Yajnavalkya Kanda. Adhyaya 3, Brahmana 6. Gargi: on what is all this woven
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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.
Do not question too much
Then Gargi, the daughter of Vacaknu, questioned him. Yajnavalkya, she said, since all this is woven, warp and woof, upon water, upon what then is water woven, warp and woof? Upon air, Gargi. Upon what then is air woven, warp and woof? Upon the worlds of the sky, Gargi. Upon what then are the worlds of the sky woven, warp and woof? Upon the worlds of the gandharvas, Gargi. Upon what then are the worlds of the gandharvas woven, warp and woof? Upon the worlds of the sun, Gargi. Upon what then are the worlds of the sun woven, warp and woof? Upon the worlds of the moon, Gargi. Upon what then are the worlds of the moon woven, warp and woof? Upon the worlds of the stars, Gargi. Upon what then are the worlds of the stars woven, warp and woof? Upon the worlds of the gods, Gargi. Upon what then are the worlds of the gods woven, warp and woof? Upon the worlds of Indra, Gargi. Upon what then are the worlds of Indra woven, warp and woof? Upon the worlds of Prajapati, Gargi. Upon what then are the worlds of Prajapati woven, warp and woof? Upon the worlds of Brahma, Gargi. Upon what then are the worlds of Brahma woven, warp and woof? He said: Gargi, do not question too much, lest your head fall off. You are questioning too much about a deity that is not to be questioned too much. Gargi, do not question too much. Thereupon Gargi, the daughter of Vacaknu, fell silent.
Gargi Vacaknavi opens her challenge to Yajnavalkya with one image she will not let go of: everything is woven through and through, warp and woof (otam protam), like cloth on a loom, so on what is it woven? When he says it rests on water, she asks on what water rests; he says air, and she asks on what air rests. So it goes, climbing rung by rung up the worlds: the sky, the worlds of the gandharvas, the sun, the moon, the stars, the gods, Indra, Prajapati, and finally the worlds of Brahma (Hiranyagarbha, the first-born totality). When she asks on what the worlds of Brahma are woven, Yajnavalkya stops her: do not over-question (ma atipraksih), or your head will fall off. The ground beyond Hiranyagarbha is Brahman itself, the Self, and it cannot be reached by this ladder of inference; it is a deity not to be questioned beyond the limit (anatiprasnya devata). At that, Gargi falls silent.
In the commentaries
Sankara reads the whole questioning as designed to drive the mind, by successively dropping every grosser support, to the one final ground of all: Brahman, the Self. 'Woven, warp and woof' (otam protam) means each thing is held and pervaded, within and across, by the subtler reality next above it. Each world rests on a subtler world up to the worlds of Brahma (Hiranyagarbha); but their ground is Brahman, which is not another object in the series and so cannot be reached by inference piling question on question. That is why Yajnavalkya halts Gargi: Brahman is a 'deity not to be over-questioned,' knowable only through scripture (agama), not by reasoning, and to demand it by inference beyond what inference can reach is the error that would make her head fall.