person which is the object of sight would be
different from that highest person which is represented as the object of
meditation. We rather have to explain the word jivaghana as 'He whose
shape[178] is characterised by the jivas;' so that what is really meant
by that term is that limited condition of the highest Self which is
owing to its adjuncts, and manifests itself in the form of jivas, i.e.
individual souls; a condition analogous to the limitation of salt (in
general) by means of the mass of a particular lump of salt. That limited
condition of the Self may itself be called 'higher,' if viewed with
regard to the senses and their objects.

Another (commentator) says that we have to understand by the word
'jivaghana' the world of Brahman spoken of in the preceding sentence
('by the Saman verses he is led up to the world of Brahman'), and again
in the following sentence (v. 7), which may be called 'higher,' because
it is higher than the other worlds. That world of Brahman may be called
jivaghana because all individual souls (jiva) with their organs of
action may be viewed as comprised (sa@nghata = ghana) within
Hira/n/yagarbha, who is the Self of all organs, and dwells in the
Brahma-world. We thus understand that he who is higher than that
jivaghana, i.e. the highest Self, which constitutes the object of sight,
also constitutes the object of meditation. The qualification, moreover,
expressed in the term 'the highest person' is in its place only if we
understand the highest Self to be meant. For the name, 'the highest
person,' can be given only to the highest Self, higher than which there
is nothing. So another scriptural passage also says, 'Higher than the
person there is nothing--this is the goal, the highest road.' Hence the
sacred text, which at first distinguishes between the higher and the
lower Brahman ('the syllable Om is the higher and the lower Brahman'),
and afterwards speaks of the highest Person to be meditated upon by
means of the syllable Om, gives us to understand that the highest Person
is nothing else but the highest Brahman. That the highest Self
constitutes the object of meditation, is moreover intimated by the
passage declaring that release from evil is the fruit (of meditation),
'As a snake is freed from its skin, so is he freed from evil.'--With
reference to the objection that a fruit confined to a certain place is
not an appropriate reward for him who meditates on the highest Self, we
finally rem