्क्रामति ।तथा आथर्वणे 'कस्मिन्नुवहमुत्क्रा-न्त उत्क्रान्तो भविष्यामि कस्मिन्वा प्रतिष्ठिते प्रतिष्ठास्या-मीति स प्राणमसृजत' इति ।तत्र च आत्मचैतन्यज्योतिः सर्वदा अभिव्यक्ततरम्; तदुपाधिद्वारा हि आत्मनि जन्ममरणगमनागमनादिसर्वविक्रियालक्षणः संव्यवहारः; तदात्मकं हि द्वादशविधं करणं बुद्ध्यादि, तत् सूत्रम्, तत् जीवनम्, सोऽन्तरात्मा जगतः तस्थुषश्च ।तेन प्रद्योतेन हृदयाग्रप्रकाशेन निष्क्रममाणः केन मार्गेण निष्क्रामतीत्युच्यते—चक्षुष्टो वा, आदित्यलोकप्राप्तिनिमित्तं ज्ञानं कर्म वा यदि स्यात्; मूर्ध्नो वा ब्रह्मलोकप्राप्तिनिमित्तं चेत्; अन्येभ्यो वा शरीरदेशेभ्यः शरीरावयवेभ्यः यथाकर्म यथाश्रुतम् ।तं विज्ञानात्मानम्, उत्क्रामन्तम् परलोकाय प्रस्थितम्, परलोकाय उद्भूताकृतमित्यर्थः, प्राणः सर्वाधिकारिस्थानीयः राज्ञ इव अनूत्क्रामति; तं च प्राणमनूत्क्रामन्तं वागादयः सर्वे प्राणा अनूत्क्रामन्ति ।यथाप्रधानान्वाचिख्यासा इयम्, न तु क्रमेण सार्थवत् गमनम् इह विवक्षितम् ।तदा एष आत्मा सविज्ञानो भवति स्वप्न इव विशेषविज्ञानवान् भवति कर्मवशात्, न स्वतन्त्रः; स्वातन्त्र्येण हि सविज्ञानत्वे सर्वः कृतकृत्यः स्यात्; नैव तु तत् लभ्यते; अत एवाह व्यासः—'सदा तद्भावभावितः' इति; कर्मणा तु उद्भाव्यमानेन अन्तःकरणवृत्तिविशेषाश्रितवासनात्मकविशेषविज्ञानेन सर्वो लोकः एतस्मिन्काले सविज्ञानो भवति; सविज्ञानमेव च गन्तव्यम् अन्ववक्रामतिअनुगच्छति विशेषविज्ञानोद्भासितमेवेत्यर्थः ।तस्मात् तत्काले स्वातन्त्र्यार्थं योगधर्मानुसेवनम् परिसंख्यानाभ्यासश्च विशिष्टपुण्योपचयश्च श्रद्धालुभिः परलोकार्थिभिः अप्रमत्तैः कर्तव्य इति ।सर्वशास्त्राणां यत्नतो विधेयोऽर्थः- दुश्चरिताच्च उपरमणम् ।न हि तत्काले शक्यते किंचित्संपादियितुम्, कर्मणा नीयमानस्य स्वातन्त्र्याभावात् ।'पुण्यो वै पुण्येन कर्मणा भवति पापः पापेन' इत्युक्तम् ।एतस्य ह्यनर्थस्य उपशमोपायविधानाय सर्वशाखोपनिषदः प्रवृत्ताः ।न हि तद्विहितोपायानुसेवनं मुक्त्वा आत्यन्तिकः अस्य अनर्थस्य उपशमोपायः अस्ति ।तस्मात् अत्रैव उपनिषद्विहितोपाये यत्नपरैर्भवितव्यम्- इत्येष प्रकरणार्थः ॥
In plain words
Watch what happens as the senses shut down: the eye's whole apparatus draws back into its own inner form, and the people at the bedside say, 'he can still see.' The same happens with smell, and they say, 'now he can't smell.' It happens with taste, with speech, with hearing, with thought, with touch, with every kind of knowing — one by one, each presiding power withdraws, and what that withdrawal actually shows is the senses gathering themselves into the heart. There, in the heart, is an opening — the mouth of a subtle channel, a doorway out — and it glows, self-luminous, lit by nothing but its own light, the self's own light and nothing else. By that very light, at that very point, the true self — the individual self clothed in the subtle body — makes its exit. There is an old teaching that says the same thing: the creator himself, uncertain where his departing would leave him, asked 'into what, once I have gone, will I have gone? In what will I finally be established?' — and out of that very question, he brought forth the breath of life. And this light of awareness, always present, becomes unmistakably vivid right at this moment. Through this same subtle covering, everything we call 'living' — being born, dying, coming, going, changing in every way — plays out for the self, even though the self itself never really changes. That twelvefold instrument, headed by the intellect, is what we call the connecting thread, the very thing that constitutes life; it is the inner self of everything that moves and everything that doesn't. Now, which way out does it take? Through the eye, if the person's knowledge or deeds were aimed at reaching the sun. Through the crown of the head, if they were aimed at Brahmā's world. Or through some other opening in the body, depending entirely on what was done and what scripture says about it. And as this self sets out — really, as it takes on a new form for its journey — the breath of life goes right behind it, the way a retinue follows its king, and every other faculty, starting with speech, follows the breath in turn. Don't take that too literally, though — it's just a vivid way of describing what is chief and what follows; nobody is claiming a tidy, single-file march actually happens. What really carries the self forward is knowledge — but not free, chosen knowledge. Like a dream, it is knowledge shaped entirely by past karma. If it were otherwise, if you could simply choose your own next awareness, everyone would already be free; but no one ever is. That is exactly why the sage Vyāsa said: you are always shaped by that same condition. Karma stirs up a very specific kind of awareness, built from residual impressions lodged in a particular turn of the mind, and at the moment of death, this happens to everyone alike — the whole world becomes bearer of just such a pointed awareness. And wherever that awareness is shining, that is exactly where you go; you simply follow the light of your own last, specific knowing. So here is the real takeaway: right now, while you still have the freedom to act, is the time to practice spiritual discipline, to train yourself in careful discernment, and to build up real merit — this is work for the faithful, for those who care about what comes next, and who do it wide awake, not carelessly. And underneath every scripture, whatever else it teaches, there is really just one thing being asked of you with real urgency: stop doing wrong. Because once death arrives, nothing can be done — you are simply carried by the momentum of what you already did, with no freedom left to change course. As it is said: good action makes you good, and bad action makes you bad. It is precisely to give you a way out of this whole predicament that every branch of the Upaniṣads exists at all. And there is no final way out of it except by actually walking the path they lay down. So this, in the end, is the whole point: give everything you have, right here, to the very practice this Upaniṣad prescribes.
Close to the Sanskrit
The mass of organs becomes unified through its own subtle-body nature; then those standing at his side say of him — 'he sees.' Similarly, upon the withdrawal of the deity of smell, the organ of smell becomes unified through its subtle-body nature; then they say 'he does not smell.' The same applies to the rest. In the tongue, Soma or Varuṇa is the deity; owing to the withdrawal of that [deity], they say 'he does not taste.' Similarly, [when] he does not speak, does not hear, does not think, does not touch, [and] does not cognize, they say [this]. Then the withdrawal of the deities, and the unification of the organs in the heart, is inferred. There, when the organs have been gathered into the heart, that inner activity which [occurs] is now described — of this heart, [namely] the present, aforementioned heart's aperture, this is meant: the tip, the mouth of the channel, the door of egress — it shines forth, as if self-luminous, by its own light, made by the taking of a mere portion of brilliance, by its very own light, by the self alone; by that self-light, that shining, at the tip of the heart, this self, consisting of understanding, having the subtle body as its adjunct, goes forth, departs. Likewise, in the Ātharvaṇa [it is said]: '"In what, having departed, shall I have departed? Or in what, being established, shall I be established?" — thus he [Prajāpati] created prāṇa' — thus. And there, the light of the self's own consciousness is always more manifest; through the medium of that adjunct indeed, in the Self, [there occurs] the whole empirical dealing marked by birth, death, going, coming, and every kind of change; that which has the nature of that [self-with-adjunct] indeed is the twelvefold instrument beginning with intellect; that is the thread; that is the life; that is the inner self of the world and of what stands still. By that shining, that light at the tip of the heart, [the self] departing — by which path does it depart? — this is told: whether from the eye, if there be knowledge or action that is the cause of attaining the world of the sun; or from the crown, if [that which is] the cause of attaining the world of Brahmā; or from other bodily locations, [other] bodily members, according to action, according to what is heard. That [self] consisting of understanding, departing, having set out for the other world — [that is,] having assumed a form for the other world, that is the meaning — prāṇa, occupying the position of an overlord of all, follows after, like [a retinue follows] a king; and as that prāṇa departs after, all the vital faculties, beginning with speech, [also] depart after. This is a wish-to-describe by way of what is principal; it is not, however, that a sequential, purposive going is intended here. Then this self becomes possessed of [specific] cognition, like in a dream, [that is] becomes possessed of specific cognition, owing to the force of karma — not independently; for if [it had] cognition independently, everyone would have accomplished all that needs accomplishing; but that is indeed never obtained; therefore Vyāsa himself has said — 'always conditioned by that state' — thus. By karma, however, being manifested as a specific cognition consisting of an impression seated in a particular modification of the internal organ, the whole world becomes possessed of [such] cognition at this time; and it proceeds, [that is] follows, exactly toward that destination which is illuminated by [that] specific cognition — that is the meaning. Therefore, at that time, for the sake of independence, the practice of yogic discipline, the practice of discriminative reflection, and the accumulation of special merit should be undertaken by those full of faith, who desire the other world, [and who are] undistracted. The purpose to be diligently accomplished, [common to] all scriptures, is: cessation from bad conduct. For at that time nothing whatsoever can be accomplished, since one who is being led by [prior] karma lacks independence. It has been said: 'One becomes righteous by righteous action, sinful by sinful [action].' For the sake of prescribing the means of pacifying this very evil, the Upaniṣads of all the branches have been set forth. For there is no absolute means of pacifying this evil apart from the practice of the means prescribed by it. Therefore, one must be diligent in effort right here, in the means prescribed by the Upaniṣad — this is the purport of the section.