The System of the Vedanta according to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Cankara's Commentary c8.s6.t7: 7. Retrospect
The System of the Vedânta according to Bâdarâyana's Brahma-Sûtras and Çankara's Commentary c8.s6.t7
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7. Retrospect
c8.s6.t7.1
After the Indians had early attained the knowledge that the key to the enigma of the world is to be sought nowhere else than in the Self (*Âtman*), they asked themselves further which part of our Ego is to be regarded as the clearest expression of the thing-in-itself—unconscious life which in waking and sleeping goes tireless on its way, or conscious life in whose preponderance consists the advantage of man over other beings?—As it seems to us, both these paths were taken; in earlier times principally the first by the identification of the Prâṇa (breath, life) with Brahman and the corresponding theory of an entrance into Brahman in deep sleep (where according to Çatapathabr. 10, 3, 3, 6 all organs are absorbed into the life); later there was manifested an inclination to the Âtman rather in the subject of cognition within us, and to characterise it therefore as draṣṭar (Brih. 3, 7, 23. 3, 8, 11), prajña-âtman (Kaush. 3), prajña âtman (Brih. 4, 3, 21. 35), prajñâna-ghana (Brih. 4, 5, 13) etc., and to regard the entrance into Brahman in deep sleep rather as an unconscious because objectless Cognition (Brih. 4, 3, 23) or even as a fancifully elaborated ascent to the highest light (Chând. 8, 12, 3); Chând. 7 would there be a polemic of the younger school against the older and Kaush. 3 an attempt to reconcile the two; until finally the extreme intellectualism of the system of the Vedânta was reached, for which Brahman is pure intelligence (caitanyam), while the Prâṇa in the shape of the Mukhya Prâṇa sinks to a mere Upâdhi of the soul.
c8.s6.t7.2
This view which can for the present only be presented as a hypothesis, would among other things explain the singular position of the Mukhya Prâṇa in the system, which on the one hand gives it the primacy over all other Upâdhis, and on the other hand connects the soul not so much with it as with the Manas (dependent on the Mukhya Prâṇa). For while the Mukhya Prâṇa, suiting itself to the size of the body whatever it is (above p. 336) pervades all parts of the body with its five branches, the soul in the state of Saṃsâra is “the nucleus (quintessence) of the qualities of the Buddhi” (above p. 311), i.e., of the Manas; it is like the Manas “large as the point of an awl” and dwells with it in the heart in quasi-identity; from there the Manas sends out the Indriyas as its feelers (organs of perception) and performers of its commands (organs of action) throughout the body. In deep sleep, as we shall see, the *Indriyas* creep into the veins, and these enter into the *Mukhya Prâna*, and, like the *Manas*, attain repose in it, while the soul, united with Brahman, sojourns in the ether of the heart. This liberation of the soul from the *Upâdhis* (*upâdhi-upaçama*) is conditioned by the cessation of the activity of the *Indriyas* and the *Manas*, but not of the *Mukhya Prâna*, whose activity continues in sleep as it does in the waking state; this makes clear how loose the connection between it and the soul is; its repose is not necessary for the repose of the soul, and its activity is without influence on the state of the soul. It appears rather as the antipodes of the soul in the life of the organism, as the gathering-place of the *Upâdhis* and therefore as the central point of all that individualises the soul and obscures its original divinity. True the *Mukhya Prâna* is not, like the *Manas* and *Indriyas*, servant of the soul but its prime minister (*mantrin* p. 720, 7); it is however a minister with whom the sovereign is not on the best of terms; the weal of the land is committed to his care, but his Highness prefers to reside in the castle of a favourite (the *Manas*) whom he prefers, but who is subject to the minister; this is a position which may be reached in the course of political evolution, but it is certainly nowhere the original state of things.
c8.s6.t7.3
The matter is somewhat different with regard to death; here, as we shall see, the *Indriyas* first of all enter into the *Manas*, and then in succession the *Manas* into the *Mukhya Prâna* [in which it already is, spatially considered], the *Mukhya Prâna* into the *Jîva* (individual soul), and therefore into the heart; finally the *Jîva* enters into the "subtle parts of the elements which form the seed of the body," *i.e.*, into the subtle body, which is their bearer during the migration.
c8.s6.t7.4
As this subtle body is related to the coarse body, so are the organs which pass out with it related to the material organs which perish with the body; they are their continuations *vija-âtmanâ* or *çakti-âtmanâ* as seed or power; *i.e.*, while eye and ear, hand and foot perish at death, their function (*vritti*), the power of seeing, hearing, going, grasping, etc. connected with the soul, wanders out with it (in a latent state) and serves for a new incarnation as the seed from which the material organs proceed just as the coarse body arises from the subtle body. [A combination of the material of the subtle body from the three original elements, and of the material of the coarse body from their triply or quintuply mixed derivatives is not yet discoverable in Çankara's commentary].
c8.s6.t7.5
According to this the interaction of body and soul must be conceived as follows: the *Indriyas* are simply the powers or functions of the *Karanas*, *i.e.*, of the material organs; these they produce out of themselves and remain in the closest and most intimate connection with them; these *Indriyas* have their common centre in the *Manas*; the *Manas* is homogeneous with them and itself an *Indriyam*; it dwells, large as the point of an awl, in the heart; in the *Manas*, filling it completely and (except by liberation and temporarily in deep sleep) inseparably connected with it, is the Soul, which, by the mediation of the *Manas* and *Indriyas*, governs the movements of the *Karanas* and receives their impressions; while the *Mukhya Prâna* with its five branches pervades the whole body and provides for its nutrition on behalf of the soul; it is subject to the soul, but, leaving death out of the question, a connection between the two is not discoverable.