Of all trees I am the aśvattha; and of the divine seers, Nārada. Those who, being gods, have attained the state of a seer through their seeing of the mantras are divine seers; of them I am Nārada. Of the gandharvas I am the gandharva named Citraratha. Of the perfected ones, those who by their very birth have attained a surpassing measure of dharma, knowledge, dispassion and sovereignty, I am the sage Kapila.

This is a brief sub-gloss. For a fuller reading of this verse, see Madhusūdana, Śaṅkara, or Rāmānuja above.

Among all trees I am the Ashvattha, the one to be honoured. Among the divine seers I am Narada, the supreme devotee of Vishnu. Among the gandharvas, the singers of the gods, I am Chitraratha. Among the perfected, those settled in the discipline, I am Kapila, the supreme one to be worshipped.

He is 'Kapila' because He is of the form of happiness (ka), and by Him the world is protected (palyate) and dissolved (liyate). As the lexicon has it, 'delight, happiness, ka, are bliss', and the scripture says, 'the breath is Brahman, ka is Brahman, kha is Brahman' (Chandogya Upanishad 4.10.5). There are 'the seer brought forth, Kapila, whom He upholds at the beginning with knowledges, and would see being born' (Shvetashvatara Upanishad 5.2), and 'the God whom they call Kapila, from the endless happiness, from the protecting and the dissolving' in the Bhabhravya branch.