Jyotisham Api Taj Jyotih

This is the summit of the Brahman description. That Brahman is the light behind all lights — the sun, the moon, the stars. Darkness cannot touch it. It is knowledge itself. It is the object of knowledge. And it is reached only through knowledge.

And where does it reside? Not in some distant heaven. It is seated in the heart of every being. The presence that wakes up in you, that thinks, that feels — that is its home.

This verse is closely connected to the Mundaka Upanishad (2.2.9) and the Katha Upanishad (2.2.15): 'Na tatra suryo bhati na chandra-tarakam' — the sun does not shine there, nor the moon or stars. Brahman gives light to them all.

In the Gita Press edition, this is the eighteenth shloka. With this verse, the poetic description of Brahman's nature reaches its conclusion.