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The Philosophy of the Upanishads c11.s2: XII. The Organs of the Soul

The Philosophy of the Upanishads c11.s2

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XII. The Organs of the Soul

1. Later View

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Here also it is worth while to begin with the teaching of the later Vedânta in order then to trace in the sphere of the Upanishads the development which led up to it.

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In agreement with the views of modern physiology, Saṅkara distinguishes (1) manas and indriyas (the organs of relation), and (2) the five prâṇas (the organs of nutrition), with which are associated as accompanying upâdhis of the soul (3) sûkṣmam s'arîram, the subtle body, and (4) a factor that changes from one birth to another, karma, the actions of each several existence.

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(1) To the brain as the central organ, and its two dependents the sensible and the motor nerves, corresponds the relation of manas (mind and conscious will) to the five jñâna—indriyas, or organs of knowledge (these are, following the order of the five elements to which they correspond,—hearing, touch, sight, taste and smell), and the five karma-indriyas, or organs of action (speech, hands, feet, and the organs of generation and secretion). The jñâna-indriyas convey the impressions of the senses to the manas, which manufactures them into ideas (saṅkalpa). On this side therefore it corresponds to our mind. These ideas are then formed into resolves (saṅkalpa) by the manas in its function as “conscious will,” and are carried into execution by the five karma-indriyas. The assigning a common organ (manas) for mind and conscious will, and a common function (saṅkalpa) for ideas and resolves corresponds to the physiological fact, according to which the brain both shapes the impressions of the sensible nerves into ideas, and also carries into execution these ideas, so far as they become resolves of the will, by means of the motor nerves. Manas in Śaṅkara’s view is the sole internal organ. Buddhi, ahaṅkâra and c’ittam, which are treated as separate organs by the Sâṅkhya and Yoga, are with him merely functions of manas.¹

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¹ Sûtram 2. 4. 6, 2. 3. 22.

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(2) Breathing, circulation of the blood, and nourishment equally with the quickening of the body are the functions of the prâṇa, which penetrates the whole body in its varieties as prâṇa, apâna, vyâna, udâna and samâna. According to Śaṅkara, the prâṇa causes exspiration (uc’chvâsa), the apâna inspiration (nis’vâsa).² The vyâna sustains life when the breath is arrested. The samâna is concerned with digestion. The udâna effects the departure of the soul from the body at death. According to other teachers,³ the prâṇa serves for breathing, the apâna for evacuation, the vyâna for quickening, the udâna for the departure of the soul, the samâna for the assimilation of food.

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² cp. Śaṅkara on Chând. 1. 3. 3 :—yad vai purushaḥ prâṇiti, mukha-nâsi-kâbhyâm vâyum vahir niḥsárayati, sa prâṇa-âkhyo vâyor vṛitti-vis’esho; yad apâniti, apas’vasiti, tâbhyâm eva antar âkarshati vâyum, so ’pâno, ’pâna-âkhyâ vṛittiḥ (otherwise on Chând. 3. 13. 3, Pras’na 3. 5).

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³ e.g. Vedântasâra 94–98.

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(3) A third companion of the soul in its wanderings is the “subtle body” (sûkshmam s’arîram), i.e. “the subtle parts of the elements which form the seed of the body” (deha-vîjâni-bhûta-sûkshmâṇi). While the gross body is dissolved at death, the subtle body departs with the organs. It is related to the gross body as the seed to the plant, or as the functions of seeing, hearing, etc., which depart with the soul, to the physical eye and ear.

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(4) Besides this substratum of the elements (*bhūta-âśraya*), out of which the body is built up in the following birth, the soul lastly is further attended by the ethical substratum (*karma-âśraya*), which determines the character of the new body and life. This ethical substratum is formed by the actions committed in the course of each several life, and is therefore different for each soul and for each life course. Without these factors the souls with their organs would be indistinguishable from one another.

2. The Âtman and the Organs

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“In the beginning the âtman alone in the form of a man was this universe. He gazed around; he saw nothing there but himself. Thereupon he cried out at the beginning:—‘It is I.’ Thence originated the name I. Therefore to-day, when anyone is summoned, he answers first ‘It is I’; and then only he names the other name which he bears.”¹ According to this passage, the first consciousness, and therefore the starting-point and vehicle of all certainty is self-consciousness,² and that for the supreme as well as for the individual soul, for the two are one. Only later, when this original idealism had been obscured by the advancing realism, and a distinction had been set up between supreme and individual soul, does *ahaṅkāra* appear among the functions or organs of the latter,³ as though the âtman the creator of the universe were something other than the self in me; a proposition which to the Indians as well as to Descartes serves already as the alpha and omega of all knowledge of the truth. “The self is the basis (*âśraya*) for the validity of proof, and therefore is constituted also before the validity of proof. And because it is thus formed it is impossible to call it in question. For we may call a thing in question which comes up (*âgantuka*) to us (from without), but not our own essential being. For if a man calls it in question, yet is it his own essential being.”¹ This thought is found expressed in the Upanishads, besides the passage above quoted from Bṛh. 1. 4. 1, in S’vet. 1. 2 also, in so far as it is there said:—

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¹ Bṛih. 1. 4. 1.

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² In Chând. 7. 25. 1 termed *ahaṅkāra*.

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³ For the first time in S'vet. 5. 8 and Pras'na 4. 8; so later on in Maitr. 2. 5, 3. 2, 6. 5, Prâṇâgnihotra 4, Mahâ 1, and in the Sâṅkhya.

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¹ S’aṅkara on Brahmasûtra 2. 3. 7.

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There are time, nature, necessity, chance,
Primitive matter, spirit,—is the union of these
As primal basis conceivable? Not so. For it is one Self.

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All the first principles proposed by other schools, time, nature, necessity, etc., are to be abandoned, *âtmabhâvât*, because the self, the *âtman*, is to be assumed as the first principle of things, since it is the necessary presupposition of them all.

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This *âtman* which in each one of us, as before the beginning of things is conceived as the I, as the passage from the Bṛh. sets forth further from the empirical standpoint, created the universe of names and forms, and then as soul entered into it :—“right to the tips of the fingers” he fills the body, and is hidden in it like the knife in the sheath or the fire in the fuel. “Therefore he is not seen, for he is divided ; as breathing he is called breath, as speaking speech, as seeing eye, as hearing ear, as understanding mind ; all these are only names for his effects.”² As eye he is the centre (*ekâyanam*) of all forms, as ear the centre of all sounds, etc.³ “When the eye directs itself into space, it is the spirit in the eye, the eye (itself) serves (only) for seeing ; and if a man desires to smell, that is the âtman, the nose serves only for odours,”¹ etc. The eye is nothing but eye, the ear nothing but ear, of that he who knows Brahman is aware,² and abandons the hearing of hearing, the thought of thinking, the speaking of speech, etc., in order to grasp that by which speech, breath, eye, ear and manas are harnessed and dismissed to their occupations.³ This essential identity of the organs with the âtman, when regarded empirically, appears as a creation of them from it:—“from it originates breath, the mind, and all the senses.”⁴ According to Chând. 6. 5, manas, prâṇa and speech are the most subtle product of the elements, food, water and heat, created by the âtman. To the organs of the individual âtman there correspond in the universe the forces of nature (nature gods) as organs of the cosmical âtman. Following up the ideas, which we learnt to know from the hymn of the purusha,⁵ Ait. 1. 1–2 represents the gods Agni, Vâyu, Âditya, Dis’, etc. as originating from the mouth, nose, eyes, ears, etc. of the primeval man, and these then enter into the individual man as speech, smell, sight, hearing. According to the Bṛih. Up., on the contrary, which in general prefers to start from the individual,⁶ the individual organs, speech, smell, eye, ear, manas, which are born at first as children of Prajâpati, are filled with evil by the demons, and then by the prâṇa are led beyond the reach of evil and death, to enjoy a continued existence as fire, wind, sun, the heavenly regions and the moon.⁷ The later theory⁸ of the protectorate which the nature gods exercise over the psychical organs depends upon conceptions of this kind. It makes its appearance first in Bṛih. 4. 4. 1, where a description is given how at death the material eye is set free,¹ and the spirit that dwells in the eye returns outwards to the sun,² while the psychical organ of the faculty of sight gathers with the rest of the organs in the heart around the soul, in order to journey forth in its company.

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² Bṛh. 1. 4. 7.

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³ Bṛh. 2. 4. 11.

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¹ Chând. 8. 12. 4.

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² Bṛih. 4. 4. 18.

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³ Kena 1–2; cp. the paraphrase of this passage in Maitr. 6. 31.

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⁴ Muṇḍ. 2. 1. 3.

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⁵ Rigv. X. 90. 13–14; cp. Allgemeine Einleitung, p. 157.

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⁶ cp. especially Bṛih. 1. 4. 6 ad fin.

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⁷ Bṛih. 1. 3. 11–16; cp. Chând. 1. 2.

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⁸ e.g. Pras’na 3. 8.

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¹ Bṛih. 4. 3. 36.

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² cp. the amplifications in Bṛih. 3. 2. 13.

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The names and number of the organs are still uncertain in the older texts. In Chând. 3. 1. 3 and Bṛih. 6. 4. 5 f. the word *indriyam* has still the meaning of "force"; it is first employed by Kaush. 2. 15, Kâṭh. 3. 4 as a name for the organs, as the physical forces in man. In the older texts the organs collectively are called the *prâṇas*, the "vital breaths," by virtue of a *denominatio a potiori*, from the organ of breathing (*prâṇa*), as being the most important and that upon which the life is dependent. "Therefore they are not called voices, eyes, ears, minds, but vital breaths (*prâṇâḥ*), for the breath (*prâṇa*) is all of them."³ As regards the number also of the organs, no agreement exists. It is frequently mentioned that man, like Prajâpati in his character as the moon,⁴ consists of sixteen parts. This is the case in the narrative of Chând. 6. 7.⁵ How little what was intended by the sixteen parts was understood is shown by Śatap. Br. X. 4. 1. 17, where the sixteen syllables of the words *loman, tvac, asṛij, medas, mâṃsam, snâvan, asthi, majjâ* (hair, skin, blood, sap, flesh, sinew, bones, marrow) do duty as such. In Pras'na 6 the sixteen parts are enumerated as (1) *prâṇa*, (2) *s'raddhâ*, faith, (3–7) the five elements, (8) *indriyam*, the organs of sense considered as one, (9) *manas*, (10) *annam*, food, (11) *vîryam*, strength, (12) *tapas*, (13) *mantrâḥ*, (14) *karman*, (15) *lokâḥ*, (16) *nâman*. The same are to be understood in S'vet. 5. 14, according to the commentary. It is perhaps on this sixteenfold enumeration of the parts of a man that the later summary of the organs as the ten indriyas with manas and the five prāṇas depends. By the “seven prāṇas” of Muṇḍ. 2. 18 should be understood, as in S'atap. Br. VI. 4. 2. 5 and elsewhere, the seven openings in the head; these with the two lower are described in S'vet. 3. 18 and later¹ as the nine gates of the city of the body. Adding the navel and Brahma-randhram² the number becomes eleven.³ An older verse⁴ describes the head as a drinking bowl with the opening at the side, on whose edges (the seven openings in the head) seven ṛishis (the seven organs of sense) dwell, who are identical with the seven guardians of the universe. A modification of this verse⁵ names speech as the eighth, and therefore by the seventh ṛishi (after ears, eyes, nostrils) vāc must again be understood as the organ of taste, and to this the explanation that follows⁶ refers.

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³ Chând. 5. 1. 15.

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⁴ Bṛih. 1. 5. 14.

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⁵ cp. Muṇḍ. 3. 2. 7, Pras'na 6.

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¹ e.g. Yogas'ikhâ 4, Yogatattvam 13, Bhag. G. 5. 13.

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² Ait. 1. 3. 12.

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³ Kâth. 5. 1.

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⁴ Atharvav. X. 8. 9.

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⁵ Bṛih. 2. 2. 3.

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⁶ Bṛih. 2. 2. 4.

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The seven so-called openings of the head have undoubtedly been the starting-point for the original enumeration of the organs of sense, as is clear from the fact that in the texts of the older Upanishads only speech, breath (smell), eye, ear and manas as a fifth are usually named as organs of sense (prāṇas).⁷ Where the number is fewer, special reasons are generally present, as in Bṛih. 3. 1. 3–6, where the number four is found, or Chând. 3. 13. 5, 5. 23. 2, where the surprising omissions are perhaps to be explained by the fact that smell was supposed to be already included in the five prāṇas.⁸ Where more than five organs are named the additions are usually appended to, or even made to precede the original speech, breath, eye, ear, manas. Thus in Bṛih. 2. 5. 1–7 (s'arīram, retas), 3. 2.

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⁷ This is the case in Bṛih. 1. 3. 2–6, 1. 4. 7, 2. 2. 3, Chând. 1. 2. 2–6, 2. 7. 1, 2. 11. 1, 3. 18. 1–6, 8. 12. 4–5, Kena 1. 4–8.

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⁸ cp. Taitt. 1. 7.

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13, 3. 7. 16-23 (*tvac*, *vijñānam*, *retas*), 4. 1. 2-7 (*hṛidayam*).¹ Bṛih. 3. 2. 2-9 is peculiar, where eight organs of sense are enumerated as the eight *grahas* or seizers (organ of smell, speech, tongue, eye, ear, *manas*, hands, skin), to which their objects correspond as *atigrahas* or over-seizers (smell, name, taste, form, sound, desire, action, touch). The assigning here of the names *prāṇa* and *apāna* severally to the organ of smell and to smell itself will be discussed later on. The name *graha* (seizer) for the organs of sense, according to S'aṅkara ² would signify that by them the soul is fettered to objects (*badhyate kṣetrajño 'nena graha-sañjñakena bandhanena iti*). In this may be found a confirmation of our conjecture ³ that the later conception of the "bands of the heart" ⁴ is derived from this passage or the view contained in it, that *graha* and *atigraha* tie the knots, which are unloosed on deliverance. The name *indriyas* for the organs of sense first meets us in the Upanishads in the rite of Kaush. 2. 15. The later enumeration of ten together with *manas* is followed with one exception. In the summary at the close they are again described by the old name of *prāṇas*. The oldest passage which cites the ten later *indriyas* complete, with the addition of *manas* and *hṛidayam*, is Bṛih. 2. 4. 11.⁵ With *manas* but without *hṛidayam* in the later total of eleven they appear first in Pras'na 4. 2, in evident contrast with the five *prāṇas*; while in the continuation of the passage ⁶ there are enumerated the five elements, five *tanmātras*, ten *indriyas* with their objects, together with *manas*, *buddhi*, *ahaṅkāra*, *c'ittam*, *tejas* and *prāṇa*. This passage is at one and the same time the precursor of the Vedânta’s sixteenfold enumeration of the psychical organs, and of the Sânkhya’s twenty-five principles.

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¹ cp. Ait. 1. 1. 4, Kaush. 3. 5.

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² On Brahmásûtra 2. 4. 6.

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³ See Deussen, Upan., p. 430.

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⁴ First in Chând. 7. 26. 2, then Kâth. 6. 15, Muṇḍ. 2. 2. 8, 3. 2. 9, and as "bands of ignorance" in Muṇḍ. 2. 1. 10.

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⁵ = 4. 5. 12.

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⁶ Pras'na 4. 8.

3. Manas and the Ten Indriyas

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The earliest passage in which, as in the later Vedânta, the indriyas are specified as neither more nor less than ten, subordinated to the manas as the central organ, and with it placed in contrast with the five prâṇas as the forces of unconscious life that are active even in sleep, is Pras'na 4. 2. As the rays of light are gathered into the sun at sunset “so also (on falling asleep) all this becomes one in the manas as supreme deity; therefore it comes to pass that then nothing is heard by a man, nothing seen, nothing smelt, nothing tasted, and nothing felt, nothing spoken, nothing comprehended, nothing begotten, nothing evacuated, no motion hither and thither, but as it is said he is asleep. Then the fires of prâṇa awaken (prâṇa, apâna, vyâna, samâna, udâna, which are then further explained) in this city (of the body).” This conception of manas as the central organ of the faculties of knowledge and action, of the powers of perception and conscious determination, and therefore of that which we call “mind” and “conscious will,” was at first gradually elaborated. Originally manas had a more general meaning, and in its indefinite character corresponded nearly to our “disposition,” “feeling,” “heart,” “spirit.” As such manas represents not infrequently the spiritual principle in general, and becomes sometimes a name for the first principle of things, Brahman or the âtman.¹ Even in the Upanishads, epithets of Brahman like manomaya, “consisting of manas,” are occasionally found,² and manas is one of the symbols under which Brahman is worshipped.¹ In Ait. 3. 2 also manas appears still among the functions or modifications of Brahman described as "consciousness" (*prajñānam*):—"what this heart and manas is, reflection, imagination, meditation, invention, mind, insight, resolve, purpose, desire, emotion, recollection, conception, force, life, love, will,—all these are names of consciousness." Nay, even in the section Kaush. 3, where generally manas appears in its later signification as an organ side by side with speech, sight, hearing,² and as such is subordinated to "consciousness" (*prajñā = prāṇa = brahman*; cp. 3. 8:—"we should not seek for manas, but to know the thinker), even here in 3. 7, in contradiction to the ordinary usage, manas is again employed in the old way as a synonym for "consciousness":—"For speech bereft of prajñā (consciousness) cannot bring any name whatever to consciousness, for it is said, 'My manas (mind) was elsewhere (*anyatra me mano 'bhût*), therefore have I not become conscious of that name." Precisely the same is then further said of the remaining organs, breath, eye, ear, tongue, etc., until the series reaches manas, where the formula is dropped, in order to conceal the contradiction in the double use of the word. In its second narrower meaning as the psychical organ of conception and will manas stands originally on a line with the organs of sense, (*prāṇas*) quoted above, and frequently repeated as speech, breath, eye, ear and manas. All five are subordinated to the âtman:—"As breathing he is called breath, as speaking speech, as seeing eye, as hearing ear, as understanding mind (*manas*); all these are only names for his effects."³

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¹ cp. the tendency pointed out, Allgemeine Einleitung, pp. 205, 206, to conceive Prajâpati as manas, and especially the beautiful hymn Vâj. Saṃh. 34. 1-6 (translated ib., p. 335), which as S'ivasaṅkalpa was included by the Oupnek'hat even in the Upanishads.

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² Chând. 3. 14. 2, Bṛih. 5. 6. 1, Taitt. 1. 6. 1, Muṇḍ. 2. 2. 7.

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¹ sup. p. 111 f.

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² cp. 3. 3:—"men live even without manas, for we see fools," and so in what follows.

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³ Bṛih. 1. 4. 7.

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In Bṛih. 1. 3. 2–6 all five are filled with evil by the demons, and then by the vital breath in the mouth (*āsanya prāṇa*) are led beyond evil and death. But the true knowledge that every sensible perception is a work of the mind (*manas*), from which it follows that the rest of the organs of sense are subordinated to the *manas*, comes to the front in the Upanishads, appearing in the famous oft-quoted saying of Bṛih. 1. 5. 3.¹ “‘I was elsewhere with my mind (*manas*), therefore I did not see; I was elsewhere with my mind, therefore I did not hear,’ so it is said; for only with the mind do we see, and only with the mind do we hear. Desire, judgement, doubt, belief, unbelief, firmness, weakness, modesty, knowledge, fear,—all this is only *manas*. When then anyone is touched from behind, he knows it through the *manas*.” This passage which is reproduced in Maitr. 6. 3, and countless times subsequently, and which all future ages regarded as authoritative, asserts that the *manas*, although only the organ of the *ātman*, is yet the central organ of the entire conscious life; which not only as “the primary root of the five faculties of knowledge”² shapes into ideas³ the impressions of sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch, since we “see only with the mind, hear with the mind,” but stamps these ideas further as resolves of the will (*saṅkalpa*, cp. Chānd. 7. 4), so that in the latter sense the *manas* becomes the organ of the will and its expression by the five organs of action (speech, grasp, movement, evacuation, begetting). “For by the *manas* is a man impelled towards his wife, and begets with her a son, who is like him”;⁴ “And when a man directs his *manas* to the study of the sacred hymns and sayings, then he studies them; or to the accomplishment of works, then he accomplishes them; or to the desire for sons and cattle, then he desires them; or to the desire for the present and the future world, then he desires them.”¹ Accordingly in Taitt. 2. 3 also, of the purusha consisting of manas (manomaya) “the Yajus is the head, the Ṛic is the right side, the Sâman the left side,” etc.; because the sacrificial cult depends upon the Vedas, and this is founded on the selfish desires of the gods for offerings, and of men for the blessings of the gods. The superiority of manas to the indriyas is further expanded in Kâṭh. 6. 7:—“Manas stands higher than the senses”; and in Kâṭh. 3. 3, where the senses are represented as the horses yoked to the waggon of the body, but the manas as their bridle. This illustration is changed in a sense still more favourable to the manas in Maitr. 2. 6, where the organs of knowledge (buddhi-indriyâṇi) are the five reins, the organs of action (karma indriyâṇi) are the horses, the manas is the driver, and the prakṛiti his whip. By means of this manas drives the organs of action (speech, grasp, movement, evacuation, begetting) to their work, and they are then guided and controlled by manas by means of the organs of knowledge (sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch). Later passages which exhibit manas side by side with the buddhîndriyâṇi and karmendriyâṇi are Garbha 4 and Prâṇâgnihotra 4. Mention is made in Mahâ 1 of ten indriyâṇi with manas as an eleventh. Their ten functions are already named in the passage quoted above from Pras'na 4. 2. An enumeration of the ten corresponding organs is not found within our recollection earlier than Manu 2. 89 f.

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¹ Forming a counterpart to the verse of Epicharmus :—νοῦς ὁρῇ καὶ νοῦς ἀκούει, τἆλλα κωφὰ καὶ τυφλά.

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² *pañca-buddhi-ādimūlam*, S'vet. 1. 5.

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³ *saṅkalpa* = “the definition of a presented object as black, white, etc.”; S'aṅkara on Bṛih. 1. 5. 3.

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⁴ Bṛih. 4. 1. 6.

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¹ Chând. 7. 3. 1.

5. The Prâṇa and its Five Varieties

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Prâṇa also, like manas, is a word of very varied meaning, which only gradually attained its later technical significance. Originally prâṇa is the “breath”; then the “life” as connected with the process of breathing. In this character the prâṇa frequently becomes an empirical and consequently symbolical representation of the âtman. In the older period¹ all the vital powers (speech, breath, eye, ear, manas, etc.), like the life, were called the prâṇas. Only gradually manas and the indriyas as the forces of conscious life were separated from the prâṇa, which with its five subdivisions is incessantly active in waking and in sleep, and is consequently the especial vehicle of life as such. In sleep manas enters into the prâṇa,² and causes the soul “to guard its lower nest by the prâṇa.”³ It is from this perhaps that the later conception is derived that in sleep, while the organs of sense are absorbed into manas, the fires of prâṇa keep watch in the city of the body.⁴ These fires of prâṇa, which are on the watch in sleep, are themselves five in number, viz. prâṇa, apâna, vyâna, samâna, udâna, and they are mentioned together both earlier and later numberless times, and employed in the most varied allegories, without its being possible to obtain a clear and consistent explanation of them. Sometimes only two (prâṇa and apâna) are named,⁵ or three⁶ (prâṇa, apâna, vyâna), or four⁷ (prâṇa, apâna, vyâna, udâna), usually however all five.⁸ This number is exceeded, as far as we know, only in Sarvopanishats. 10, where fourteen prâṇas are mentioned.⁹

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¹ Occasionally also later, e.g. Pras'na 3. 4. ² Chând. 6. 8. 2. ³ Bṛih. 4. 3. 12. ⁴ Pras'na 4. 3. ⁵ Taitt. Âr. 3. 14. 7; Atharvav. 11. 4. 13, Ait. Âr. 2. 1; Kâṭh. 5. 3; Muṇḍ. 2. 1. 7. ⁶ Bṛih. 3. 1. 10, 5. 14. 3, Chând. 1. 3. 3, Taitt. 1. 5. 3, 2. 2. ⁷ Bṛih. 3. 4. 1. ⁸ Bṛih. 1. 5. 3, 3. 9. 26, Chând. 3. 13. 1–5, 5. 19–23, Taitt. 1. 7, Pras'na 3. 5, 4. 4, Maitr. 2. 6, 6. 4, 6. 9, 6. 33, 7. 1–5, Amṛitab. 34–35, Prâṇâgnih. 1. 4, Kaṇṭhas'ruti 1, Nṛisimhott. 9, etc. ⁹ On their fourteen names, which the scholiast cites, cp. Vedântasâra 93–104.

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Often as the five prāṇas are enumerated in the Upanishads, it is rarely that anything is found which serves to explain them. We propose to attempt to determine the several conceptions involved, so far as is practicable.

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(1) Prāṇa and (2) Apāna. In the first place, it is certain from the witnesses cited on p. 264 that, according to Śaṅkara,¹ prāṇa denotes exspiration, apāna inspiration. The question is how this result is arrived at. Originally, in all probability prāṇa and apāna both denoted the same thing, viz. breath (without distinction of exspiration and inspiration) in general (whether with the slight difference that pra-an signifies “to begin to breathe,” apa-an “to cease to breathe,” in support of which view Ṛgv. X. 189. 2 is quoted, may be left undetermined considering the uncertainty of this passage). There is nothing in the prepositions to form the basis of a distinction, since pra (πρό) “forwards, onwards” is quite ambiguous, and apa (ἀπό, from) may just as well mean “from within outwards” as “from without inwards.” Prāṇa however is by far the more usual expression, and therefore where it stands alone frequently denotes the sense of smell, consequently inspiration, as in the passage Śatap. Br. X. 5. 2. 15 quoted by Böhtlingk, or in Bṛh. 1. 3. 3, Chând. 1. 2. 2, Ait. 1. 3. 4. So very clearly in Kaush. 2. 5:—yâvad vai purusho bhâshate, na tâvat prâṇitum s'aknoti. Where however prāṇa and apāna stand side by side, there (apart from the conception of apāna as the wind of digestion, as to which see below), so far as a distinction can be recognised, prāṇa is exspiration and apāna inspiration. This is the case probably as early as Chând. 1. 3. 3, because it is said previously² “this is hot,” and “as sound is it described.”

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¹ On Brahmasûtra, p. 723. 1-4, and on Chând. 1. 3. 3.

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² In 1. 3. 2, where prāṇa only can be the subject, since apāna has not yet been named.

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Both definitions apply better to exspiration than to inspiration. Though in Bṛih. 1. 3. 3 and Chând. 1. 2. 2 prâṇa as the vehicle of scent appears in its more general meaning of "breath" (inspiration and exspiration), in the parallel passage Tal. Up. Br. 2. 1. 16 the apâna takes its place:—"Its misfortune is that it inspires an evil odour by the apâna."¹ Here therefore apâna is certainly inspiration. So in Tal. Up. Br. 1. 60. 5:—*apânena jighrati*, "a man smells with inspiration," not "one smells with exhalation (!)." The same argument applies in Tal. Up. Br. 4. 22. 2–3; the world-producing waters "*huss* iti eva prâc'iḥ prâs'vasan; sa vâva prâṇo 'bhavat. Tâḥ prâṇya apânan, sa vâ apâno 'bhavat." The sound *huss* and the expression *prâc'iḥ prâs'vasan* point quite unmistakeably to prâṇa as exspiration, and consequently to apâna as inspiration. The principal passage is Bṛih. 3. 2. 2:—*prâṇo vai grahaḥ*; so 'pânena atigraheṇa gṛihîto; 'pânena hi gandham jighrati. Everyone sees that the context requires the meaning faculty of smell and smell, and Böhtlingk need not have reproached me on the supposition that I failed to see it. He might have assumed that I had other reasons for my inability to accept his suggestion of a simple correction here in the desired sense.

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My reason was, that there existed here something in the background which exercised possibly a stronger attraction on the author or redactor of the passage than analogy or consistency, viz.—the wish to join prâṇa and apâna together here also as *graha* and *atigraha* in accordance with their usual association. *Apâna* therefore, inspiration as the vehicle of smell, represented the latter, and the explanatory addition (*apânena hi gandham* jighrati) was employed in order to justify the connnection, not as before and usually between graha and atigraha, but between atigraha and the object which it represented. That apâna being inspiration, prâna by its side (in its general meaning of "breath") could not at the same time denote the sense of smell, as so often elsewhere, would therefore be overlooked. That the original author of the paragraph caused this confusion, I find myself unable to believe; but the mistake, if we must so call it, is older than the separation of the Kânvas and Mâdhyandinas, and therefore not much less than three thousand years old,¹ and certainly would not have maintained its ground all this time if apâna had not already at that period denoted the faculty of smell, and therefore inspiration. The same conclusion follows from the symbolical treatment in Br̥ih. 6. 4. 10–11, where the direction is given, if unfruitfulness is desired, abhiprânya apânyât, if fruitfulness, apânya abhiprânyât.

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The suppression of the vital power is symbolised by inspiration, its excitation by exspiration. Since however the emphasis lies not on the gerund but on the finite verb, apânyât signifies already in this passage "he inspires," abhiprânyât, "he exspires."² It is doubtful whether in Kâṭh. 5. 3 ûrddhvam prâṇam unnayati, apânam pratyag asyati, exspiration and inspiration are to be understood as suggested by 5. 5, or not rather already as breath and the wind of digestion. In contrast, that is to say, to the accepted idea of prâna as exspiration, apâna as inspiration, a disposition was formed, and grew stronger as time went on, to see in prâna the breath (exspiration and inspiration), and in apâna the wind of digestion dwelling in the bowels. For this view the following passages are cited. The prâna originates from the nose, the apâna from the navel of the primeval man;¹ Vâyu corresponds to the prâna, Mrityu to the apâna;² the prâna smells the food, the apâna overmasters it.³ So possibly in the passage quoted, Kâth. 5. 3. In Pras'na 3. 5, the prâna has its seat in eye, ear, mouth and nose, the apâna presides over the organs of evacuation and generation.⁴ The prâna makes its exit upwards, the apâna downwards, and carries off the excrements.⁵ The apâna serves for evacuation.⁶ The prâna dwells in the heart, the apâna in the bowels.⁷ The apâna is neighbour to the testicles.⁸ This is the view adopted also by Vedântasâra 94-95, and the commentary on Chând. 3. 13.

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3 and S'ankara's judgement on 1. 3. 3 maintains the same.

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¹ *pápam gandham apâniti*. These words cannot signify, as Oertel maintains is possible, "exhaling bad odour," since it is said previously of the prâṇa, *i.e.* breath in the mouth according to the parallel passages, *na pápam gandham apâniti*.

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¹ cp. Deussen, Upan., p. 377.

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² In the translation I allow myself to be betrayed into regarding it vice versâ.

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¹ Ait. 1. 1. 4.

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² Ait. 1. 2. 4.

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³ Ait. 1. 3. 4, 10.

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⁴ In Pras'na 4. 2-3, on the contrary, evacuation and generation are subordinated to the manas, not to the prânas; apparently therefore it follows the view first discussed.

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⁵ Maitr. 2. 6.

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⁶ Garbha 1.

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⁷ Amritabindhu 34.

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⁸ Sannyâsa 4.

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(3) Vyâna, “interspiration,” is “the bond between prâna and apâna.⁹ The conception of it is accommodated to that of apâna. If this is inspiration, then vyâna is the breath which sustains the life, when e.g. in drawing a stiff bow a man neither inspires nor exspires.¹⁰ If, on the contrary, apâna is the wind of digestion, then vyâna is the bond of union between it and the prâna,¹¹ rules in the veins,¹² and sweeps like a flame through all the limbs.¹³ So also in Vedântasâra 96.

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⁹ Chând. 1. 3. 3.

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¹⁰ Chând. 1. 3. 5.

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¹¹ Maitr. 2. 6.

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¹² Pras'na 3. 6.

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¹³ Amritab. 35. 37.

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(4) Samâna, “all-breathing,” bears the name because, according to Pras'na 4. 4, it “leads to union” (samam nayati) exspiration and inspiration. On the other hand, according to Pras'na 3. 5 and Maitr. 2. 6, it assimilates the food, and according to Amritab. 34, 37 dwells white as milk in the navel. Cp. Vedântasâra 98.

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(5) *Udâna*, or “up-breathing,” according to the usual view maintained also in Pras'na 3. 7, conducts the soul from the body at death, while according to Pras'na 4. 4 already in deep sleep it guides to Brahman; it is maintained however in Maitr. 2. 6 that udâna “either brings up again or swallows down that which is eaten and drunk.” Elsewhere it is represented as dwelling in the throat.¹ Similarly also in Vedântasâra 97, where it is otherwise explained as the wind of exit.

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¹ Amṛitab. 34.

5. The subtle Body and its ethical Qualification

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As further companions of the soul on its wanderings together with the indriyas, manas, and the prâṇas, the later Vedânta reckons “the primitive substance” (*bhûta-âs'raya*), *i.e.* the subtle body, and “the foundation of works” (*karma-âs'raya*), *i.e.* the moral qualification which conditions the future life. On both we are able to adduce but little from the Upanishads.

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In Chând. 6. 8. 6² it is said of the dying man :—“In the case of this man, my dear sir, when he dies, his speech enters into the manas, manas into the prâṇa, prâṇa into the heat, heat into the supreme godhead.” Here, according to S'aṅkara,³ as by speech the indriyas as a whole are to be understood, so by heat (*tejas*) the elements as a whole, as they constitute the subtle body in their character of vehicles of the organs on the departure of the soul. According to the words of the text however nothing further is implied here than the thought that the organs, manas, prâṇa and speech, as they have been derived according to Chând. 6. 5 by means of food, water, and heat from the “one being without a second,” so in a similar way at death they are again resolved into it as the supreme godhead.

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² cp. 6. 15. 2.

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³ Sûtra 4. 2. 8.

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We may recognise a trace of the later theory of the subtle body more clearly in the great transmigration text Chând. 5. 3–10,¹ where a description is given how the waters, having been five times in succession offered in sacrifice as faith, soma, rain, food and seed, in the sacrificial fires of the heavenly world, of rain, the earth, man and woman, “at the fifth sacrifice became endowed with human voice.”² Here by the “waters” which were offered as faith, etc., may certainly be understood the still undivided unity of the two companions of the soul, which later were distinguished from one another as the subtle body and the ethical qualification.³

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¹ Bṛih. 6. 2.

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² Chând. 5. 3. 3, 5. 9. 1.

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³ cp. below, Chap. XIV. 5.

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The same is true of the leading passage for both doctrines,⁴ where it is said of the soul as it departs and hastens to a new birth :—“In truth, this self is Brahman, consisting of knowledge, manas, life, eye and ear, consisting of earth, water, wind and ether, consisting of fire and not of fire, of desire and not of desire, of anger and not of anger, of justice and not of justice, consisting of all. Exactly as a man in this life consists of this or of that, exactly as he acts, exactly as he moves, so will he be born ; he who does good will be born good, he who does evil will be born evil, he becomes holy by holy deeds, evil by evil.” If we leave out of consideration the addition “and not by fire” which is wanting in the Mâdhyandina recension, and from which a satisfactory meaning can only with difficulty be extracted, the passage enumerates as permanent companions of the soul the organs and five elements, as changing factors the moral qualities. We see here the theories of the subtle body and the ethical qualification growing up side by side. The following verse is appended :—

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⁴ Bṛih. 4. 4. 5.

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To this he clings, after this he aspires by his actions,
Whereby his inner man (lingam) and his desire (manas) abide.

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Here we meet, apparently already a technical term, the word *lingam*, by which the adherents of the Sâṅkhya were accustomed later to denote the subtle body.¹ It is perhaps to be taken in the same meaning further on in Kâṭh. 6. 8 and S'vet. 6. 9; where moreover the âtman is described as "lord of the lord of the senses," *i.e.* lord of the subtle body. A similar conception may underlie the description of the âtman as "higher than this highest complex of life."² The *lingam* makes its appearance precisely as in the later Sâṅkhya in Maitr. 6. 10, especially if we read³ *mahad-âdi-avis'esha-antam lingam*, removing the anusvâra point, since the subtle body extends from the *mahân* to the subtle elements (*avis'esha*), not to the gross (*vis'esha*).⁴ The *lingas'arîram* is described in Sarvopanishats. 16 as the vehicle of the organs, the prâṇas, the guṇas, and the ethical qualification, and accordingly is identified with the bands of the heart, of which we have put forward another explanation (*sup.* p. 270), referring to Bṛih. 3. 2. 1–9.

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¹ *sup.* p. 242.

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² Pras'na 5. 5.

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³ As suggested, Deussen, *Upan.*, p. 337.

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⁴ Sâṅkhya-kârikâ 38–40.

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That finally the actions of the soul (the later *karma-âs'raya*) accompany it in the other world, and determine the formation of the next life, is often emphasized in the Upanishads, and will demand fuller consideration hereafter. The principal passages for this doctrine are Bṛih. 3. 2. 13, 4. 4. 5–6, Chând. 3. 14. 1, Kâṭh. 5. 7, Îs'â 17, etc.; above all Bṛih. 4. 4. 3:—"Then knowledge and actions take it by the hand, and its earlier formed experience." According to later belief also⁵ the thoughts which occupy a man in the hour of death are of especial significance. This idea is found suggested in Pras'na 3. 10.⁶

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⁵ Bhag. G. 8. 6.

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⁶ *cp.* also Chând. 3. 14. 1, Bṛih. 4. 4. 5, and the prayer of the dying man in Îs'â 15–17 = Bṛih. 5. 15.

6. Physiological Conclusions from the Upanishads

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The gross body which the soul abandons at death as the mango fruit its stalk,¹ must be distinguished from the subtle body, which in its capacity as vehicle of the psychical organs accompanies the soul on its wanderings up to the time of its release. We propose here by way of appendix to collect all that the Upanishads have to say on the body, its organs and functions.

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¹ Bṛih. 4. 3. 36.

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The body is the prâṇa's habitation, of which the head forms the roof, in which it is bound to the breath as posts by food as the rope.² It is the âtman “consisting of the juice of food,” annarasamaya, in which is enclosed the prâṇamaya âtman, in this again the manomaya, in this the vijñânamaya, and in this as the innermost the ânan-damaya.³ Only later⁴ is the ânandamaya âtman also described, like the rest, as a sheath kośa of the soul.⁵ Usually following Bṛih. 2. 5. 18, and especially Chând. 8. 1. 1, the body is described as the city of Brahman (brahma-puram), heavenly,⁶ desirable,⁷ the highest dwelling of Brahman,⁸ in which as a house the lotus flower of the heart abides,⁹ in which during sleep the fires of the prâṇa keep watch.¹⁰ This city of the body has eleven,¹¹ or more usually nine gates,¹² viz., the nine openings in the body, to which when eleven are reckoned the navel and the Brahman orifice (brahmarandhram) are added. The latter is an imaginary orifice of the skull on the top of the head, through which, according to Ait. 1. 3. 12, Brahman entered into the body, and by which the soul, or according to the more usual view only the souls of the emancipated,¹ having ascended by the hundred and first vein (subsequently named, following Maitr. 6. 21, *sushumnâ*), attains to union with Brahman.² Thus the conception is old. The name *brahma-randhram* is first found in Haṁsa Up. 3 in connection with the six mystical and imaginary regions on the body that occur there for the first time (the regions of the belly, loins, navel, heart, neck and eyebrows). It is perhaps an anticipation of this when, in Ait. 1. 3. 12, eye, manas and the ether of the heart (as the scholiast reckons them), are distinguished as special stations of the purusha, or in Brahma Up. 4, eye, throat, heart and head (in Brahma Up. 2, navel, heart, throat and head). From him who forms the light within men proceeds also, according to Chând. 3. 13. 8, the warmth of the body and the noises in the ear. The latter like digestion are ascribed by Bṛih. 5. 9 to the Vais'vânara fire in men, which when we bear in mind S'atap. Br. X. 6. 1 amounts to the same thing. The passages Mahân. 11. 10, Maitr. 2. 6, 6. 27, 6. 31 depend on a combination of the other two.

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² Bṛih. 2. 2. 1.

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³ Taitt. 2. 1 f.

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⁴ by Maitr. 6. 27–28.

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⁵ cp. Sarvopanishats. 9 f., where the annamaya âtman is still further divided into six sheaths consisting of food (according to the commentator of the Calcutta edition, these are,—bones, marrow, fat, skin, flesh and blood.

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⁶ Muṇḍ. 2. 2. 7.

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⁷ Brahma-Up. 1.

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⁸ Muṇḍ. 3. 2. 1.

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⁹ Chând. 8. 1. 1, Mahân. 10. 23, Nârây. 5, Âtmabodha.

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¹⁰ Pras'na 4. 3.

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¹¹ Kâth. 5. 1.

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¹² S'vet. 3. 18, Yogas'. 4, Yogat. 13, Bhag. G. 5. 13.

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¹ Chând. 8. 6. 6=Kâṭh. 6. 16.

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² cp. Brahmavidyâ 12, and especially Taitt. 1. 6.

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Descriptions of the body and its parts, usually with a pessimistic colouring, are first found at a later period. "In this evil-smelling unsubstantial body, shuffled together out of bones, skin, sinews, marrow, flesh, seed, blood, mucus, tears, eye-gum, dung, urine, gall and phlegm, how can we enjoy pleasure?"³ "This body, originating from copulation, grown in the pit (of the mother's womb) and issuing forth through the passages of the excretions, is a collection of bones daubed over with flesh, covered with skin, filled full with dung, urine, phlegm, marrow, fat and grease, and to crown all with many diseases, like a treasure store crammed with treasure.”¹ A definition of the body is given by Âtma Up. 1:—“That self, in which are skin, bones, flesh, marrow, hairs, fingers, thumbs, spine, nails, joints, belly, navel, pudenda, hips, thighs, cheeks, brows, forehead, arms, sides, head, veins, eyes and ears, and which is born and dies, is called the external self.”

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³ Maitr. 1. 3.

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¹ Maitr. 3. 4.

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The most complete elucidation of the body and its relations is furnished by the late and unfortunately very corrupt Garbha Upanishad. Its explanations are attached to a verse, which we quote, inserting the explanations that follow it:—“Consisting of five (earth, water, fire, wind, ether), ruling in these groups of five (the so-called five elements, or the five organs of knowledge, or the organs of generation and evacuation with buddhi, manas, and speech), supported on six (the sweet, sour, salt, bitter, acid and harsh juices of food), endowed with six qualities (unexplained), made up of seven elementary substances (the white, red, grey, smoke-coloured, yellow, brown, pale fluid in the body which is produced from the juice of the food), made up of three kinds of mucus (unexplained, probably the three dosha, humours, viz.,—vâyu wind, pittam gall, kapha phlegm), twice-begotten (from the father’s seed and the mother’s blood), partaking of various kinds of food (that which is eaten, drunk, licked and sucked up) is the body.” On the parts of the body and their importance the Upanishad declares at the close:—“The head has four skull-bones, and in them there are (on each) side sixteen sockets. (In the body) there are 107 joints, 180 sutures, 900 sinews, 700 veins, 500 muscles, 360 bones, and 4½ crore (45 million) hairs. The heart weighs eight pala (364 grammes), the tongue 12 pala (546 grammes), the gall a prastham (728 grammes), the phlegm an âdhakam (2912 grammes), the seed a kuḍavam (182 grammes), the fat two prastha (1456 grammes; the dung and the urine are indeterminate, depending on the quantity of food."

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The head is compared in a verse from Atharvav. X. 8. 9 to a goblet tilted sideways, the opening of which is formed by the seven openings of the organs of sense as seven ṛishis. The same verse with the addition of speech as an eighth organ is repeated and explained in Bṛih. 2. 2. 3. According to this passage the eyes are two ṛishis, although immediately before the red black and white in the eye with the pupil, the humour, and the upper and lower lashes, had been inconsistently described as seven gods remaining in attendance on the eye. Of the purusha in the eye as the symbol of the âtman we have already spoken.¹ According to Bṛih. 4. 2. 2-3, Indra and Virâj dwell in the right and left eye; they are nourished from the heart through the veins hitâḥ,² and are, by virtue of their "union" in the ether of the heart, the individual âtman identical with the supreme.

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¹ sup. p. 114 f.

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² cp. Maitr. 6. 2.

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As an appropriate punishment for arrogance in questioning or for the darkness of false knowledge there frequently occurs in the Upanishads the bursting of the head.³ The expression may perhaps have its origin in the sensation of bursting which attends any excessive rush of blood to the head. This is indicated by Bṛih. 1. 3. 24 also, where the reference is to a bursting of the head caused by indulgence in soma. As a rule this punishment is only threatened.⁴ Only once is it actually inflicted.⁵

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³ The phrase is better translated in this way than by the falling off of the head; vi-pat might mean either.

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⁴ Chând. 1. 8. 6, 8, 1. 10. 9-11, 1. 11. 4-9, 5. 12. 2, Bṛih. 3. 6, 3. 7. 1.

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⁵ Bṛih. 3. 9. 26; cp. Atharvav. 19. 28. 4, S'atap. Br. 3. 6. 1. 23, 4. 4. 3. 4, 11. 4. 1. 9.

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The heart more than the head occupies the attention of the thinkers of the Upanishads. It is there that the vital breaths reside.¹ Not only the five prāṇas, but also eye, ear, speech and manas originate from the heart.² The heart and not the head is the home of manas ;³ and the former therefore is the centre also of conscious life. In sleep the organs of the soul remain in the heart,⁴ and there also they gather at death;⁵ “through the heart we recognise forms,”⁶ through the heart we recognise faith, beget children, know the truth, on it speech also is based, while the further question on what the heart is based is angrily rejected.⁷ Not the organs however alone, but all beings are based upon and supported by the heart; and even setting aside the actual definition of the heart as Brahman,⁸ it is yet the empirical home of the soul, and therefore of Brahman:—“here within in the heart is a cavity, wherein he resides, the lord of the universe, the ruler of the universe, the chief of the universe.”⁹ The heart is called hṛidayam, because “it is he” who dwells “in the heart” (hṛidi ayam, Chând. 8. 3. 3), small as a grain of rice or barley;¹⁰ an inch in height the purusha dwells in the midst of the body, as the self of created things in the heart.¹¹

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¹ Chând. 3. 12. 4. ² Chând. 3. 13. 1–5. ³ Ait. 1. 2. 4. ⁴ Bṛih. 2. 1. 17. ⁵ Bṛih. 4. 4. 1. ⁶ Bṛih. 3. 9. 20. ⁷ Bṛih. 3. 9. 21–25. ⁸ Bṛih. 4. 1. 7. ⁹ Bṛih. 4. 4. 22. ¹⁰ Bṛih. 5. 6, Chând. 3. 14. 3. ¹¹ Kâṭh. 2. 20, 4. 12, 6. 17, etc. ¹² Mahânâr. 10. 23, Nâr. 5, Maitr. 6. 2, Brahmab. 15; Âtmab, cp. Upan., p. 751; Haṁsa 6. ¹³ Dhyânab. 14. ¹⁴ Or ether, âkasa. ¹⁵ Muṇḍ. 3. 2. 1.

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On the ground of Chând. 8. 1. 1 the heart is frequently in the later Upanishads compared with the hanging cup of a lotus flower,¹² or even with banana blossom;¹³ and is more fully described in Mahânâr. 11. 8, Dhyânab. 14–16, Yogat. 9, Mahâ 3. In this lotus flower of the heart there is a small space,¹⁴ in which, according to Chând. 8. 1. 3, heaven and earth, sun, moon and stars are enclosed, in which “the lights of the universe shine enclosed,”¹⁵ which is “the strong support of this universe.”¹ Into this space the soul enters in sleep,² in it the immortal golden purusha abides.³ It is the cavity (*guhâ*), so often referred to, in which Brahman lies concealed,⁴ and from which he issues in the meditation of yoga, when he pushes on one side the ether of the heart,⁵ or forces his way through it.⁶

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¹ Brahma Up. 4.

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² Bṛih. 2. 1. 17.

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³ Taitt. 1. 6. 1.

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⁴ Taitt. 2. 1, Kâṭh. 2. 12, 2. 20, 3. 1, S'vet. 3. 20, Muṇḍ. 2. 1. 10, etc.

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⁵ Maitr. 6. 27.

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⁶ Maitr. 6. 38.

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Several accounts are found of the veins that originate from the heart and surround it, and these are related in a peculiar and hardly definable way.

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Bṛih. 4. 2. 3 :—The veins called *hitâḥ*, fine as a hair a thousand times subdivided, have their home in the heart, and nourish the individual soul. A special vein leading upwards is the path on which it travels.

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Bṛih. 4. 3. 20 :—The veins called *hitâḥ*, fine as a hair a thousand times subdivided, are filled with white, grey, brown, green and red fluid. They are the abode of the soul in deep sleep.

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Bṛih. 2. 1. 19 :—The veins called *hitâḥ*, 72,000 in number, ramify from the heart outwards into the pericardium (*purîtat*). They are the abode of the soul in deep sleep.

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These passages are in essential agreement; and Kaush. 4. 19 appears to be derived from a combination of them :—“The veins called *hitâḥ*, fine as a hair subdivided a thousand times, surround the pericardium. They are the abode of the soul in deep sleep. They are filled with brown, white, black, yellow and red fluid.” All this is like the passages from Bṛih., only that the succession and names of the colours⁷ agree with Chând. 8. 6. 1.

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⁷ Up to *kṛishṇa* for *nîla*.

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Chând. 8. 6. 1 connects the idea of the brown, white, gray, yellow and red “veins of the heart” with the theory¹ of the rays of the sun similarly five coloured, which form the continuation of the veins unto the sun, thus uniting heart and sun, like two villages by a high road. In deep sleep the soul glides into these veins,² and through them becomes one with the heat.³ At death the soul ascends to the sun by way of the veins and the sun’s rays. The wise gain the sun, the ignorant find the entrance to it closed.

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¹ Of which Chând. 3. 1–5 is an anticipation.

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² Chând. 8. 6. 3.

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³ *tejas*, Chând. 6. 2. 3, 6. 8. 6, 6. 15. 2.

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The verses Bṛih. 4. 4. 8–9 may perhaps be derived from this passage. They describe an ancient path, extending even to the individual man, which leads up to the heavenly world, and is white, gray, yellow and green. On this the soul of the wise man travels, after it has become heat, *taijasa*. The expression *taijasa* recalls the passages quoted from the Chândogya;⁴ the colours are as in the Bṛihadâraṇyaka. In the main point all the passages hitherto cited agree.

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⁴ cp. also however Bṛih. 4. 4. 7.

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A different view however seems to attach to the verse (perhaps derived from Bṛih. 4. 4. 2), which is appended to Chând. 8. 6. 6 and recurs in Kâṭh. 6. 16:—

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The veins of the heart are a hundred and one.
Of these one leads to the head;
By it he ascends who wins immortality.
The others issue forth on all sides.

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