A Constructive Survey of Upanishadic Philosophy c5.12.2

c5.12.2

It was told that the body lived like a deaf man not hearing, but breathing with the breath, speaking with the mouth, seeing with the eye, and thinking with the mind, upon which the ear returned. Then the mind went out, and having lived outside for a year, returned and wondered how the body could still exist in spite of its absence. It was told that the body lived like a child without mind, but breathing with the breath, speaking with the mouth, seeing with the eye, and hearing with the ear, upon which the mind re-entered. Then, finally, when the breath was on the point of departing, it tore up the other senses as a well-bred horse might tear up the pegs to which it is tethered. Then the organs of sense assembled together and said to: Prāṇa, ‘Sir, thou art our lord; depart not from us’; and the tongue said to the Prāṇa, ‘if I am richest, it is really thou that art richest’; and the eye said, ‘if I am the support, it is really thou that art the support’; and the ear said, ‘if I am wealth, it is really thou that art wealth’; and the mind said, ‘if I am the final abode, it is really thou that art the final abode’. It is for this reason that people have declared the primacy not of the organs of sense, of the speech, or the eye, or the ear, or the mind, but of breath. ‘For the breath is verily all these’ (S. 13. a).