The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c40.s5.30

v2.c40.s5.30

A more advanced conception is to be found in the Aitareya Āraṇyaka⁷ which uses the old conception of breath, but identifies with it Prajñā, ‘intellect’. On intellect the whole world is based, it is guided by intellect, and knowledge is the absolute. The same view is expressed in the Kauṣītaki Upaniṣad⁸ where the identity of breath and intellect is asserted absolutely, but also later on is more precisely investigated: it shows that the objects of sense depend on the organs of sense, and the latter are dependent in turn on intellect, but it still adheres to the identification of the two. The Chāndogya itself identifies breath, ether, and bliss. The breath, therefore, still here and there appears with its claim to be the Ātman, but it is also now and then made dependent on it, or even the shadow of it.