One of the most insightful transcendant commentaries concerning the second half (and first half) of the Chandogya 7 (post-prana) is by Krishnananda in his 'The Chandogya Upanishad' published by The Divine Life Society and available for free in epub and pdf forms at https://www.swami-krishnananda.org/chhand_0.html {which is commentary and not a strict translation per se). Here are some selections:
16. Truth
Transcendent speech is an expression of transcendent knowledge. And transcendent knowledge is that knowledge which is identical with transcendent truth. This is the peak of experience, the peak of wisdom. Our speech should be based on the reality of Being. Only then it manifests itself as reality.
“Satyam tv-eva vijijnasitavyam—my dear Narada,” says Sanatkumara. “You want a knowledge which is tuned up with reality, but you must know what reality or truth is. Unless you know what truth is, how can you try to identify your knowledge with truth, or truth with knowledge? You must have a clear conception of what I mean by ‘truth’. Only then can you have an aspiration for identifying your knowledge with truth, knowing truth and speaking truth.”
17. Truth and Understanding
Again we are in a vicious circle of argument, as it were. You want to know what is truth. Truth has to be known as it is, and not as it appears.
“O Narada,” says Sanatkumara, “you can speak truth only when you know what truth is; otherwise, how can you speak truth? But do you know what truth is? Truth is not what you perceive as true in this empirical world. The whole world is not true. It is not the ultimate truth. So, how can you say that anything in the world is true? Whatever you speak is not true. You must know what is really true. When one knows what truth is, then one speaks truth.”
We are here entering into the difficult subject of the ultimate principle of our very life, knowledge and truth, jnana and satya.
18. Thought and Understanding (this is an especially transcendant section; thus a greater selection is presented here)
The word mati and similar other words used in these passages of the Upanishad carry a meaning much more deep than what appears on the surface, because we are treading upon forbidden land where the mind cannot easily reach, where things go almost beyond and above our heads.
We do not know what we are speaking and what we are hearing. Such is the condition that is being explained here. Such is the state into which Narada is being initiated by Sanatkumara, the great master.
There is something higher than this knowledge or aspiration for truth. What is that? It is the tendency of one’s being to move towards Reality. It is the very reason behind our aspiring for Reality.
We say, “I must know God,” “I must search for Reality,” “I must aspire for the Absolute.” How did this idea arise in our mind? There is a tendency in us to move towards the Reality. This tendency is prior to our consciousness of Reality.
“Isvaranugrahad-eva pumsam advaita vasana,” says the great master Dattatreya. We do not know how aspiration arises in our mind. It has not come due to our efforts, because effort cannot be there without knowledge. But the question is, “How has this knowledge arisen?”
So Bhagavan Dattatreya says that perhaps it is God’s grace, or we may call it the grace of the Absolute, or the mysterious outcome of the very process of evolution which is egged on by some principle of which we have no idea and the purpose of which is far, far beyond our understanding.
Only when this tendency, this inclination of your total being towards the Reality is there, only then can you have an aspiration for Reality, not otherwise.
19. Faith
Sraddha, faith in the existence of Reality, and the working of this tendency of movement of one’s being towards Reality are almost simultaneous. How do we know that Reality exists? That is a faith that is in our mind, introduced into us by the very tendency of Reality urging itself forward towards its own Self-realisation.
This faith is superior to thought and understanding. It is not what we call blind faith, but an irrepressible feeling in us that Reality is. It must be there. We do not have any doubt about Its being.
Mati and sraddha go together. So, Narada is told here, “This sraddha, faith in the very existence of Reality, is somehow to be taken as prior to mati, the consciousness of the tendency towards Reality working through your being, when this faith is present in you.
20. Steadfastness
When one has steadfastness in Reality, then this superior faith also comes. A person who has steadfastness becomes one with the Reality, as it were, in his psychological being. This is called nishtha in this section. Sanatkumara says that when there is nishtha, there is sraddha, and when there is sraddha there is mati, the tendency in one to move towards Reality.
What exactly is this steadfastness referred to in this section? It is an incapacity of the mind to contemplate anything except Reality. If we think, we think only that; otherwise, nothing. The very function of the mind is set in tune with the nature of Reality so profoundly that we have virtually become that.
21.
from Glossary of Sanskrit Terms by Swami Sivananda:
Mati: Thought; mind rightly directed towards knowledge revealed and practice enjoined by Sastras.
Sraddha: Faith.
Nishtha: Steadfastness; establishment in a certain state.
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