The Samkhya System: A History of the Samkhya Philosophy c7.17

c7.17

It is characteristic of the close affinity in many respects of the classical Sāṃkhya and the epic philosophy that the vital airs, Prāṇas, are of comparatively little importance in the latter: the former reduces them to the united working of mind and the senses, while on the other hand the Vedānta preserves them as independent elements, and attributes to them the function of preserving the vegetative life. The epic mentions them often enough, but its accounts are too confused to allow of any clear idea of their function or of the value attributed to the five varieties, Prāṇa, Apāna, Samāna, Udāna, and Vyāna. Similarly, the epic makes little of the conception Jiva, soul, which resolves itself either into the Ātman with the psychic organs of the Vedānta, or the spirit with its psychic apparatus in the Sāṃkhya.