Brahma Sutras (Shankaracharya)
by George Thibaut | 1890 | 203,611 words
English translation of the Brahma sutras (aka. Vedanta Sutras) with commentary by Shankaracharya (Shankara Bhashya): One of the three canonical texts of the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy. The Brahma sutra is the exposition of the philosophy of the Upanishads. It is an attempt to systematise the various strands of the Upanishads which form the ...
III, 1, 3
3. And on account of the going of the prāṇas.
Scripture states that, when a new body is obtained, the prāṇas also go (from the old body to the new one). Cp. 'When he thus departs the (chief) prāṇa departs after him, and when the prāṇa thus departs all the other prāṇas depart after it' (Bṛ. Up. IV, 4, 2), and similar passages. Now this going of the prāṇas is not possible without a base; hence we infer that water also--mixed with parts of the other elements--goes (from the old body to the new one), serving the purpose of supplying a base for the moving prāṇas. For the prāṇas cannot, without such a base, either move or abide anywhere; as we observe in living beings.