The System of the Vedanta according to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Cankara's Commentary c8.s6.t4.14

c8.s6.t4.14

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).