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I ADHYAYA, I PÂDA, 29.
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to lead up from these worlds do a good deed; and the same makes him whom he wishes to lead down from these worlds do a bad deed ;' and, 'He is the guardian of the world, he is the king of the world, he is the Lord of the world' (Kau. Up. III,8). All this can be properly understood only if the highest Brahman is acknowledged to be the subject matter of the whole chapter, not if the vital air is substituted in its place. Hence the word prâna denotes Brahman.
29. If it be said that (Brahman is) not (denoted) on account of the speaker denoting himself; (we reply that this objection is not valid) because there is in that (chapter) a multitude of references to the interior Self.
An objection is raised against the assertion that prâna denotes Brahman. The word prâna, it is said, does not denote the highest Brahman, because the speaker designates himself. The speaker, who is a certain powerful god called Indra, at first says, in order to reveal himself to Pratardana,
Know me only, and later on, 'I am prâna, the intelligent Self. How, it is asked, can the prâna, which this latter passage, expressive of personality as it is, represents as the Self of the speaker, be Brahman to which, as we know from Scripture, the attribute of being a speaker cannot be ascribed, compare, for instance, Bri. Up.III,8,8, It is without speech, without mind.' Further on, also, the speaker, i.e. Indra, glorifies himself by enumerating a number of attributes, all of which depend on personal existence and can in no way belong to Brahman, 'I slew the three-headed son of Tvashtri; I delivered the Arunmukhas, the devotees, to the wolves,' and so on. Indra may be called prána on account of his strength. Scripture says, 'Strength indeed is prana,' and Indra is known as the god of strength; and of any deed of strength people say, 'It is Indra's work.' The personal Self of a deity may, moreover, be called an intelligent Self; for the gods, people say, possess unobstructed knowledge. It thus being a settled matter that some passages convey information about the personal Self
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