तत्र प्रयाता गच्छन्ति ब्रह्म ब्रह्मविदो जनाः ॥ २४ ॥
agnijyotirahaḥ śuklaḥ ṣaṇmāsā uttarāyaṇam .
tatra prayātā gacchanti brahma brahmavido janāḥ .. 24 ..
Read the commentary
‘Fire’ is the deity presiding over time; so also is ’light’ a deity presiding over time.—Or, it may be that ‘fire’ and ’light’ are the deities so called; the reference, however, to the path as a whole by the expressions ‘in what time’ and ’that time’ being due to the predominance of the deities presiding over ’time.’—The ‘day-time’ is the deity presiding over the day-time, the ‘bright fortnight’ is the deity presiding over the bright fortnight. The six months of the northern solstice : here also, it is the deity that forms the path, The principle on which this interpretation of the passage is based has been established elsewhere.* Those who die, having been engaged in the contemplation of Brahman, reach Brahman by this path. The expression “in course of time” should be understood after ‘reach’; for, those who are firm in devotion to right knowledge and attain to immediate liberation have no place to go to or to return from.
Sariraka Mimamsa, iv 3-4.