Page Text
________________
82
VEDANTA-SUTRAS.
merated as a tenth prâna.-In some places so and so many are counted for the purpose of meditation; in other places so and so many for the purpose of illustration 1. As the statements concerning the number of the prânas are of so varying a nature we must therefore distinguish in each case what the object of the statement is. Meanwhile it remains a settled conclusion that that statement which makes the prânas to be eleven is authoritative, on account of the objective effects (being eleven also).
The two Sutras (referring to the number of the prânas) may be construed in the following manner also. The prânas are seven because scripture mentions the going (gati) of seven only, 'When he thus departs life departs after him, and when life thus departs all the other pranas2 depart after it' (Bri. Up. IV, 4, 2).-But, it may be objected, this passage says 'all the other prânas;' how then does it declare the going of seven only ?-The Sutra replies, 'on account of their being specified.' Seven senses only, from seeing up to feeling, are specified there because so many only are under discussion; as we see from the enumeration given in the passage, 'When that person in the eye turns away then he ceases to know any forms. He has become one they say, he does not see' &c. The word 'all' refers here only to what is under discussion, i. e. only to the seven prânas mentioned before, not to any other. Analogously when we say 'all the Brahmanas have been fed,' we mean only those Brahmanas who have been invited and concern us at the time, not any other.-If it be objected that the passage quoted mentions understanding (vignana) as the eighth thing departing, and that we therefore have no right to speak of the departing of seven only, we reply that manas and understanding differ not in essential nature but only in function, and that on this account we are entitled to speak of seven prâmas only.-The answer to this
1 Sapta prânâh prabhavantîty âder gatim âha kvakid iti, ashau grahâ ityâder gatim sûkayati gatim iti. Ân. Gi.
I. e. seeing, smelling, tasting, speaking, hearing, feeling, and
the manas.
Google
Digitized by
| SR No. | 007681 |
| Book Title | Questions of King Milinda Part 01 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | T W Rhys Davids |
| Publisher | Oxford |
| Publication Year | 1890 |
| Total Pages | 2695 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 47 MB |