A History of Indian Philosophy v2.c19.s8.15.3

v2.c19.s8.15.3

it is *vāyu* which, having transformed itself into the body, differentiates itself into a group of five that is called *vāyu*; *prāṇa* is not altogether a different category, nor simply air. In explaining the nature of *prāṇa* in II. 4. 10–12, Śaṅkara says that *prāṇa* is not as independent as *jīva* (soul), but performs everything on its behalf, like a prime minister (*rāja-mantrivaj jīvasya sarvārtha-karaṇatvena upakaraṇa-bhūto na svatantraḥ*). *Prāṇa* is not an instrument like the senses, which operate only in relation to particular objects; for, as is said in *Chāndogya*, V. 1. 6, 7, *Bṛhad-āraṇyaka*, IV. 3. 12 and *Bṛhad-āraṇyaka*, I. 3. 19, when all the senses leave the body the *prāṇa* continues to operate. It is that by the functioning of which the existence of the soul in the body, or life (*jīva-sthiti*), and the passage of the *jīva* out of the body, or death (*jīvotkrānti*), are possible. The five *vāyus* are the five functionings of this vital principle, just as the fivefold mental states of right knowledge, illusion, imagination (*vikalpa*), sleep and memory are the different states of the mind. Vācaspati, in commenting on *Vedānta-sūtra*, II. 4. 11, says that it is the cause which upholds the body and the senses (*dehendriya-vidhāraṇa-kāraṇam prāṇaḥ*), though it must be remembered that it has still other functions over and above the upholding of the body and the senses (*na kevalam śarīrendriya-dhāraṇam asya kāryam*, Vācaspati, *ibid.*). In *Vedānta-sūtra*, II.