II, 4, 12

12. It is designated as having five functions like mind.

The chief vital air has its specific effect for that reason also that in scripture it is designated as having five functions, prāṇa, apāna, vyāna, udāna, samāna. This distinction of functions is based on a distinction of effects. Prāṇa is the forward-function whose work is aspiration, &c.; apāna is the backward-function whose work is inspiration, &c.; vyāna is that which, abiding in the junction of the two, is the cause of works of strength^[1]; udāna is the ascending function and is the cause of the passing out (of the soul); samāna is the function which conveys the juices of the food equally through all the limbs of the body. Thus the prāṇa has five functions just as the mind (manas) has. The five functions of the mind are the five well-known ones caused by the ear, &c., and having sound and so on for their objects. By the functions of the mind we cannot here understand those enumerated (in Bṛ. Up. I, 5, 3), 'desire, representation,' &c., because those are more than five. But on the former explanation also there exists yet another function of the mind which does not depend on the ear, &c., but has for its object the past, the future, and so on; so that on that explanation also the number five is exceeded.--Well, let us then follow the principle that the opinions of other (systems) if unobjectionable may be adopted, and let us assume that the five functions of the manas are those five which are known from the Yogaśāstra, viz. right knowledge, error, imagination, slumber, and remembrance. Or else let us assume that the Sūtra quotes the manas as an analogous instance merely with reference to the plurality (not the fivefoldness) of its functions.--In any case the Sūtra must be construed to mean that the prāṇa's subordinate position with regard to the soul follows from its having five functions like the manas.