Brahma-Sūtra 2.4.12

English of translation of Brahmasutra 2.4.12 by Roma Bose:

“(The vital-breath) having five modes is designated like the mind.”

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

Just as the mind having many modes serves the individual soul through its own modes like desire and the rest, so the vital-breath, too, “having five modes, is designated” as serving the soul through its modes like apāna and the rest.

Śrīnivāsa’s commentary (Vedānta-kaustubha)

The author points out that the same vital-breath is designated as manifold through the difference of modes, but these latter are not separate entities. The vital-breath does not serve the soul by only holding up the body, but by other functions too.

Just as in conformity with the text: ‘Desire, resolution, doubt, faith,—^[1], firmness, lack of firmness, bashfulness, meditation, fear,—all these are the mind alone’ (Bṛhadāraṇyaka-upaniṣad 1.5.3), the mind alone, possessed of desire and the rest as its modes, serves the individual soul through its own modes, but desire, resolution and the rest are not special kinds of entities, so by the text: ‘The prāṇa, apāna, vyāna, udāna, samāna—all these are the vital-breath’ (Bṛhadāraṇyaka-upaniṣad 1.5.3), the vital-breath alone “is designated as having five modes”. The apāna and the rest are the modes of the vital-breath itself, but not separate entities, and it serves the soul through its own modes,—this is the sense. This being so, it is established that the vital-breath is the air itself that has assumed a different condition, an instrument of the individual soul, possessed of many modes and is the best.

Here ends the section entitled “The air and function” (5).

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

“Lack of faith.”