यो लोकत्रयमाविश्य विभर्त्यव्यय ईश्वरः ॥ १७ ॥
uttamaḥ puruṣastvanyaḥ paramātmetyudāhṛtaḥ .
yo lokatrayamāviśya vibhartyavyaya īśvaraḥ .. 17 ..
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But the Highest Spirit is quite distinct from the two. He is the Supreme Self. He is Supreme as compared with the other selves set up by avidya, such as the physical body; and He is the Self as constituting the unfailing Inner Consciousness of all beings. He is therefore known as the Supreme Self in the Vedāntas (Upaniṣads). The Highest Spirit is further specified thus : He is the Eternal Omniscient Lord, Nārāyaṇa, who penetrates by His Vital Energy (Bala-Śakti)* the three worlds—the Earth (Bhuh), the Mid-region (Bhuvah) and Heaven (Suvah)—and supports them by His mere existence in them.
‘Bala’ means energy, the energy of Consciousness or sentience (chaitanya), and ‘sakti’ means Maya which lies therein.—A.
‘Puruṣottama,’ the Highest Spirit, is a well-known name of the Lord described above. Now the Lord, while showing, by a declaration of the etymology of the word, that the name is significant, shows what He really is, “I am the unsurpassed Lord.”