By the seers, Vasiṣṭha and the rest, it has been sung in many ways, in many manners; and by the metres, the Ṛk and the rest, severally, by discernment, in many ways. Further, by the words of the Brahma-sūtras: the sentences that point out Brahman are the Brahma-sūtras, called so because by them Brahman is reached, gone to, known; and by those very words the true nature of the field and the field-knower is sung. By such words of the Brahma-sūtras as 'let one worship It as the Self' (Bṛhadāraṇyaka 1.4.7) the Self is known, words that are reasoned, joined with argument, well settled, of the form of certainty, producers of a settled cognition. To Arjuna, turned toward Him by the praise, the Blessed Lord says.

The great elements, egotism, the understanding, and the unmanifest indeed, these are the substances that begin the field: the great elements earth, water, fire, air, and space; egotism, which is the beginning of the elements; the understanding, which is the great principle; and the unmanifest, which is primal matter. The senses, the ten and the one, and the five spheres of the senses, these are the principles that rest on the field: ear, skin, eye, tongue, and nose are the five senses of knowing; speech, hands, feet, anus, and the organ of generation are the five organs of action, those ten; the 'one' is the mind; and the five spheres of the senses are sound, touch, form, taste, and smell.

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

'The Brahma-sutra verses' (brahma-sutra-pada) means the Shariraka.