1.1.1

अथातो ब्रह्मजिज्ञासा

athāto brahmajijñāsā

The line

Now, therefore, the desire to know Brahman (ब्रह्मन्).

नेपालीमा

अब, त्यसैले, ब्रह्म जान्ने इच्छा छ।

Where it sits

This is the first of the four opening sūtras (सूत्र), the catuḥsūtrī (चतुःसूत्री). The book will not retell the Upaniṣads (उपनिषद्). It will decide what they are about. Jaimini's first line is athāto (अथातो) dharmajijñāsā (धर्मजिज्ञासा), the desire to know dharma (धर्म). Bādarāyaṇa (बादरायण) copies that shape and changes the object. The pair of schools is visible in the first word of each book.

Split: atha (अथ) + ataḥ (अतः) + brahma-jijñāsā (ब्रह्म-जिज्ञासा)

Sanskrit, in depth

The words

Word	Grammar	Sense
atha (अथ)	indeclinable	now. In a śāstra (शास्त्र) it marks that the preparation is done and the instruction begins.
ataḥ (अतः)	indeclinable	therefore. After what has gone before. Śaṅkara (शङ्कर) takes the 'before' to be the inquiry into dharma (धर्म), and the virtues that make a student fit. The line itself does not name them.
brahma-jijñāsā (ब्रह्म-जिज्ञासा)	nominative singular, feminine	the desire to know Brahman (ब्रह्मन्). jijñāsā (जिज्ञासा) is the wish to know. brahman (ब्रह्मन्) is the object of that wish.

The phrases

atha and ataḥ (अतः) are two indeclinables spoken as one breath, athāto (अथातो). a + a becomes ā (आ). Split them when you want the two jobs: now, and therefore.

brahmajijñāsā (ब्रह्मजिज्ञासा) is one compound, read from the end: a desire to know, and the desire is about Brahman (ब्रह्मन्). There is no verb. A sūtra (सूत्र) leaves out 'is.' The line announces the inquiry.

Sanskrit in this line

atha at the start of a teaching is not clock-time. ataḥ (अतः) points back. What it points back to is supplied by the reader the tradition expected: the earlier Mīmāṃsā (मीमांसा), and a mind already fit. The compound is read from jijñāsā (जिज्ञासा).

Say it back

Say the line, then say what changed from Jaimini's first line.

1.1.2. Brahman (ब्रह्मन्) is that from which the arising of this world, and the rest, come.