Thus concludes the fifth section, and now begins the sixth, opening with the mystery of the Self. This Self sustains itself in two principal ways: as breath within and as the sun without. These two—breath and sun—are its paths, alternating as day and night, within and without. The sun is the Self’s outer form, breath its inner; the movement of breath reveals the presence of the sun. This movement is proclaimed as the sign. Only one who is wise, sinless, master of senses, pure in mind, devoted, and withdrawn from outward sight can, through the movement of the inner Self, perceive the outer Self. Thus, movement is declared. Within the sun dwells a golden Person, who perceives the Self as golden. This same Person abides within the lotus of the heart and consumes food. He is Agni, established in heaven, solar in nature, called Time, invisible, and the eater of the food of all beings. The lotus is the heart’s space, its petals formed by the four cardinal and four intermediate directions. Fire moves forward through breath and sun, and these are to be worshipped with sacred syllables and the utterances of Sāvitrī. Brahman, the ultimate reality, has two forms: manifest and unmanifest. The manifest is unreal; the unmanifest is real. Brahman is light; that light is the sun. The Self is signified by 'Om', which Brahman divided into threefold, corresponding to the three syllables of 'Om'. All creation is woven through these. Therefore, one should meditate on the sun as 'Om', uniting oneself with it. Elsewhere, it is said: the udgītha is the praṇava, and the sun is both. The udgītha, radiant and leader, is free from sleep, old age, and death, and is three-footed, three-syllabled, and fivefold, hidden in the cave. Its roots are above; its branches are sky, air, fire, water, earth, and more. Named Aśvattha, this is Brahman, its radiance the sun, the essence of 'Om'. Worship should be offered with 'Om'. Whoever knows this syllable, whatever he desires, he obtains. 'Om' is both holy and supreme. This syllable has ninety aspects, reflecting its own sound, and is marked by gender—feminine, masculine, neuter. It shines as Agni, Vāyu, Āditya; it is sovereign as Brahmā, Rudra, Viṣṇu; it is the mouth as Gārhapatya, Dakṣiṇāgni, Āhavanīya; endowed with knowledge as Ṛg, Yajus, Sāman; connected to worlds as Bhūḥ, Bhuvaḥ, Svar; associated with time—past, present, future; full of energy as Prāṇa, Agni, Sūrya; nourishing as food, water, moon; conscious as buddhi, mind, ego; vital as Prāṇa, Apāna, Vyāna. By uttering 'Om', all these are honored and offered. Thus, both the higher and lower Brahman are this very syllable. In the beginning, 'Om' was unuttered. Prajāpati, performing austerity, uttered 'Bhūḥ, Bhuvaḥ, Svar', his greatest form, world-like. 'Svar' is its head, 'Bhuvaḥ' its navel, 'Bhūḥ' its feet; the sun is its eye. Truth is the eye, and the person established in the eyes moves among all objects. Meditation on 'Bhūḥ, Bhuvaḥ, Svar' worships Prajāpati, the all-seeing soul. This form upholds everything; all is contained within it. The Gayatri mantra is explained: 'Tat savitur vareṇyam' refers to the sun, Savitṛ; 'Bhargo devasya dhīmahi' refers to the god Savitṛ and his radiance (bharga); 'Dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt' asks for the inspiration of our intellects. 'Bharga' is the guiding principle in the sun, moving by light, burning, illuminating worlds, delighting beings, and being the source of all. Hence, the self of the self is immortal, the thinker, knower, mover, releaser, delighter, doer, speaker, taster, smeller, seer, hearer, toucher, all-pervading, established in the body. Where knowledge is dual, one hears, sees, smells, tastes, and touches; the self knows all. Where knowledge is non-dual, free from cause, effect, and action, incomparable and indescribable—what is that which cannot be spoken? This Self is the lord—Śambhu, Bhava, Rudra, Prajāpati, Hiraṇyagarbha, truth, life, the swan, the teacher, Viṣṇu, Nārāyaṇa, Arka, Savitṛ, Dhātṛ, Vidhātṛ, the sovereign, Indra, the moon—shining, hidden like fire within a golden egg. He is to be sought through inquiry, giving fearlessness to all beings, going to the forest, setting aside sense objects, and realizing him within one's own body. The all-formed, golden, knower of beings, supreme goal, one light shining with a thousand rays, moving in a hundred ways, the life of creatures—this sun rises. One who knows thus possesses both natures, meditates only on the Self, worships only in the Self. Meditation is the mind established in practice, praised by the wise. If the mind is defiled, it is purified through a ritual: sprinkling water, reciting offerings to the five vital airs, eating food in silence, and meditating on the Self with the prayer: 'Prāṇa is fire, the supreme Self is the fivefold wind; may he please all; you are the all, you are Vaiśvānara, you support the universe, may all oblations and beings enter you, where the nectar of the universe is.' Through this rite, one is freed from being consumed again. The higher transformation of self-offering is explained as 'food and the eater of food.' The conscious person abides within primal matter, enjoying natural food, which is threefold in quality. The person is the enjoyer; nature is the enjoyed. Food transforms through the three qualities, extending from the great principle to particulars, explaining the path of fourteenfold division. The world made of food is pleasure, pain, and delusion. The seed tastes sweetness only when it produces food; in childhood, youth, and old age, food-nature is manifest. When primal matter manifests, intellect and the rest become sweet. The enjoyer is without qualities, but enjoyership is known through consciousness. Just as fire is the eater of food among gods and Soma is food, so here, the elemental self is Soma, and fire is the unmanifest mouth. The person, through the unmanifest mouth, eats the three qualities. Whoever knows this is a renunciant, yogi, and self-sacrificer. Food is the highest form of the Self, for breath is made of food. Without eating, one loses the power to think, hear, touch, see, speak, smell, and taste, and gives up the breaths. Eating restores these faculties. From food, beings are born, live, and ultimately return. All beings daily pursue food, desiring to seize it. The sun draws up food with its rays, burning, anointed with food. Breaths cook, anointed with food; fire burns by food; the world is established by the desire for food, created by Brahman. Therefore, meditate on food as the Self. From water, beings are born, grow by food, eat and are eaten; hence, it is called food. The Lord Vishnu, supporter of the universe, is food; breath is its essence, mind is the essence of breath, knowledge the essence of mind, bliss the essence of knowledge. Whoever knows this becomes possessed of food, breath, mind, knowledge, and bliss. Food is undecaying, the means of union, the life of animals, the eldest, and the healer. Food is the source of all; time is the source of food; the sun is the source of time. The year, divided into twelve parts, is its form, half belonging to Agni, half to Varuna, with their respective cycles. Time is measured by these divisions, allowing self-knowledge. As many divisions as there are, so many does time move. Whoever worships time as Brahman, for him time withdraws. From time, beings flow forth, grow, and dissolve; time is both formed and formless. Brahman has two forms: time and non-time. That which is before the sun is non-time; that which begins with the sun is time. The year is the form of time; from the year, creatures are born, grow, and dissolve. The year is Prajapati; time is food, the nest of Brahman and the Self. Time cooks all beings in the great Self; but he in whom time is cooked is the knower of the Veda. Time, having form, is king of rivers and beings, standing as Savita (the sun), from whom moon, stars, planets, years, and so on arise. From these, all good and bad in the world comes forth. Therefore, meditate on the sun, whose essence is Brahman, as time, called Aditya; some say the sun is Brahman. The priest, enjoyer, offering, mantra, sacrifice, Vishnu, Prajapati—all shine in that orb. In the beginning, there was only Brahman, infinite in every direction, with no limits or divisions. This is the supreme Self: boundless, beyond reasoning and thought, the Self of space, the sole, all-consuming one who remains awake. From this space, consciousness awakens in all; by this, one meditates, and into this, all returns. Its radiant form shines in the sun, burns in smokeless fire, is the most brilliant light within the belly, and cooks food. 'That which is in fire, in the heart, in the sun—these are one and the same.' Whoever knows this attains unity. Yoga is described: breath control, withdrawal of the senses, meditation, concentration, reasoning, and absorption—these six are its limbs. Through yoga, one perceives the golden-hued creator, the lord, the source of Brahman. The wise, abandoning merit and demerit, merge all into the supreme imperishable. Faults never approach those who know Brahman, just as animals and birds avoid a blazing mountain. The wise, restraining the mind and senses, settling the breath, remain without intention. The vital force arises as prāṇa; one should hold the breath in the state called the fourth. The mind without mind, the middle of consciousness, the inconceivable, the highest secret—there one should place the mind; that is the subtle sign without support. Beyond this is concentration by pressing the palate and tip of the tongue, restraining mind and breath; by reasoning, one sees Brahman. When, by the mind, one sees the Self, the smallest of the small, shining, through cessation of mind, one becomes without self. Being without self, it is countless, unborn, inconceivable, and characterized by liberation—this is the supreme secret. By clarity of mind, both good and bad actions are destroyed. Establishing the serene self in the Self, one enjoys unchanging happiness. The upward-moving channel called Suṣumnā carries the vital breath, interrupted within the palate. Through it, breath, joined with Om and mind, ascends upward. Turning the tip below the palate, withdrawing the senses, one beholds the greatness of the Great. Then, attaining the state without self, one is not subject to pleasure or pain, and attains absolute unity. Establishing the supreme, restraining the breath, crossing by the highest means, one should direct it upward. Brahman is contemplated in two aspects: sound and soundless. By sound, the soundless is revealed. Om is the sound; by it, one ascends and dissolves in the soundless. This is the path, immortality, union, and liberation. Like a spider ascending by its threads, the contemplator ascends by Om to freedom. Those who follow the doctrine of sound listen to the inner heart-space, hearing seven kinds—like rivers, bells, bronze discs, frogs, crickets, rain, and wind. Passing beyond these, others reach the soundless, unmanifest Brahman, where all is undifferentiated, like honey becoming one. Two Brahmans are to be known—the Brahman of sound and the supreme; one skilled in the Brahman of sound attains the supreme. Om is the sound; its beginning is peaceful, soundless, fearless, sorrowless, blissful, satisfied, stable, unmoving, immortal, constant, called Viṣṇu for supreme transcendence. One should worship these. That which is both supreme and not supreme is called Om; being soundless, becoming void, one should practice it at the crown.