Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣadबृहदारण्यक उपनिषद्

Yajnavalkya Kanda. Adhyaya 3, Brahmana 7. Uddalaka: the inner controller, the antaryamin

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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.

॥ 3.7.2 ॥

Air is the thread

स होवाच वायुर्वै गौतम तत्सूत्रम् । वायुना वै गौतम सूत्रेणायं च लोकः परश्च लोकः सर्वाणि च भूतानि संदृब्धानि भवन्ति । तस्माद्वै गौतम पुरुषं प्रेतमाहुर्व्यस्रंसिषतास्याङ्गानीति । वायुना हि गौतम सूत्रेण सम्दृब्धानि भवन्तीति । एवमेवैतद्याज्ञवल्क्य । अन्तर्यामिणं ब्रूहीति

In transliteration

sa hovāca vāyurvai gautama tatsūtram | vāyunā vai gautama sūtreṇāyaṃ ca lokaḥ paraśca lokaḥ sarvāṇi ca bhūtāni saṃdṛbdhāni bhavanti | tasmādvai gautama puruṣaṃ pretamāhurvyasraṃsiṣatāsyāṅgānīti | vāyunā hi gautama sūtreṇa samdṛbdhāni bhavantīti | evamevaitadyājñavalkya | antaryāmiṇaṃ brūhīti

In English

He said: Air, O Gautama, is that thread. By air as the thread, Gautama, this world and the world beyond and all beings are held together. Therefore, Gautama, when a man dies, they say that his limbs have been loosened, for they were held together, Gautama, by air as the thread. So it is indeed, Yajnavalkya. Now tell of the inner controller.

In plain words

Yajnavalkya answers the first question: the thread (sutra) is air (vayu). Air strings together this world, the next, and every being. This is why, when someone dies, people say his limbs have come loose: the air that bound them together has withdrawn. Uddalaka grants the answer is correct and asks for the second teaching, the inner controller (antaryamin).

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