We read in the Chândogya (I, 10; ii), 'Prastotri, that deity which
belongs to the Prastâva,' &c.; and further on, 'which then is that deity?
He said--Breath. For all these beings merge into breath alone, and from
breath they arise. This is the deity belonging to the Prastâva. If
without knowing that deity you had sung forth, your head would have
fallen off.' Here the word 'breath,' analogously to the word 'ether'
denotes the highest Brahman, which is different from what is commonly
called breath; we infer this from the fact that special characteristics
of Brahman, viz. the whole world's entering into and rising from it, are
in that text referred to as well-known things. There indeed here arises
a further doubt; for as it is a matter of observation that the existence,
activity, &c., of the whole aggregate of creatures depend on breath,
breath--in its ordinary acceptation--may be called the cause of the
world. This doubt is, however, disposed of by the consideration that
breath is not present in things such as stones and wood, nor in
intelligence itself, and that hence of breath in the ordinary sense it
cannot be said that 'all beings enter into it,' &c. We therefore
conclude that Brahman is here called 'breath' in so far as he bestows
the breath of life on all beings. And the general result of the
discussion carried on in connexion with the last two Sûtras thus is that
the words 'ether' and 'breath' denote something other than what is
ordinarily denoted by those terms, viz. the highest Brahman, the sole
cause of this entire world, free from all evil, &c. &c.--Here terminates
the adhikarana of 'breath.'
The subsequent Sûtras up to the end of the Pâda demonstrate that the
being which the texts refer to as 'Light' or 'Indra'--terms which in
ordinary language are applied to certain other well-known beings--, and
which is represented as possessing some one or other supremely exalted
quality that is invariably connected with world-creative power, is no
other than the highest Brahman.