The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus c9.s6.t1: The Vedântic View of Prâṇa
The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus c9.s6.t1
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The Vedântic View of Prâṇa
c9.s6.t1.1
The Vedântists are believers in an independent vital principle. They agree with the Sânkhyas in holding that *Prâṇa* is neither a *Vâyu* nor the operation of a *Vâyu*. But neither is life a mere reflex or resultant of concurrent sensori-motor, emotive and apperceptive reactions of the organism. You may put eleven birds in a cage, and if they concurrently and continually strike against the bars of the cage in the same direction, the cage may move on under this conjoint action. But the sensory and motor activities cannot in this way originate the vital activity of the organism. For the deprivation of any one or more of the senses does not mean a deprivation of life, and above all there is this radical distinction: there is sameness of kind (समजातीयत्व) between the motions of the individual birds and the resultant motion of the cage, but the sensations do not explain life. *Life* (Prâṇa) must therefore be recognised as a separate principle, just as the *Manas* and the *Antaḥkaraṇas* generally are in the Sânkhya Philosophy. Life is a sort of subtle rarefied "ether-principle" (अध्यात्मवायु) pervasive of the organism—which is not gross *Vâyu*, but is all the same subtilised matter, like the Manas itself, for, in the Vedânta, everything other than the Self (आत्मा) is "material" (जड़).
c9.s6.t1.2
This Life is prior to the senses, for it regulates the development of the fertilised ovum, which would putrefy if it were not living, and the senses with their apparatus develop subsequently out of the ovum (न वायुक्रिये पृथगुपदेशात्), Chapter II., Pada 4, Sûtra 9; *vide* Śarîraka-Bhâṣya Śankara; also Vâchaspati Miśra, Bhâmatî:—
c9.s6.t1.3
सिद्धान्तस्तु न समानेन्द्रियवृत्तिः प्राणः । स हि मिलितानां वा वृत्तिर्भवेत् प्रत्येकं वा । न तावत् मिलितानां । एकद्वित्रिचतुरिन्द्रियाभावे तदभावप्रसङ्गात् । न खलु चूर्णहरिद्रासंयोगजन्मारुण्यमवयवतरभावे भवितुमर्हति । न च बहुष्विदिसार्ये शिविकोड्डहनं द्वित्रिविदिसार्थ्यं भवति । न च त्वगेकसाध्यं । तथा सति सामान्यवृत्तिव्वानुपपत्तेः । अपि च यत् सम्भूयकारकाणि निष्पादयन्ति तत् प्रधानव्यापारानुगुणावान्तरव्यापारेणैव । यथा वयसां प्रातिस्विको व्यापारः पिञ्जरचालनानुगुणः । इह्तु श्रवणाद्यवान्तरव्यापारोपेतः प्राणो न सम्भूय प्रास्यूरिति युक्तं प्रमाणाभावादत्यन्तविजातीयत्वाच्च श्रवणादिभ्यः प्राणनस्य । . . . तस्मादन्यो वायुक्रियाभ्यां प्राणः । . . . वायुरेवायमध्यात्मतामापन्नः मुख्योऽपि प्राणः ।
c9.s6.t1.4
—Śankara, *ibid.* *Cf.* also, ज्येष्ठश्च प्राणः शुक्रनिषेककालादारभ्य तस्य वृत्तिलाभात् । नचेत् तस्य तदानीं वृत्तिलाभः स्यात् शुक्रं पूयेत न सम्भवेद्वा श्रोत्रादीनान्तु कर्णशष्कुल्यादिस्थानविभागनिष्पत्तौ वृत्तिलाभात्र ज्येष्ठत्वं ।—Śankara, on Sûtra 9, Pâda 4, Chapter II.
Cites (1)
- Brahmasūtra — Bādarāyaṇa, Sanskrit