________________
I ADHYAYA, I PÂDA, 31.
105
individual soul is one with Brahman, are by no means out of place. That the Self which is active in speaking and the like is Brahman appears from another scriptural passage also, viz. Ke. Up. I, 5, 'That which is not expressed by speech and by which speech is expressed that alone know as Brahman, not that which people here adore.' The remark that the statement about the difference of prâna and pragña (contained in the passage, "Together they dwell in this body, together they depart') does not agree with that interpretation according to which prâna is Brahman, is without force; for the mind and the vital air which are the respective abodes of the two powers of cognition and action, and constitute the limiting conditions of the internal Self may be spoken of as different. The internal Self, on the other hand, which is limited by those two adjuncts, is in itself non-differentiated, so that the two may be identified, as is done in the passage 'prâna is pragña.
The second part of the Sûtra is explained in a different manner also !, as follows: Characteristic marks of the individual soul as well as of the chief vital air are not out of place even in a chapter whose topic is Brahman. How so? "On account of the threefoldness of devout meditation. The chapter aims at enjoining three kinds of devout meditation on Brahman, according as Brahman is viewed under the aspect of prâna, under the aspect of pragña, and in itself. The passages, 'Meditate (on me) as life, as immortality. Life is prâna,' and 'Having laid hold of this body it makes it rise up. Therefore let man worship it alone as uktha,' refer to the prâna aspect. The introductory passage, Now we shall explain how all things become one in that pragña,' and the subsequent passages, 'Speech verily milked one portion thereof; the word is its object placed outside;' and, Having by pragña taken possession of speech he obtains by speech all words &c.,' refer to the pragñã aspect. The Brahman aspect finally is referred to in the following passage, 'These ten
1 Viz. by the vrittikara.
Digitized by
Digitized by Google
