Is this main vital breath nothing else but air, the second of the
elements? Or is it a certain motion of the air? Or is it air that has
assumed some special condition?--The first alternative may be adopted,
on account of the text 'prâna is air.'--Or, since mere air is not called
breath, while this term is generally applied to that motion of air which
consists in inhalation and exhalation, we may hold that breath is a
motion of air.--Of both these views the Sûtra disposes by declaring 'not
so, on account of separate statement.' For in the passage 'From him
there is produced breath, mind, and all sense-organs, ether and air,' &c,
breath and air are mentioned as two separate things. For the same reason
breath also cannot be a mere motion or function of air; for the text
does not mention any functions of fire and the other elements, side by
side with these elements, as separate things (and this shows that breath
also cannot, in that text, be interpreted to denote a function of air).
The text 'prâna is air,' on the other hand, intimates (not that breath
is identical with air, but) that breath is air having assumed a special
form, not a thing altogether different from it, like fire. In ordinary
language, moreover, the word _breath_ does not mean a mere motion but a
substance to which motion belongs; we say,'the breath moves to and fro
in inhalation and exhalation.'
Is breath, which we thus know to be a modification of air, to be
considered as a kind of elementary substance, like fire, earth, and so
on? Not so, the next Sûtra replies.
9. But like the eye and the rest, on account of being taught with them,
and for other reasons.
Breath is not an element, but like sight and the rest, a special
instrument of the soul. This appears from the fact that the texts
mention it together with the recognised organs of the soul, the eye, and
so on; so e.g. in the colloquy of the prânas. And such common mention is
suitable in the case of such things only as belong to one class.--The
'and for other reasons' of the Sûtra refers to the circumstance of the
principal breath being specially mentioned among the organs comprised
under the term 'prâna'; cp. 'that principal breath' (Ch. Up. I, 2, 7);
'that central breath' (Bri. Up. I, 5, 21).--But if the chief breath is,
like the eye and the other organs, an instrument of the soul, there must
be some special form of activity through which it assists the soul, as
the eye e.g. assists the soul by seeing. But no such activity is
perceived, and the breath cannot therefore be put in the same category
as the organs of sensation and action!--To this objection the next Sûtra
replies.
10. And there is no objection on account of its not having an activity
(karana); for (Scripture) thus declares.
The karana of the Sûtra means kriyâ, action. The objection raised on the
ground that the principal breath does not exercise any form of activity
helpful to the soul, is without force, since as a matter of fact
Scripture declares that there is such an activity, in so far as the
vital breath supports the body with all its organs. For the text (Ch. Up.
V, 1, 7 ff.) relates how on the successive departure of speech, and so
on, the body and the other organs maintained their strength, while on
the departure of the vital breath the body and all the organs at once
became weak and powerless.--The conclusion therefore is that the breath,
in its fivefold form of prâna, apâna, and so on, subserves the purposes
of the individual soul, and thus occupies the position of an instrument,
no less than the eye and the other organs.
But as those five forms of breath, viz. prâna, udâna, &c., have
different names and functions they must be separate principles (and
hence there is not _one_ principal breath)! To this the next Sûtra
replies.