Kaṭha Upaniṣad 117

117

āsīno 'vasthito 'cala eva san dūraṃ vrajati śayāno yāti sarvataḥ, evam asāv ātmā devo madāmadaḥ samado 'madaś ca saharṣo 'harṣaś ca viruddhadharmavān ato 'śakyatvāj jñātuṃ kas taṃ madāmadaṃ devaṃ madanyo jñātum arhati / asmadāder eva sūkṣmabuddheḥ paṇḍitasya vijñeyo 'yam ātmā sthitigatinityānityādiviruddhānekadharmopādhitvād viruddhadharmavān viśvarūpa iva cintāmaṇivat kasyacid avabhāsate / ato durvijñeyatvaṃ darśayati kas taṃ madanyo jñātum arhatīti / karaṇānām upaśamaḥ śayanaṃ karaṇajanitasyaikadeśavijñānasyopaśamaḥ śayānasya bhavati / yadā caivaṃ kevalasāmānyavijñānatvāt sarvato yātīva yadā viśeṣavijñānasthaḥ svena rūpeṇa sthita eva san mana ādigatiṣu tadupādhikatvād dūraṃ vrajatīva sa cehaiva vartate ///1,2.21 //

Shankara’s Commentary:
Com.—Otherwise, this atman cannot be known by worldly men having desires, because sitting, i.e., not moving, he goes a great distance. Lying, he goes everywhere. Thus the atman is both joyful and joyless. Thus he has properties mutually opposed; therefore it being impossible to know him, who else but me can know the atman, who is joyful and joyless. It is only by persons like us of subtle intellect and learning that the atman can be known. Being conditioned by conflicting attributes of fixity and movement, and of constancy and change, the atman appears as if itself possessed conflicting attributes like Visvarupa, a sum of various forms, or (more properly) like Chintamani (a gem which appears according to the fancy of the seer). Therefore, Death indicates the difficulty of knowing the atman by the statement ‘who else but me can know the atman.’ The cessation of the activity of the senses is ‘lying;’ in the person lying, there is a cessation of the partial knowledge produced by the senses. In this state the atman seems to go everywhere, because its knowledge then is of a general character, i.e., unqualified by conditions; but, though fixed in its own nature, when it has special or qualified knowledge it seems to go a great distance, because it is conditioned by the motion of the mind and the rest, but really he is here alone, i.e., in this body.