Madhu Kanda. Adhyaya 1, Brahmana 4. In the beginning, the Self: I am Brahman
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Each mantra is given four ways: the Sanskrit in its Devanagari script, the same sounds in Roman letters, an English translation set in our own voice, and then the line once more in plain words, for a first and unhurried reading.
Not every passage is opened to the same depth. A few central mantras carry the full cross-school commentary, where the schools are set side by side. The rest are kept here whole and faithful, set in their place but not expounded, so the book stays entire and nothing is dropped for being thought minor.
Where the schools read a line differently, the difference is kept open. None is crowned and none is corrected. Each is met on its own terms, and where they contradict, the contradiction is left standing for you to sit with.
The Self entered, even to the nails
At that time this universe was undifferentiated. It became differentiated by name and form: "He is named so-and-so, and is of such a form." So even now it is differentiated by name and form: "He is named so-and-so, and is of such a form." This Self entered here, even to the tips of the nails, as a razor lies hidden in its case, or fire in its source. Him they do not see, for taken thus he is incomplete: while breathing he is called the vital breath, speaking, the organ of speech, seeing, the eye, hearing, the ear, thinking, the mind. These are only the names of his functions. He who meditates on one or another of these does not know, for he is incomplete in any one of them. One should meditate on him as the Self alone, for in it all these become one. Of all this, the Self is the one trace to follow, for through it one knows all this. Just as one finds a lost thing again by its footprint, so one who knows this finds fame and praise.
Back then this universe had no distinct forms; it became distinguished only through name and form (nama-rupa), so that each thing could be called "this one, named so, shaped so." That same Self entered into everything, right out to the fingertips, hidden the way a razor sits inside its case or fire lies latent in its kindling. People do not see it whole, because when it breathes we name it "breath," when it speaks "speech," when it sees "the eye," when it hears "the ear," when it thinks "the mind"; these are merely labels for its activities. Anyone who fixes on just one of these functions does not really know it, for it is incomplete in any single one. One should contemplate it simply as the Self (atman), in which all these become one. The Self is the single track by which the whole is found, for through it one knows everything, just as a lost animal is traced by its footprint; and one who knows this wins renown.
ātman
the Self. That which stands apart from the three bodies, beyond the five sheaths, the witness of the three states, whose nature is being, consciousness, and bliss.
In the commentaries
Sankara takes this for the hinge of the whole brahmana. The one Self, having entered into every body down to the tips of the nails, lies hidden there, and we catch sight of it only piecemeal, under the names of its functions: it breathes and we call it breath, speaks and we call it speech, sees and we call it the eye, hears and we call it the ear, thinks and we call it the mind. To worship any single one of these, he warns, is to miss it, for each is partial; one must meditate on the Self as the whole in which they are unified, the one clue by which all the rest is known.