स होवाच बालाकिर्य एवैष आकाशे पुरुषस्तमेवाहमुपास इति तं होवाचाजातशत्रुर्मा मैतस्मिन्समवादयिष्ठाः पूर्णमप्रवर्ति ब्रह्मेति वा अहमेतमुपास इति स यो हैतमेवमुपास्ते पूर्यते प्रजया पशुभिर्नो एव स्वयं नास्य प्रजा पुरा कालात्प्रवर्तते
sa hovāca bālākirya evaiṣa ākāśe puruṣastamevāhamupāsa iti taṃ hovācājātaśatrurmā maitasminsamavādayiṣṭhāḥ pūrṇamapravarti brahmeti vā ahametamupāsa iti sa yo haitamevamupāste pūryate prajayā paśubhirno eva svayaṃ nāsya prajā purā kālātpravartate
Bālāki said: “The puruṣa who is in space — him I revere.” Ajātaśatru said to him: “Do not draw me into talk of him! I revere him as the full, unmoving Brahman.” And he who so reveres him is filled with progeny and cattle, and himself does not wane, and his line does not pass away before its time.
96babf514e05 · published Jul 29, 2026, 3:43:45 AM UTC
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The fifth pointing is to space, and the correction here is the weightiest of the first nine: ākāśa is named “the full, unmoving Brahman”.
The word pūrṇa, “full”, is in the Upaniṣads one of the chief names of the Highest: “that is full, this is full”. And apravarti means “not setting into motion, not beginning”: what is not drawn into becoming.
The choice is intelligible. Of all the elements space alone does nothing and moves nowhere; it contains and does not diminish. Hence it serves as the best likeness of Him who contains all.
But precisely here the limit of all Ajātaśatru's corrections shows. He has called space Brahman — and still, at the chapter's end, he will tell Bālāki that he never learned the main thing. The likeness is not the Object itself; space contains, but does not create.
The fruit is described in a householder's terms: “he is filled with progeny and cattle, and himself does not wane”. The reverer of the full grows full himself. And there is added what was twice prayed for in the second adhyāya: “his line does not pass away before its time”.