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.
Dearer than a son
This Self is dearer than a son, dearer than wealth, dearer than all else, for it is the innermost. If one were to tell a man who speaks of anything other than the Self as dear, "You will lose what you hold dear," he would very likely be right. One should meditate on the Self alone as dear. He who meditates on the Self alone as dear, his dear ones do not die.
This Self is more precious than a son, than wealth, than anything at all, because it is the innermost of everything (antaratara). If someone holds something other than the Self dear, you could warn him, "You will lose what you love," and you would be entitled to say it, for such things perish. So one should hold the Self alone dear and contemplate it as dear; and for the one who does, what he holds dear (the Self) never dies.
In the commentaries
Sankara reads this as ranking the Self above every other cherished thing precisely because it is innermost and imperishable. A son, wealth, a beloved face, all are dear, yet all are mortal and bound one day to be lost, so that love fixed on them must end in grief. The Self alone is nearer than any of these and does not perish; therefore, he says, the only love that does not finally betray the lover is love turned upon the Self, which one should hold dearer than all.