GOD MORNING : asritatvadiha tadyogat I.1.31 (31) If it be said that (Brahman is) not (meant) on account of characteristic marks of the individual soul and the chief vital air (being mentioned); we say no, because (such an interpretation) would enjoin threefold meditation (Upasana), because Prana has been accepted (elsewhere in the Sruti in the sense of Brahman) and because here also (words denoting Brahman) are mentioned with reference to Prana. The passage `One should know the speaker and not enquire into speech (Kau. Up. III-4) mentions a characteristic mark of the individual soul. The passage Prana, laying hold of his body, makes it rise up Kau. Up. III. 3 points to the chief vital air because the chief attribute of the vital air is that it sustains the body. Then there is another passage, `Then Prana said to the organs: be not deceived. I alone dividing myself fivefold support this body and keep it Prasna Up. II-3. Then again you will find `What is Prana, that is Prajna; what is Prajna, that is Prana. Further in the beginning we have know me only followed by I am Prana, intelligent Self, meditate on me as life, as immortality; and in the end again we read And that Prana indeed is the intelligent Self, blessed (Ananda), undecaying (Ajara) and immortal (Amrita). The beginning and the concluding part are thus seen to be similar. Therefore we must conclude that they refer to one and the same subject and that the same subject-matter is kept up throughout. Therefore `Prana must denote Brahman only. In the case of other passages where characteristic marks of Brahman are mentioned the word `Prana is taken in the sense of Brahman.
Posted on: Sun, 15 Dec 2013 02:32:00 +0000