Isavasya 5 Translation Fantasia

tad ejati tan naijati tad dure tad vadantike tad 

antarasya sarvasya tad u sarvasyasya baahyatah.

It moves and It moves not. It is far and also It is near. It is within and also It is without all this.

It is near to those who have the power to understand It, for It dwells in the heart of every one; but It seems far to those whose mind is covered by the clouds of sensuality and self-delusion. It is within, because It is the innermost Soul of all creatures; and It is without as the essence of the whole external universe, infilling it like the all-pervading ether.

~Paramananda

The Ᾱtman moves and It moves not; It is far and It is near; It is within all this, and It is also outside all this.

Pure Consciousness is homogeneous and all-pervading and, as such, the Self cognised here is the same as the Self experienced as revelling there. This idea is again more clearly brought out in the expression: It is within all this and It is without all this. Not only is the Ᾱtman the central core of the spirituo-physical personality in the seeker, but the same Consciousness is the very substratum for the entire perception of the universe. To consider this Self to be only within and thus to live a life of pure introversion is a negation of Truth.

~Chinmayananda

Tad ejati tan naijati tad dure tad vadantike – ‘It moves, yet it moves not. It is far and yet it is near.’ Tad antarasya sarvasya – ‘It is within all this.’ Tad u sarvasyasya baahyatah – ‘It is outside all this.’

The fifth shloka is a typical presentation that sounds very close to the Zen teachings. One of the important teachings of Zen is to make it clear that even the highest level of intellect, by itself, cannot find the Supreme Truth. This is not to discourage intelligence; we are differentiating here between intelligence and intellect. What the Upanishad is trying to say, what it is trying to do, is to put all our logical thinking into an arrangement that appears to be totally contradictory. That means, what we call cold logical thinking cannot be applied to the understanding of the Supreme Being.

~Sri M

That moves, That does not move; That is far off, That is very near; That is inside all this, and That is also outside all this.

That is inside; asya sarvasya, of all this- in accordance with the Vedic text: `The Self that is within all' (Br. III. iv. 1) -, of all this world consisting of name, form, and activity. Tat, That; u, also; sarvasya asya bahyatah, is outside all this, because It is all-pervasive like space; and It is inside, because It is extremely subtle. Besides, It is without interstices, (It is continuous), in accordance with the Vedic text: 'Pure intelligence alone' (Br. IV. v. 13).

~Shankara (tr-Gambhirananda)