जगद्वाचित्वात् ॥ १६ ॥
jagadvācitvāt || 16 ||
jagat-vācitvāt—Because (it) denotes the world.
16. (He of whom all this is the work is Brahman) because (the work) denotes the world.
“He, O Balaki, who is the maker of these persons (whom you mentioned), and whose work this is—is alone to be known” (Kau. 4. 19).
In this section Balaki first describes the several individual souls residing in the sun, moon, ether, etc. as Brahman. Ajatasatru says that these are not the true Brahman and proceeding to teach the real Brahman says, “He who is the maker of these persons is alone to be known and not these persons.” Here who is the maker of the sun, moon, etc. is the question. The opponent holds he is either the chief Prana or the individual soul. He is the chief Prana, for the activity of motion connected with work refers to Prana, and Prana is also mentioned in a complementary passage: “Then he becomes one with that Prana alone” (Kau. 4. 20). It may also be the Jiva, for in “As the master feeds with his people . . . thus does the conscious self feed with the other selfs” (Kau. 4. 20) it is referred to. The Sutra refutes all this and says it is Brahman that is referred to by ‘maker’ in the text; for Brahman is taught here. “I shall teach you Brahman.” Again ‘this’, which means the world, is his work—which clearly points out that the ‘he’ is none other than Brahman. Therefore the maker is neither Prana nor the individual soul, but the Supreme Lord.