The one Lord, the Ātman within all beings, who makes His one form manifold; to those wise ones who perceive Him seated in their own Self, to them belongs eternal happiness, not to others.

This verse presents the Ātman as vaśī (the Lord, the one under His own control), the source of all sovereignty. Though He is one without a second, He manifests His single nature in manifold ways through the countless forms of the universe. Diversity does not contradict unity; it is its creative expression.

The ātma-stha (seated in one’s own Self) describes the direct experience of the Ātman not as a distant object, but as our own innermost presence. We need not go anywhere to find Him; we must simply turn attention toward that which has always been here, the silent witness of all phenomena.

The dhīra (the wise, the firm-minded) are those who have developed the capacity to discriminate between the real and the apparent. For them, śāśvatā sukha (eternal happiness) is not a future state to be attained, but the revealed nature of their own being. While we seek happiness in external objects, we remain among the “others”—those who have not yet awakened to this truth.