Mantra 16b

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Īśa-upaniṣad mantra 16b:

योऽसावसौ पुरुषः सोऽहमस्मि ॥ १६ ॥

yo'sāvasau puruṣaḥ so'hamasmi || 16 ||

yaḥ—who; asau—in life; it is locative singular of “life”; That person in the solar orb is in life, The word sthitaḥ must be supplied; asau—yonder that person in my heart; puruṣaḥ—person, all-full; The sleeper or dweller-in-the city. saḥ—he; aham—“I”; not-inferior: Supreme; It is derived from the root “hā” to abandon—with the negative affix “a, a + hā = aham”—“that which is not abandoned, hence Supreme”; asmi—“I am”: it is an Indeclinable, meaning “essence”, “Being”, he who is in my life breath, that puruṣa is the great “I am,” is the supreme Being, may I see him; “as”—“to be” + “mā”—“to measure”.

16b. That yonder person who dwells in Asu (Life) is known by the name of Aham “I” (i.e., the Supreme) and Asmi “I am” (i.e., the only standard of existence.)

Commentary: The Bhāṣya of Madhva (Madhvācārya):

(English translation of Madhva’s 13th-century commentary called the Īśāvāsyopaniṣadbhāṣya or Īśopaniṣadbhāṣya)

He is called Aham, because he is not discardable (aheya). In other words “Aham” means “the Supreme.” He is called “Asmi,” because he dwells in all beings and thus He is the measure (mā) of their existence (as)—(their existence or be-ness depends upon His being in them—He is the standard of their existence). But Hari, the Supreme Lord, however, is apart from all His devotees (jīvas), though ensouling all.

Note.—Though the words aham and asmi are used in the Mantra, and ordinarily they would mean “I am He,”—lest one should fall into this error of identifying himself with the Lord, the author says “svayaṃ tu sarvajīvebhyo vyatiriktaḥ paro hari”—“Hari, the Supreme, is quite separate from all jīvas, however devoted they may be to him. In ectasy [ecstasy?] one may exclaim ‘I am He’—but as a truth, the jīva can never become He.”

Of the two in the above verse, one is a pronoun nominative singular of adas, and means ‘that’, the other is the locative singular of the noun “asu” meaning ‘life,’ i.e., in the life.

Note.—The meaning of the verse is that the well-known Person who resides in the Prāṇa, also dwells in His devotees as aham and asmi, i.e., He is the very “I” and the very “I am” of the devotees. He is in Pūṣan, etc., and is then called by the name of Pūṣan, Yama, Ekarṣi, etc. He though in all these is one alone, and does not become differentiated, owing to the differences of beings in whom He resides. The Brahman is one in all.