________________
II ADHYAYA, 4 PÂDA, 5.
571
come to an end. As thus the text declares that at the time of birth and death seven prânas only accompany the soul, and as, with regard to the condition of final concentration, those prânas are distinctly specified as forms of knowledge (gñanani), we conclude that the pranas are the seven following instruments of the soul-the organs of hearing, feeling, seeing, tasting and smelling, the buddhi and the manas. In various other passages indeed, which refer to the prânas, higher numbers are mentioned, viz. up to fourteen, speech, the hands, the feet, the anus, the organ of generation, the ahankära and the kitta being added to those mentioned above; cp. e. g. 'there are eight grahas' (Bri. Up. III, 2, 1); 'Seven are the pranas of the head, two the lower ones' (Taitt. Samh. V, 3, 2, 5). But as the text says nothing about those additional organs accompanying the soul, we assume that they are called pranas in a nietaphorical sense only, since they all, more or less, assist the soul.—This view the next Satra sets aside.
5. But the hands and so on also; (since they assist the soul) abiding in the body). Hence (it is) not so.
The organs are not seven only, but eleven, since the hands and the rest also contribute towards the experience and fruition of that which abides in the body, i.e. the soul, and have their separate offices, such as seizing, and so on. Hence it is not so, i.e. it must not be thought that the hands and the rest are not organs. Buddhi, ahankara and kitta, on the other hand, are (not independent organs but) mere designations of the manas, according as the latter is engaged in the functions of deciding (adhyavasaya), or misconception (abhimana), or thinking (kinta). The organs therefore are eleven. From this it follows that in the passage Ten are these prânas in man, and Atman is the eleventh' (Bri. Up. II, 4, 11), the word Åtman denotes the manas. The number cleven is confirmed by scriptural and Smriti passages, cp. 'the ten organs and the one' (Bha. Gî. XIII, 5); 'ten are the vaikärika beings, the manas is the eleventh,' and others. Where more organs
Digitized by Google
