The System of the Vedanta according to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Cankara's Commentary c7.s3.t1.4

c7.s3.t1.4

2) *Chândogya-Upanishad* 6, 2, 2—3, 2: "Existent, alone, dear "one, was this in the beginning, one alone and without a second. "It conceived the idea (*aikshata*): 'I will become many, I will "propagate myself'; so it created fire (*tejas*).—This fire con- "ceived the idea: 'I will become many, I will propagate my- "self'; so it created water. Therefore, when a man is hot "and sweats, from the heat arises water.—This water con- "ceived the idea: 'I will become many, I will propagate my- "self'; so it created food. Therefore, when it rains, much "food arises, for from water arises the nourishment that man "eats.—In truth, these beings have three sorts of seeds (i. e., "origins), those born from the egg, those born alive, and those “born from the germ. That deity conceived the idea: ‘Verily, “I will enter into these three deities (fire, water, food), with “this living Self [the individual soul], and spread forth into “names and forms; and I will make each one of them three-“fold.’—Then that deity entered into these three deities, with “this living Self, and spread forth names and forms; and each “one of them it made threefold” [of this, later].