The 'adhibhūta' is that which comes to be with reference to the host of living beings. What is that? The perishing one (kṣara), the perishing, decaying state, any thing whatever that has birth. The 'puruṣa', so named because all this is filled (pūrṇa) by Him, or because of His lying in the city (puri-śaya), is Hiraṇyagarbha within the sun, the one who favours the instruments of all living beings; He is the 'adhidaiva'. The 'adhiyajña' is the deity named Viṣṇu, who presides over all sacrifices, by the scripture 'Viṣṇu indeed is the sacrifice'. For that Viṣṇu am I Myself; here, in this body, whatever sacrifice there is, of that I am the adhiyajña, since a sacrifice, being accomplished by the body, inheres in the body and so has the body for its locus, O best of the embodied.

The adhibhuta, indicated as a thing to be known by the seekers of lordship, is the perishable state of being, the particular transformation present in the elements, space and the rest, whose nature is perishing: the distinctive sound, touch, and the rest, together with their substrata. The distinctive sound, touch, form, taste, and smell, together with their substrata, are to be attained by the seekers of lordship, are to be dwelt on by them. And the person is the adhidaivata: the person indicated by the word 'adhidaivata', the one present over the deities, present over the whole host of deities, Indra, Prajapati, and the rest, the person who is the enjoyer of the distinctive sound and the rest, distinct from the host of things enjoyed by Indra, Prajapati, and the rest; and that state of being the enjoyer is to be dwelt on, as a thing to be attained, by the seekers of lordship. The adhiyajna is I myself: the one indicated by the word 'adhiyajna' is I myself; I am the adhiyajna, abiding as the one to be worshipped by sacrifices; here, abiding as the self in Indra and the rest, who are My body, it is I myself that am to be worshipped by sacrifices. This, at the time of carrying out the obligatory and occasional rites, the great sacrifices and the rest, all three qualified ones must dwell on. This too is common to all three.

That which is with reference to the beings, the embodied living beings, is the adhibhuta. 'The perishable state' is the destructible effect-thing; though it is included within the unmanifest, even that has its destruction, named its becoming-otherwise. So it is said, 'the unmanifest dissolves into the supreme, actionless space', and 'therefore the unmanifest, of the three gunas, has arisen, O best of the twice-born', and 'the unmanifest is indeed a modification, born' (Skanda). The 'person' (purusha), so called from lying in the city, is the living being, and that is Sankarshana, or Brahma; with reference to all the gods he is their lord, and so is the 'adhidaivata', or else, one who stands in the office over the gods. He is the 'adhiyajna' from being the enjoyer of all sacrifice and the rest; and since another adhiyajna, the fire and the like, is well known, the qualifier 'in the body' is added. This follows from 'the enjoyer of sacrifices and austerities' (5.29), 'the knowers of the three Vedas worship Me' (9.20), 'even those devoted to other deities' (9.23), 'at the command of this Imperishable, O Gargi, men praise the giver, the gods the sacrificer' (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 3.8.9), and from the answer in the Moksha-dharma to such questions as 'how is there for him a fixed heaven, how the place of the highest good?' (Mahabharata 12.334.2). If it is the Lord, then His being the adhiyajna, by His enjoyership and the rest, is established, so the answer to the 'how' is not stated separately. He is 'one accompanied by sacrifice' by the form abiding in the body of every living being. The word 'here' is for the setting-apart of His own body, for the Lord's governing there is not a separate thing. The Brahman spoken of here is not other than the Lord, for, having said 'they, Brahman' (7.29), the verse refers back with 'those who know Me, together with the adhibhuta and adhidaiva and the adhiyajna' (7.30), and the question is about that very one. Since the phrase 'together with the adhiyajna' suggests a difference, to set that aside He says 'I am the adhiyajna'; and since the word 'Me' is well known to convey non-difference, He uses the word 'Imperishable'. And the Gita-kalpa says, 'the forms of Vishnu abiding in the body are called the adhiyajna; the action of the Lord, for the sake of creation, that too is called His wish and the rest. The adhibhuta is said to be the insentient, the adhyatma is said to be the living being; the adhidaiva is the god Hiranyagarbha, or Sankarshana; Brahman is the God Narayana, the Lord of the lords of all the gods'; and 'or else everything here, taken as it is perceived, is not in conflict at all'. The Skanda says, 'what stands in the office of the conceit of self is called the adhyatma; what is utterly outside the body, by being outside, is the adhidaivata; everything that comes under the office of the gods comes under the office of the great elements, and its cause and its effect, being near it, are the adhibhuta'. And the Maha-kaurma says, 'the adhyatma extends to the body and benefits the self alone; that which benefits the embodied living beings is the adhibhuta, extending up to maya; and the adhidaivata is of the gods'.