The System of the Vedanta according to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Cankara's Commentary c8.s6.t4.1

c8.s6.t4.1

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).