circumference of the wheel is set on the
spokes and the spokes on the nave, thus are these objects set on the
subjects (the senses) and the subjects on the pra/n/a. And that pra/n/a
indeed is the Self of pra/n/a, blessed, imperishable, immortal.' So also
the following passage which, referring to this interior Self, forming as
it were the centre of the peripherical interaction of the objects and
senses, sums up as follows, 'He is my Self, thus let it be known;' a
summing up which is appropriate only if pra/n/a is meant to denote not
some outward existence, but the interior Self. And another scriptural
passage declares 'this Self is Brahman, omniscient'[130] (B/ri/. Up. II,
5, 19). We therefore arrive at the conclusion that, on account of the
multitude of references to the interior Self, the chapter contains
information regarding Brahman, not regarding the Self of some
deity.--How then can the circumstance of the speaker (Indra) referring
to himself be explained?

30. The declaration (made by Indra about himself, viz. that he is one
with Brahman) (is possible) through intuition vouched for by Scripture,
as in the case of Vamadeva.

The individual divine Self called Indra perceiving by means of
/ri/shi-like intuition[131]--the existence of which is vouched for by
Scripture--its own Self to be identical with the supreme Self, instructs
Pratardana (about the highest Self) by means of the words 'Know me
only.'

By intuition of the same kind the /ri/shi Vamadeva reached the knowledge
expressed in the words, 'I was Manu and Surya;' in accordance with the
passage, 'Whatever deva was awakened (so as to know Brahman) he indeed
became that' (B/ri/. Up. I, 4, 10). The assertion made above (in the
purvapaksha of the preceding Sutra) that Indra after saying, 'Know me
only,' glorifies himself by enumerating the slaying of Tvash/tri/'s son
and other deeds of strength, we refute as follows. The death of
Tvash/tri/'s son and similar deeds are referred to, not to the end of
glorifying Indra as the object of knowledge--in which case the sense of
the passage would be, 'Because I accomplished such and such deeds,
therefore know me'--but to the end of glorifying the cognition of the
highest Self. For this reason the text, after having referred to the
slaying of Tvash/tri/'s son and the like, goes on in the clause next
following to exalt knowledge, 'And not one hair of me is harmed there.
He who knows me thus by no deed of his is his life ha