Verse 2.249

Sanskrit text and transliteration:

मूलात्मानं सशब्देन स्पृष्ट्वा तत्स्मृतयेऽथ वै ।
कोशात्मतां समापन्न एष इत्यभिधीयते ॥ २४९ ॥

mūlātmānaṃ saśabdena spṛṣṭvā tatsmṛtaye'tha vai |
kośātmatāṃ samāpanna eṣa ityabhidhīyate || 249 ||

English translation of verse 2.249:

Conveying the highest Self by the word “he” and then using the particle “verily” for the sake of the recollection of that, śruti refers to the same Self, which has become the jīva constituted by the sheaths, by the word “this”.

Notes:

The meanings of the three words saḥ, vai, and eṣaḥ contained in the śruti text which was mentioned in the previous verse are explained now.

The śruti text, “He, verily, is this man consisting of food,” brings out the real nature of the jīva. The jīva in its essential nature is no other than Brahman. But owing to avidyā it appears as something different constituted by five sheaths. Brahman is thought of as what is remote, whereas the jīva consisting of the five sheaths is thought of as what is immediate. The word saḥ refers to that Brahman, the ultimate reality, the cause of the world. The particle vai recollects to our mind that well-known Brahman as taught in all the Upaniṣads. The word eṣaḥ states that this jīva consisting of the five sheaths is no other than that Brahman Brahman which transcends the cause-effect relation, which is [????] the sheaths, and which is free from attributes and limitation[???] [?]ppears in the form of the jīva, as what is subject to the cause-effect relation, as what is constituted by the five sheaths, and as endowed with attributes and limited by adjuncts due to avidyā.