Bhashya
ते ; के ? ये एवंघटीयन्त्रवत् गत्यागतिभ्यां पुनः पुनः आवर्तन्ते ।यदा तु एवं विदुः, ततो घटीयन्त्रभ्रमणाद्विनिर्मुक्ताः सन्तः अर्चिरभिसंभवन्ति ; अर्चिरिति न अग्निज्वालामात्रम् , किं तर्हि अर्चिरभिमानिनी अर्चि.शब्दवाच्या देवता उत्तरमार्गलक्षणा व्यवस्थितेव ; तामभिसंभवन्ति ; न हि परिव्राजकानाम् अग्न्यर्चिषैव साक्षात्संबन्धोऽस्ति ; तेन देवतैव परिगृह्यते अर्चिःशब्दवाच्या ।अतः अहर्देवताम् ; मरणकालनियमानुपपत्तेः अहःशब्दोऽपि देवतैव ; आयुषः क्षये हि मरणम् ; न हि एवंविदा अहन्येव मर्तव्यमिति अहः मरणकालो नियन्तुं शक्यते ; न च रात्रौ प्रेताः सन्तः अहः प्रतीक्षन्ते , ‘ स यावत्क्षिप्येन्मनस्तावदादित्यं गच्छति ’ इति श्रुत्यन्तरात् ।अह्न आपूर्यमाणपक्षम् , अहर्देवतया अतिवाहिता आपूर्यमाणपक्षदेवतां प्रतिपद्यन्ते , शुक्लपक्षदेवतामित्येतत् ।आपूर्यमाणपक्षात् यान् षण्मासान् उदङ् उत्तरां दिशम् आदित्यः सविता एति, तान्मासान्प्रतिपद्यन्ते शुक्लपक्षदेवतया अतिवाहिताः सन्तः ; मासानिति बहुवचनात् संघचारिण्यः षट् उत्तरायणदेवताः ; तेभ्यो मासेभ्यः षण्मासदेवताभिरतिवाहिताः देवलोकाभिमानिनीं देवतां प्रतिपद्यन्ते ।देवलोकात् आदित्यम् ; आदित्यात् वैद्युतं विद्युदभिमानिनीं देवतांप्रतिपद्यन्ते ।विद्युद्देवतां प्राप्तान् ब्रह्मलोकवासी पुरुषः ब्र-ह्मणा मनसा सृष्टो मानसः कश्चित् एत्य आगत्य ब्रह्मलोका-नामयति ; ब्रह्मलोकानिति अधरोत्तरभूमिभेदेन भिन्ना इतिगम्यन्ते, बहुवचनप्रयोगात् , उपासनतारतम्योपपत्तेश्च ।ते तेनपुरुषेण गमिताः सन्तः, तेषु ब्रह्मलोकेषु पराः प्रकृष्टाः सन्तः,स्वयं परावतः प्रकृष्टाः समाः संवत्सराननेकान् वसन्ति, ब्रह्म-णोऽनेकान्कल्पान्वसन्तीत्यर्थः ।तेषां ब्रह्मलोकं गतानां ना-स्ति पुनरावृत्तिः अस्मिन्संसारे न पुनरागमनम् , ‘इह’इति शाखान्तरपाठात्; इहेति आकृतिमात्रग्रहणमिति चेत्,‘श्वोभूते पौर्णमासीम्’ इति यद्वत्—न, इहेतिविशेषणानर्थ-क्यात् , यदि हि नावर्त्तन्त एव इहग्रहणमनर्थकमेव स्यात् ;‘श्वोभूते पौर्णमासीम्’ इत्यत्र पौर्णमास्याः श्वोभूतत्वमनुक्तंन ज्ञायत इति युक्तं विशेषयितुम् ; न हि तत्र श्वआकृतिःशब्दार्थो विद्यत इति श्वःशब्दो निरर्थक एव प्रयुज्यते ; यत्रतु विशेषणशब्दे प्रयुक्ते अन्विष्यमाणे विशेषणफलं चेन्नगम्यते, तत्र युक्तो निरर्थकत्वेन उत्स्रष्टुं विशेषणशब्दः ;न तु सत्यां विशेषणफलावगतौ ।तस्मात् अस्मात्कल्पादूर्ध्वम्आवृत्तिर्गम्यते ॥
In plain words
'They' -- who exactly? Those who go round and round, like a water-wheel, cycling endlessly through birth and death. But once they understand this teaching, they are freed from that wheel's turning and rise to the flame. And 'the flame' here isn't just fire's blaze -- it is a deity, the very power behind the flame, standing as a landmark on the higher road, and it is her they reach. Wandering renunciates, after all, keep no fire and have no literal contact with one, so 'flame' can only mean the deity behind the name. The same goes for 'day': since no one can insist that death always happens by daylight -- death simply comes when a life is spent, and scripture itself says the dying reach the sun as fast as a thought can be thrown, whether or not the sun is up -- 'day' too must name a deity, not a literal day. From that deity of day they pass to the deity of the waxing moon, from there to the six months the sun climbs north (six deities, since the word is plural), from there to the world of the gods, from there to the sun, and from the sun into the region of lightning. There a being made purely of mind comes to meet them and carries them onward -- the exact wording at this point in the manuscript is uncertain -- into the worlds of brahman, worlds that differ by rank because meditation itself comes in degrees. Led there, supreme among the supreme, they dwell for the vastest years there are, for kalpa upon kalpa of Brahmā's life. And for them there is no return to this round of birth and death -- so says another reading of the text, which adds the word 'here'. Now someone might object that 'here' adds nothing, the way 'tomorrow' adds nothing to 'tomorrow's full-moon rite'. But the two cases aren't alike: if there truly were no return under any circumstance, adding 'here' would be empty noise, whereas in the full-moon example the word does real work, since without it you would not know which full moon is meant. A qualifying word earns its place only when it changes what you understand; when it changes nothing, it may be set aside as ornamental, but not otherwise. And here it does change something. So the conclusion holds: return comes, but only beyond the present kalpa.
Close to the Sanskrit
'They' -- who? Those who revolve again and again, going and coming, like a water-wheel. But when they know thus, then, freed from the whirling of the water-wheel, they attain the flame. 'Flame' here does not mean the mere blaze of fire; rather, it is a deity, presiding over the flame, denoted by the word 'flame', established, as it were, as a mark of the higher path -- they attain her. For indeed wandering renunciates have no direct connection at all with the physical flame of fire; therefore it is precisely the deity that is understood by the word 'flame'. Hence, likewise, [they attain] the deity of the day; because a fixed rule about the time of death is untenable, the word 'day' too refers only to a deity. For death occurs at the exhaustion of the lifespan; one who knows thus cannot be required to die only in the daytime, so 'day' cannot be fixed as the time of death. Nor do the deceased, having died at night, wait for daytime -- on the authority of another scriptural text: 'As quickly as one might hurl the mind, so quickly he goes to the sun.' From the day, [they attain] the waxing fortnight; conveyed by the deity of the day, they attain the deity of the waxing fortnight -- that is, the deity of the bright fortnight. From the waxing fortnight, they attain those six months during which the sun, the impeller, goes northward, conveyed by the deity of the bright fortnight; since 'months' is plural, this means the six deities of the northern course moving together as a group; from those months, conveyed by the deities of the six months, they attain the deity presiding over the world of the gods. From the world of the gods, [they attain] the sun; from the sun, they attain the region of lightning, the deity presiding over lightning. Some person dwelling in the world of brahman, a being created by Brahman through mind, called 'mānasa', having approached and come to those who have reached the deity of lightning, [leads them onward -- the source text is uncertain at this exact page-break] to the worlds of brahman. The plural 'worlds of brahman' is understood to mean worlds distinguished by lower and higher levels, because of the use of the plural, and because it accords with the graded differences among modes of meditation. They, having been led there by that person, being supreme in those worlds of brahman, themselves exalted, dwell for supreme extents of time, many years -- meaning, they dwell for many kalpas of Brahmā. For them, having gone to the world of brahman, there is no return, no coming back into this cycle of rebirth -- according to the reading 'here' found in another recension. If it be objected that the word 'here' merely denotes a general form, as in the example 'the full-moon sacrifice that will be tomorrow' -- no, because then the qualifier 'here' would be pointless; for if they truly never returned at all, the mention of 'here' would indeed be pointless. In '[the sacrifice] on the full-moon day that will be tomorrow', since the fact that the full-moon day is tomorrow's would not be known if left unstated, it is proper to specify it; for there, the notion 'tomorrow' is not itself the word's intended referent, so the word 'tomorrow' is used without further purpose. But where, when a qualifying word is used and its intended effect is sought, if no such effect is found to result, then it is proper to discard that qualifying word as meaningless -- but not when an effect of the qualification is in fact ascertained. Therefore, it is understood that return happens beyond this present kalpa.