Up. I, 6, 6 ff.), 'Now
that person bright as gold who is seen within the sun, with beard bright
as gold and hair bright as gold, bright as gold altogether to the very
tips of his nails, whose eyes are like blue lotus; his name is Ut, for
he has risen (udita) above all evil. He also who knows this rises above
all evil. So much with reference to the devas.' And further on, with
reference to the body, 'Now the person who is seen in the eye,' &c. Here
the following doubt presents itself. Do these passages point out, as the
object of devotion directed on the sphere of the sun and the eye, merely
some special individual soul, which, by means of a large measure of
knowledge and pious works, has raised itself to a position of eminence;
or do they refer to the eternally perfect highest Lord?

The purvapakshin takes the former view. An individual soul, he says, is
referred to, since Scripture speaks of a definite shape. To the person
in the sun special features are ascribed, such as the possession of a
beard as bright as gold and so on, and the same features manifestly
belong to the person in the eye also, since they are expressly
transferred to it in the passage, 'The shape of this person is the same
as the shape of that person.' That, on the other hand, no shape can be
ascribed to the highest Lord, follows from the passage (Kau. Up. I, 3,
15), 'That which is without sound, without touch, without form, without
decay.' That an individual soul is meant follows moreover from the fact
that a definite abode is mentioned, 'He who is in the sun; he who is in
the eye.' About the highest Lord, who has no special abode, but abides
in his own glory, no similar statement can be made; compare, for
instance, the two following passages, 'Where does he rest? In his own
glory?' (Ch. Up. VII, 24, 1); and 'like the ether he is omnipresent,
eternal.' A further argument for our view is supplied by the fact that
the might (of the being in question) is said to be limited; for the
passage, 'He is lord of the worlds beyond that, and of the wishes of the
devas,' indicates the limitation of the might of the person in the sun;
and the passage, 'He is lord of the worlds beneath that and of the
wishes of men,' indicates the limitation of the might of the person in
the eye. No limit, on the other hand, can be admitted of the might of
the highest Lord, as appears from the passage (B/ri/. Up. IV, 4, 22),
'He is the Lord of all, the king of all things, the prote