kathopanishad-2-1-7-yā prāṇena

Commentary by Swami Krishnananda of the great Divine Life Society

Yā prāṇena sambhavaty aditir devatāmayī, guhām praviśya tiṣṭhantī, yā bhūtebhir vyajāyata: etad vai tat (2.1.7). Brahman has been explained, Virat has been explained, and now Hiranyagarbha is being explained here—that great Prana, the cosmic Prana known as Hiranyagarbha or Sutratman, unborn among the born individualities of the world, the embodiment of all the gods. All the gods were shining in the Virat form which Lord Sri Krishna showed, as described for us in the Eleventh Chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. Every divinity was shining in every part of its body. That is Hiranyagarbha-tattva, or we may call it Virat. This great unborn Cosmic Being, Sutratman, Hiranyagarbha, is in gods everywhere, seated in the heart of every person, and yet perceived only through the five elements, which are the objects of the senses. “This verily is that. Nachiketas, I have given you the answer,” says Yama.