Brahma-Sūtra 2.4.9

English of translation of Brahmasutra 2.4.9 by Roma Bose:

“(the vital-breath is) not air and function, on account of the separate teaching.”

Nimbārka’s commentary (Vedānta-pārijāta-saurabha):

The vital-breath is “not” mere “air”, nor a sense-organ, nor a “function” (of the sense-organs). But we hold that the vital-breath is nothing hut air that has assumed a different condition, “on account of the separate teaching”, viz. ‘From him arise the vital-breath, the mind and all the sense-organs, the ether, the air’ (Muṇḍaka-upaniṣad 2.1.3).

Śrīnivāsa’s commentary (Vedānta-kaustubha)

Now the author is stating the nature of the chief vital-breath.

On the doubt, viz. whether the vital-breath, the oldest, is the air,, one of the great elements, or the general function of the sense-organs, or nothing but the great element air that has assumed a different' condition, if it be suggested: In accordance with the statement, viz.: “What is the vital-breath that is the air. This air is five-fold, prāṇa, apāna, vyāna, udāna, samāna”,^[1] it is nothing but the air. Or else, the vital-breath is the common function of the sense-organs as held by the Sāṃkhyas^[2] and is of five kinds,—

We reply: The vital-breath is “not the air” simply, nor a general mode consisting in the function of the sense-organs. Why? “On account of the separate teaching,” i.e. because in the text: ‘From him arise the vital breath, the mind and all the sense-organs, the ether, the air’ (Muṇḍaka-upaniṣad 2,1,3), the vital-breath is taught as something different from the second great element air and from the sense-organs. If the vital-breath be mere air, then this separate designation would be set aside. And, if it be a mere mode of the sense-organs, then, too, its separate designation from the possessors of the mode (viz. the sense-organs) would be futile, as what arises separately being itself an object, cannot be the function of other objects like the sense-organs. The vital-breath, thus, is nothing but the great element air that has assumed a different condition, this being the only alternative left. Hereby, any conflict with the text ‘What is the vital-breath that is the air’, too, is avoided.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

For the nature and function of these five modes, see Vedānta-ratnamañjūṣā

[2]:

Vide Sāṃkhya-sūtras 2.31.