956.  This is a very difficult verse.  I have rendered it, following Nilakantha’s gloss.  In verse the speaker lays down what entities dwell in the body.  In the rest he expounds the nature of Sattwa which the commentator takes to mean buddhi or knowledge.  He begins with the statement that Sattwasya asrayah nasti.  This does not mean that the knowledge has no refuge, for that would be absurd, but it means that the asraya of the knowledge, i.e., that in which the knowledge dwells, viz., the body, does not exist, the true doctrine being that the body has no real existence but that it exists like to its image in a dream.  The body being non-existent, what then is the real refuge of the knowledge?  The speaker answers it by saying Gunah, implying that primeval Prakriti characterised by the three attributes is that real refuge.  Then it is said that Chetana (by which is implied the Soul here) is not the refuge of the knowledge for the Soul is dissociated from everything and incapable of transformation of any kind.  The question is then mentally started,—­May not the Gunas be the qualities of the knowledge (instead of being, as said above, its refuge)?  For dispelling this doubt, it is stated that Sattwa is the product of Tejas (Desire).  The Gunas are not the product of Tejas.  Hence the Gunas, which have a different origin cannot be the properties of Sattwa.  The Gunas exist independently of Desire.  Thus the knowledge, which has Desire for its originating cause, rests on the Gunas or has them for its refuge.  In this verse, therefore, the nature of the body, the knowledge, and the Gunas, is expounded.  The grammatical construction of the first line is exceedingly terse.

957.  Such men behold Brahma in all things.  Abhijanah is explained by the commentator as sishyakuladih.  This seems to be the true meaning of the word here.

958.  In rendering this word tatam (where it occurs in the Gita), it has been shown that to take it as equivalent to ‘spread’ is incorrect.  In such connections, it is evident that it means ’pervaded!

959.  If I have understood the gloss aright, this is what the first line of 21 means.  Vedatma is explained as Vedic sound, i.e., the instructions inculcated in the Vedas.  The word atma in the second clause means simply oneself or a person or individual.  The sense then is this.  The Vedas teach that all is one’s soul.  The extent to which one succeeds in realising this is the measure of one’s attainment of Brahma.  If one can realise it fully, one attains to Brahma fully.  If partially, one’s attainment of Brahma also is partial.

960.  The track of such a person, it is said, is as invisible as the skies.  The commentator explains that the very gods become stupefied in respect of the object which such a man seeks, the object, of course, being Brahma.

961.  That, of course, in which Time is cooked, is Brahma.

962.  By this the speaker says that Brahma is not to be found in any particular spot however holy.