tad ejati tan naijati tad dūre tad v antike / tad antarasya sarvasya tad u sarvasyāsya bāhyataḥ //
Plain EnglishIt moves — and it does not move. It is far — and it is near. It is inside all this — and outside all this.
Layer 2 — What it means
Four paradoxes in two lines, each pair contradicting the other. It moves and does not move. It is far and near. Inside all things and outside all things. Every description is immediately negated by its opposite.
This is not confusion — it is precision. The Upaniṣad is demonstrating that Brahman cannot be located by any category that works for objects. Objects are either moving or still, either near or far. Brahman is both — which means Brahman is neither. It is the ground from which both movement and stillness arise, from which both nearness and distance are measured. The inside of all things because it is the being of all things. The outside of all things because it is not exhausted by any of them.
Reading this page will give you the concept clearly. But the Upanishads were not written to be understood the way you understand chemistry or history. They were written to point toward something you can only recognise in yourself. That recognition is not on this page. This page only clears the way.
tad ejati tan naijati tad dūre tad v antike / tad antarasya sarvasya tad u sarvasyāsya bāhyataḥ //
Plain EnglishIt moves — and it does not move. It is far — and it is near. It is inside all this — and outside all this.
Layer 2 — Philosophical meaning
Śaṅkara's bhāṣya on this verse is one of the most developed in the Īśā commentary. Ejati (moves) — from the perspective of its effects and modifications, Brahman appears to move, to act, to change. Naijati (does not move) — in its own nature as the unchanging substratum, Brahman does not move. The same logic applies to near and far: from the perspective of the ignorant, Brahman appears far — unreachable, the object of a long spiritual search. From the perspective of knowledge, it is the closest thing possible — closer than breath, as the Bṛhadāraṇyaka says. Antarasya (inside) and bāhyataḥ (outside) correspond to Brahman as antaryāmin (inner controller) and pariṇāmakāraṇa (cause that transcends effects).
Reading this page will give you the concept clearly. But the Upanishads were not written to be understood the way you understand chemistry or history. They were written to point toward something you can only recognise in yourself. That recognition is not on this page. This page only clears the way.
tad ejati tan naijati tad dūre tad v antike / tad antarasya sarvasya tad u sarvasyāsya bāhyataḥ //
Plain EnglishIt moves — and it does not move. It is far — and it is near. It is inside all this — and outside all this.
Layer 2 — Scholarly and textual analysis
Reading this page will give you the concept clearly. But the Upanishads were not written to be understood the way you understand chemistry or history. They were written to point toward something you can only recognise in yourself. That recognition is not on this page. This page only clears the way.