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The System of the Vedanta according to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Cankara's Commentary c8.s6.t4: 4. The System of the unconscious Life: Organs of Nutrition

The System of the Vedânta according to Bâdarâyana's Brahma-Sûtras and Çankara's Commentary c8.s6.t4

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4. The System of the unconscious Life: Organs of Nutrition

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The principle of the unconscious, vegetative life is the *Mukhya Prâṇa*, an expression which originally meant "Breath in the mouth" (thus Chând. 1, 2, 7 where Bṛih. in the parallel passage 1, 3, 7 reads *âsanyaḥ prâṇaḥ*; cf. Bṛih. 1, 3, 8); in our system however where respiration is only a part of its task it has taken the meaning of "chief breath of life." Its primacy over the other organs of life is a favourite theme of the Upanishads; e.g., in the parable of the contest of the organs (Bṛih. 6, 1. Chând. 5, 1; cf. Kaush. 3, 3. Praçna-Up. 2) according to which the organs: speech, eye, ear, Manas, etc. go forth in order, and, when it is the turn of the *Mukhya* Prâṇa, become conscious of its indispensability and their own dependence on it. A variation of the same theme is the story of the quarrel of the gods (*i. e.*, the organs: smell, eye, ear, Manas, and Mukhya Prâṇa) with the demons, who visit evil on the other organs, but fly to dust on the Prâṇa like clods of earth on a stone (Bṛih. 1, 3. Chând. 1, 2).

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With many references to these stories Çankara sets forth (2, 4, 8—13) that though the *Mukhya Prâṇa* is also a creation of Brahman, it is still the oldest and noblest among all organs. It is true, he says, the *Nâsad-âsîya* song says (Rigv. X, 129, 2):

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"Death was not known nor immortality,
"Night was not born, and day was not yet seen,
"Airless, he breathed in primevality
"The one beyond whom nought hath ever been;"

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but that which "breathed" is not the Prâṇa in this case; on the contrary as the words "without air" proves, it is the highest cause (p. 716). Therefore the Prâṇa too [in the same sense as the other organs, *i. e.*, from its seed which has from eternity been connected with the soul] has originated, but is the oldest among the organs because its function begins from the moment the sperm is introduced, if it actually germinates in the Yoni (p. 717, 3), while the activity of the others is only possible after the auditory passage etc. have originated (p. 717, 5); so too the Prâṇa is the best, because the other organs in the parable of the quarrel of the organs confess to him: "of a "truth without thee we cannot live" (p. 717, 7).

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What is then the constitution of this Prâna? It is in the first place not air alone, though one passage of Scripture (p. 717, 10) seems to assert this; for it is, Chând. 3, 18, 4, expressly distinguished from air (Vâyu); it seems rather to be a psychic analogue of the (cosmic) divinity of the air (vâyur eva, adhyâtmam âpannah, p. 719, 8). Further, it is also not to be regarded simply as a combined function of the organs (Manas and Indriyas) as the Tantrântariyas (p. 717, 12, i.e., the Sânkhyas) maintain when they say:

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"The working of the organs when combined
"Are the five airs with Prâna at their head;" ¹¹⁷

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¹¹⁷ This verse, cited by Çankara (p. 718, 2) is found in the Sânkhya-Kârikâ v. 29 and in the Sânkhya-sûtras 2, 31, where it has manifestly been taken over from the Kârikâ as the artificial metrical form (it is a complete Âryâ-half-verse) sufficiently proves. Further examples in Hall, Sânkhya-Sâra, p. 12.

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for if it were no more than this it would not be specially mentioned Mund. 2, 1, 3 in addition to Manas and Indriyas. But could it not be the result of the united action of these eleven organs, which produce the life of the body in something the same way as eleven birds shut up in a cage raise it in the air, when they fly upwards? ¹¹⁸ To this is to be replied, that the organs cannot possibly produce the phenomenon of life, because it is absolutely heterogeneous from hearing, etc. (p. 719, 4). It is rather included in the primacy of the Prâna as taught by the Scripture, that the other organs are subordinated to it as qualities (guna) [p. 719, 6. 12; without prejudice to their original essential difference from it; of this below].

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¹¹⁸ p. 718, 13; this image too seems to belong to the Sânkhyas, at any rate it is found in a distorted form in Gaudapâda on Sânkhya-Kâr. 29, ed. Wilson p. 26, 5.

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But the Prâna cannot therefore, like the individual soul, be termed the sovereign of the body (p. 719, 12); for even if it alone remains awake, while the organs sleep (Brih. 4, 3, 12, above p. 190) and does not fall into the grip of death (weariness)

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like them (Bṛih. 1, 5, 21), even if it is called the "absorber" because in sleep it absorbs them into itself (Chând. 4, 3, 3, above p. 61) and guards them as a mother guards her children (Praçna 2, 13) still it is only the prime minister of the soul, just as eye, ear, etc. are its servants (p. 720, 7). For the rest, it is on the same level as the organs (p. 720, 9), is like them an aggregate *saṃhata*, *i.e.*, produced from its seed by the depositing of corpuscles from the Prâṇa-material] and non-spiritual (p. 720, 11); it has not, however, as they have, an object (p. 721, 1) and cannot be reckoned with them as a twelfth organ; it rather supports, nourishes, and animates the whole body, as is further proved on p. 722 from the parable of the contest of the organs.—With this agrees the fact that the Mukhya Prâṇa is termed p. 161, 9 *prajñâ-sâdhana-prâṇa-antara-âçraya* "the support of the other Prâṇas which sub-" "serve the purpose of perception" and that as its task *samî-raṇam* is mentioned p. 471, 2, and *parispanda* pp. 378, 6. 380, 12. 732, 6. 1090, 10, both of which seem to mean stimulation, animation.

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As animating and supporting principle of life the *Mukhya Prâṇa* has five branches: *Prâṇa*, *Apâna*, *Vyâna*, *Udâna*, and *Samâna*, which are frequently enumerated (*e.g.*, Bṛih. 1, 5, 3. 3, 9, 26. Chând. 3, 13. 5, 18. Praçna 3; the three first only: Bṛih. 3, 1, 10. 5, 14, 3. Chând. 1, 3, 8; four: Bṛih. 3, 4, 1) and are sometimes very differently explained. According to Çaṅkara (p. 723, 1—4) *Prâṇa* is exhaling (*ucchvâsa*), *Apâna* inhaling (*niçvâsa*); *Vyâna* is a sort of combination of both, *viz.* what supports life when the breath is held for a great effort¹¹⁹ in Indian medicine *Vyâna* is the principle of the circulation of the juices and the blood. cf. the St. Petersb. Dict. s. v. as well as Praçna 3, 6; *Samâna* is the principle of digestion; and finally *Udâna* is the faculty which at death brings about the passing of the soul from the body.—We see therefore that the Indians are not so far from our triple division of the regulative system into respiration, circulation, and digestion.

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¹¹⁹ This explanation of Çaṅkara of *Prâṇa*, *Apâna*, *Vyâna* rests on Chând. 1, 3, 3—5 and agrees with Çaṅkara's Commentary on this passage in which he expressly defines *Prâṇa* as exhaling (*vâyum vahir niḥsârayati*), and *Apâna* as inhaling (*antar âkarshati vâyum*). On the other hand contradicting himself he explains *Apâna* in the Commentary on Chând. 3, 13, 3 and again on Praçna 3, 5 as *mûtra-purîsha-âdi-apanayan*. *i.e.* Secretion. The former view agrees with his explanation of Bṛih. 3, 2, 2, that smell is associated with *Apâna*; the latter, as it seems, with his Commentary on Bṛih. 3, 9, 26 as well as with the theory of the Vedântasâra § 95.—A reconciliation is perhaps attainable from the fact

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Quantitatively the *Mukhya Prâna* is of minute size (*anu*); here too this means, not that it is of atomic size; for by means of its five functions it pervades the whole body (p. 724, 3); but that it is 1) not coarse, for it is not perceived at the passing of the soul (p. 724, 4), and 2) not infinitely great, for otherwise passing, going, and return would not be possible (p. 724. 5); and when (Brih. 1. 3. 22) it is termed "as large as a termite, as a midge, as an elephant, as these three worlds, as this universe" this is to be understood in a cosmological sense of Hiranyagarbha (a mythological personification of Brahman, cf. note 41) and not in the psychological sense; for in this sense his dimensions are, as the words "as large as a termite" show, limited according to the size of each individual being (p. 724, 10; from the expression: the *prâna* is *pratiprâni-cartin* may be concluded that with its five branches it completely fills the body it happens to be in).

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