1.2.9
Brahma Sūtra / Adhyāya 1 / 1.2.9
अत्ता चराचरग्रहणात्
attā carācaragrahaṇāt
The line
The eater is Brahman (ब्रह्मन्), because both the moving and the unmoving are grasped as his food.
नेपालीमा
खाने ब्रह्म हो, किनकि चल्ने र नचल्ने दुवै उसको भोजन भनेर लिइएका छन्।
Where it sits
A new passage. brahman (ब्रह्मन्) from 1.1.1 is the predicate. The three agree against the gastric fire and against the pradhāna (प्रधान). They differ on the brahman (ब्रह्मन्), as before.
Split: attā (अत्ता) + cara-acara-grahaṇāt (चर-अचर-ग्रहणात्)
Sanskrit, in depth
The words
| Word | Grammar | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| attā (अत्ता) | nominative singular, masculine | the eater |
| cara-acara-grahaṇāt (चर-अचर-ग्रहणात्) | ablative singular, neuter | because the moving and the unmoving are taken in |
The phrases
The passage is the Kaṭha (कठ) verse: for whom the priestly power and the royal power are both food, and death is the sauce. The question is who knows where he is.
attṛ (अत्तृ) is the eater. His food is not a meal. It is the moving and the unmoving, cara and acara, the whole world of beings. A gastric fire, or one soul, does not take all of that in. The eater is brahman (ब्रह्मन्).
Sanskrit in this line
attā (अत्ता) is the nominative of attṛ (अत्तृ), agent noun of ad, 'to eat'. The ṛ-nominative (ऋ-नोमिनतिवे) is ā (आ). grahaṇa (ग्रहण) is neuter, 'a taking in'.
Say it back
Say the food and the sauce. The sauce is death. The eater is not the soul.
Next
1.2.10. The context of Naciketas's question is the supreme self, so the eater is that self.