II, 4, 9

9. (The chief prāṇa is) neither air nor function, on account of its being mentioned separately.

An inquiry is now started concerning the nature of that chief prāṇa.--The pūrvapakṣin maintains that the prāṇa is, according to Śruti, nothing but air. For Śruti says, 'Breath is air; that air assuming five forms is prāṇa, apāna, vyāna, udāna, samāna.'--Or else the pūrvapakṣa may be formulated according to the view of another philosophical doctrine, and prāṇa may be considered as the combined function of all organs. For so the followers of another doctrine (viz. the Sāṅkhyas) teach, 'The five airs, prāṇa, &c., are the common function of the instruments^[1].'

To this we reply that the prāṇa is neither air nor the function of an organ; for it is mentioned separately. From air prāṇa is distinguished in the following passage, 'Breath indeed is the fourth foot of Brahman. That foot shines as Agni with its light and warms.' If prāṇa were mere air, it would not be mentioned separately from air.--Thus it is also mentioned separately from the functions of the organs; for the texts enumerate speech and the other organs and mention prāṇa separately from them, and the function and that to which the function belongs (the organ) are identical. If it were a mere function of an organ, it would not be mentioned separately from the organs. Other passages also in which the prāṇa is mentioned separately from air and the organs are here to be considered so, e.g. 'From him is born breath, mind, and all organs of sense, ether, air,' &c. (Mu. Up. II, 1, 3). Nor is it possible that all the organs together should have one function (and that that function should be the prāṇa); for each organ has its own special function and the aggregate of them has no active power of its own.--But--an objection may be raised--the thing may take place in the manner of the moving bird-cage. Just as eleven birds shut up in one cage may, although each makes a separate effort, move the cage by the combination of their efforts; so the eleven prāṇas which abide in one body may, although each has its own special function, by the combination of these functions, produce one common function called prāṇa.--This objection, we reply, is without force. The birds indeed may, by means of their separate subordinate efforts, which all favour the movement of the cage, move the cage by combination; that is a matter of observation. But we have no right to assume that the different prāṇas with their subordinate functions such as hearing &c. can, by combination, produce the function of vital breath; for there is no means to prove this, and the vital breath is in kind absolutely different from hearing and so on.--Moreover, if the vital breath were the mere function of an organ (or the organs) it could not be glorified as the 'best,' and speech and so on could not be represented as subordinate to it. Hence the vital breath is different from air and the functions (of the organs).--How then have we to understand the scriptural passage, 'The prāṇa is air,' &c.?--The air, we reply, passing into the adhyātma-state, dividing itself fivefold and thus abiding in a specialized condition is called prāṇa. It therefore is neither a different being nor is it mere air. Hence there is room for those passages as well which identify it with air as those which do not.--Well, let this be granted. The prāṇa then also must be considered to be independent in this body like the individual soul, as scripture declares it to be the 'best' and the organs such as speech, &c., to be subordinate to it. For various powers are ascribed to it in scriptural passages. It is said, for instance, that when speech and the other (organs) are asleep the prāṇa alone is awake; that the prāṇa alone is not reached by death; that the prāṇa is the absorber, it absorbs speech, &c.; that the prāṇa guards the other senses (prāṇas) as a mother her sons^[2]. Hence it follows that the prāṇa is independent in the same way as the individual soul.--This view is impugned in the next Sūtra.