Kathopanishad- Verse 21 - kathopanishad-1-2-21-āsīno dūraṃ

Kathopanishad – Part 1 – Canto 2 – Verse 21 « »

आसीनो दूरं व्रजति शयानो याति सर्वतः ।
कस्तं मदामदं देवं मदन्यो ज्ञातुमर्हति ॥ २१॥

āsīno dūraṃ vrajati śayāno yāti sarvataḥ .
kastaṃ madāmadaṃ devaṃ madanyo jñātumarhati .. 21..

21 Though sitting still, It travels far; though lying down, It goes everywhere. Who but myself can know that luminous Atman who rejoices and rejoices not?

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Sri Shankara’s Commentary (Bhashya) translated by S. Sitarama Sastri

Otherwise, this âtman cannot be known by worldly men having desires, because sitting, i.e., not moving, he goes a great distance. Lying, he goes everywhere. Thus the âtman is both joyful and joyless. Thus he has properties mutually opposed; therefore it being impossible to know him, who else but me can know the âtman, who is joyful and joyless. It is only by persons like us of subtle intellect and learning that the âtman can be known. Being conditioned by conflicting attributes of fixity and movement, and of constancy and change, the âtman appears as if itself possessed conflicting attributes like Visvarupa, a sum of various forms, or (more properly) like Chintâmani (a gem which appears according to the fancy of the seer). Therefore, Death indicates the difficulty of knowing the âtman by the statement ‘who else but me can know the âtman.’ The cessation of the activity of the senses is ‘lying;’ in the person lying, there is a cessation of the partial knowledge produced by the senses. In this state the âtman seems to go everywhere, because its knowledge then is of a general character, i.e., unqualified by conditions; but, though fixed in its own nature, when it has special or qualified knowledge it seems to go a great distance, because it is conditioned by the motion of the mind and the rest, but really he is here alone, i.e., in this body.

Commentary by Swami Krishnananda of the great Divine Life Society

Āsīno dūraṁ vrajati, śayāno yāti sarvataḥ: kastam madāmadaṁ devam mad anyo jñātum arharti (1.2.21). Āsīno dūraṁ vrajati: Sitting in one place, it moves everywhere. A thing that is sitting in one place cannot move, as we know very well, but here is a thing which is sitting in one place only, and yet it is everywhere—śayāno yāti sarvataḥ. It is lying down, calmly resting, as it were, but it travels to all places. Who can know this secret? Yama says, “Except for people like me who have the blessing of this realisation, who can know this great truth of that Being which can move about without actually moving, and travel without actually travelling?” Faster than the fastest, nearer than the nearest, remoter than the remotest, greater than the greatest, smaller than the smallest, most wonderful is this Atman. There is neither joy nor sorrow in that Atman. Madāmada is the word used here. It is the state where there is no joy and no sorrow. Who can know it? Only a great Master like Yama can know it, and perhaps Nachiketas may know it.

Links
Various resources on the Kathopanishad
Upanishad Series – Katopanishad Commentary by Swami Chinmayananda

Kathopanishad – Verse 21 – kathopanishad-1-2-21-āsīno dūraṃ – In Sanskrit with English Transliteration, Meaning and Commentary by Adi Shankaracharya (Sankara Bhashya) – Katha-1-2-21