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572
VEDÂNTA-SOTRAS.
are mentioned, the different functions of the manas are meant; and references to smaller numbers are connected with special effects of the organs, such as accompanying the soul, and the like. Here terminates the adhikarana of 'the going of the seven.'
6. And (they are) minute.
As the text 'these are all alike, all infinite' (Bri. Up. I, 5, 13), declares speech, mind, and breath to be infinite, we conclude that the pränas are all-pervading.-To this the Sútra replies, that they are minute; for the text when the vital breath passes out of the body, all the pranas pass out after it' (Bri. Up. V, 4, 2), proves those pränas to be of limited size, and as when passing out they are not perceived by bystanders, they must be of minute size.—The text which speaks of them as infinite is a text enjoining meditation ('he who meditates on them as infinite'), and infinity there means only that abundance of activities which is an attribute of the prana to be meditated on.
7. And the best.
By the best' we have to understand the chief vital air (mukhya prana), which, in the colloquy of the pranas, is determined to be the best because it is the cause of the preservation of the body. This chief vital air the Parvapakshin 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 bom breath' (Mu. Up. II, 1, 3)—may be interpreted in the same way as the texts declaring that the soul is something created (see 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 präna 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
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