स होवाच बालाकिर्य एवैष सव्येऽक्षन्पुरुषस्तमेवाहमुपास इति तं होवाचाजातशत्रुर्मा मैतस्मिन्समवादयिष्ठाः सत्यस्यात्मा विद्युत आत्मा तेजस आत्मेति वा अहमेतमुपास इति स यो हैतमेवमुपास्त एतेषां सर्वेषामात्मा भवतीति
sa hovāca bālākirya evaiṣa savye'kṣanpuruṣastamevāhamupāsa iti taṃ hovācājātaśatrurmā maitasminsamavādayiṣṭhāḥ satyasyātmā vidyuta ātmā tejasa ātmeti vā ahametamupāsa iti sa yo haitamevamupāsta eteṣāṃ sarveṣāmātmā bhavatīti
Bālāki said: “The puruṣa who is in the left eye — him I revere.” Ajātaśatru said to him: “Do not draw me into talk of him! I revere him as the self of truth, the self of lightning, the self of radiance.” And he who so reveres him becomes the self of all this.
a53598979f2a · published Jul 29, 2026, 3:43:45 AM UTC
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The sixteenth and last offer of Bālāki is the puruṣa in the left eye, and to him too three names are given: the self of truth, the self of lightning, the self of radiance.
The pair to the preceding mantra is built symmetrically. On the right — name, fire, light; on the left — truth, lightning, lustre. The right is tied to speech and to steady burning; the left to sudden illumination and to what flares at once.
It is curious that precisely on the left is set satya, truth. Truth has been named once already in this book — in the first adhyāya, where Brahmā answered “I am the Truth”, and the word was parsed syllable by syllable. Here it returns in the most unexpected of places: in the reflection in the left pupil.
Thereby Bālāki, without knowing it, has come right up close. He has named truth — but named it as one of sixteen places, on a par with the echo and the shadow.
And on this the list ends. What follows is silence, and it will say more than all sixteen reverences: Bālāki has not one place left at which he could point a finger.