Qualified people see clearly

In the next mantra, śruti negates the possibility of thinking about what brahman might be, and unfolding brahman in its true nature then reveals that there is nothing other than brahman.

yattadadṛśyamagrāhyamagotramavarṇam

acakṣuḥśrotram tadapāṇipādam |

nityam vibhum sarvagatam susūkṣmam

tadavyayam yadbhūtayonim paripaśyanti dhīrāḥ ||1.1.6||

Brahman is that which is not the object of sense perception or organs of action, which is unborn, which does not have any attributes, which does not have eyes and ears nor hands and legs, which is eternal, which becomes many (manifold creation), which is all- pervasive, the most subtle, that which is free from decline and disappearance, which is the cause of all beings, and which the qualified people see very clearly.

It is said here that the qualified people see brahman very clearly - paripaśyanti dhīrāḥ. What is this brahman that is clearly seen to be? adreśyam - it is not the object of sensory perception. Brahman is not any object of the sense organs because it is the ultimate seer by which everything becomes evident. agrāhyam - it is not an object of organs of action like hands and legs. It is not located in a place for the feet to reach, and also not for hands to grasp. Brahman is not bound by space. agotram - it doesn’t have a gotra (family lineage). Because brahman is not born (no beginning). avarṇam - it is free from varṇa, that by which objects are described. Varṇa means attributes that distinguish one object from another. If brahman has attributes, then it will be one more object in the world.

If brahman is not an object, perhaps it could be the knower or doer. Here, śruti negates it by saying acakṣuḥśrotram - it does not have eyes or ears, and tadapāṇipādam - it is not that which has hands and legs. The organs represent the entire subtle body, including prāṇan and entire inner instrument, i.e., mind and intellect. These words negate my identification with the knower and the doer. Śāstra describes brahman through these kinds of negation because the doer and the experiencer are taken to be the self, and the self happens to be brahman. Hence, śāstra negates everything that one takes oneself to be. After negating what brahman is not, now śruti presents the nature of brahman.

nityam - it is eternal, not bound by time. The word agotram negates a beginning of brahman. And here nityam negates the end. Brahman is free from beginning and end. vibhum - it becomes many (as though). All the descriptions so far may give rise to a doubt that brahman may be śūnya (non-existence). The word vibhum confirms not only brahman’s existence; but also exists in the form of the entire cosmos without undergoing any change. It exists as the reality (satyam), and everything else is an effect of brahman (mithyā). Therefore, it is possible to gain all knowledge by knowing one brahman. Just like knowing the world of earthenware is by knowing its cause, which is clay.

sarvagatam - it is all-pervasive. It has no location, like space. But the all-pervasiveness of brahman is different from all-pervasiveness of space. In space, there are different things, and all of them are pervaded by space. All objects and space are two separate entities. It is how we understand all-pervasiveness. For brahman, it is all-pervasiveness as the cause of everything. A given cause pervades its effect, the effect being non-different from the cause. Due to being the cause (vibhum), brahman is all-pervasive (sarva-gatam). susūkṣmam - it is the most subtle. If brahman is all-pervasive, why don’t I see it? When brahman is all-pervasive, the seer also pervaded by it. How am I going to look at myself? The only way to understand brahman is to recognise it as the invariable in the knower, known and knowledge.

tadavyayam - it is free from decline and disappearance. Brahman remains the same; otherwise we can’t understand brahman as it is. It is not that once upon a time there was brahman, and then it became the world; it declines and disappears.

yadbhūtayonim - it is the cause of all bhūtas, elements and elementals. Yoni means womb. Therefore this word bhūtayonim indicates the conscious intelligent cause, and the word vibhum can be taken up as material cause.

paripaśyanti dhīrāḥ - those people who are qualified and who have this knowledge, they recognise brahman as themselves alone. When śāstra describes brahman as adṛśyam, agrāhyam and so on, it seems as though it is not available for knowing. But it is not. Brahman is available for knowing because it happens to be the self. The wise people see very clearly that brahman doesn’t exist in any other way except as the self.