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Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣadबृहदारण्यक उपनिषद्

Madhu Kanda. Adhyaya 2, Brahmana 4. Yajnavalkya and Maitreyi: for the sake of the Self

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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.

॥ 2.4.6 ॥

Sought elsewhere, all is lost

ब्रह्म तं परादाद्योऽन्यत्रात्मनो ब्रह्म वेद । क्षत्रं तं परादाद्योऽन्यत्रात्मनः क्षत्रं वेद । लोकास्तं परादुर्योऽन्यत्रात्मनो लोकान् वेद । देवास्तं परादुर्योऽन्यत्रात्मनो देवान् वेद । भूतानि तं परादुर्योऽन्यत्रात्मनो भूतानि वेद । सर्वं तं परादाद्योऽन्यत्रात्मनः सर्वं वेद । इदं ब्रह्मेदं क्षत्रमिमे लोका इमे देवा इमानि भूतानीदं सर्वं यदयमात्मा ॥
In transliteration
brahma taṃ parādādyo'nyatrātmano brahma veda | kṣatraṃ taṃ parādādyo'nyatrātmanaḥ kṣatraṃ veda | lokāstaṃ parāduryo'nyatrātmano lokān veda | devāstaṃ parāduryo'nyatrātmano devān veda | bhūtāni taṃ parāduryo'nyatrātmano bhūtāni veda | sarvaṃ taṃ parādādyo'nyatrātmanaḥ sarvaṃ veda | idaṃ brahmedaṃ kṣatramime lokā ime devā imāni bhūtānīdaṃ sarvaṃ yadayamātmā ||

In English

The brahmin's calling forsakes the one who looks for it anywhere but in the Self. The kshatriya's power forsakes the one who looks for it anywhere but in the Self. The worlds forsake the one who looks for them anywhere but in the Self. The gods forsake the one who looks for them anywhere but in the Self. Beings forsake the one who looks for them anywhere but in the Self. All forsakes the one who looks for it anywhere but in the Self. This brahmin's calling, this kshatriya's power, these worlds, these gods, these beings, this all: they are the Self.

In plain words

Whoever looks for the brahmin's calling anywhere but in the Self is abandoned by it. The same holds for the kshatriya's power, the worlds, the gods, all beings, and everything else: whoever seeks them apart from the Self loses them. This calling, this power, these worlds, these gods, these beings, this whole: all of it is nothing other than the Self.

In the commentaries

Sri SankaraAdvaita

Whoever knows the priesthood, the power, the worlds, the gods, the beings, or the All as standing apart from the Self is, in the text's word, forsaken by them. Since there is nothing other than Pure Intelligence, to set anything outside the Self is the very error that casts one out. This answers the old objection, how the knowing of one thing can be the knowing of all: there is no second thing; all rises from, rests in, and returns to the Self.

Sankara, Brhadaranyaka-bhasya 2.4.6 (Madhavananda)