By 'the best' we have to understand the chief vital air (mukhya prâna),
which, in the colloquy of the prânas, is determined to be the best
because it is the cause of the preservation of the body. This chief
vital air the Pûrvapakshin maintains to be something non-created, since
Scripture (Ri. Samh. V, 129, 2), 'By its own law the One was breathing
without wind,' shows that an effect of it, viz. the act of breathing,
existed even previously to creation, at the time of a great pralaya; and
because texts declaring it to have been created--such as 'from him is
born breath' (Mu. Up. II, 1, 3)--may be interpreted in the same way as
the texts declaring that the soul is something created (sec p. 540 ff.).--
To this the reply is that, since this view contradicts scriptural
statements as to the oneness of all, previous to creation; and since the
Mundaka-text declares the prâna to have been created in the same way as
earth and the other elements; and since there are no texts plainly
denying its createdness, the chief vital air also must be held to have
been created. The words 'the One was breathing without wind' by no means
refer to the vital breath of living creatures, but intimate the
existence of the highest Brahman, alone by itself; as indeed appears
from the qualification 'without wind.'--That the vital breath, although
really disposed of in the preceding Sûtras, is specially mentioned in
the present Sûtra, is with a view to the question next raised for
consideration.--Here terminates the adhikarana of 'the minuteness of the
prânas.'