The System of the Vedanta according to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Cankara's Commentary c9.s3.t2.4

c9.s3.t2.4

2. The second act at death, according to Chând. 6, 8, 6, is that *Manas* enters into *Prâna* (as the principle of unconscious life, above p. 333 ff.). Here the same question repeats itself. One might think that *Manas* as an organ enters into *Prâna*, because it is said, in Chând. 6, 6, 5 (above p. 263), that *Manas* is formed from food, and *Prâna* from water, while again it is said (above p. 235) that food, that is, the earth, arose from water (p. 1090, 4). But here too it seems rather to be the fact that only the function (functional activity) of *Manas* is to be understood as entering (dissolving into) *Prâna*; for it is only the function of *Manas* that we can observe coming to rest (p. 1090, 9) in *Prâna* in one who falls asleep and in one desirous of liberation (cf. Kâth. 3, 13); and again we cannot conclude from the mediate (*pranâlika*, found only here as *adj.*) arising of *Manas* from *Prâna* that the former must re-enter into the latter, since otherwise it would also follow that *Manas* must dissolve itself in food, food in water, and *Prâna* in water (p. 1090, 13). Here too therefore we must understand by *Manas* only its functional activity, not the agent, since usage does not distinguish between them (p. 1091, 1).