ata eva prāṇaḥ: Prāna is also the Lord
Who is this deity of whom you speak? [Uṣasti replied:] He is prāṇa. From prāṇa all beings have emanated, and into prāṇa they enter at the end."
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Sūtra 1.1.23 - The meaning of the word prāṇa
ata eva prāṇaḥ
ataḥ: for the same reason (as in the previous sūtra); eva: indeed, precisely; prāṇaḥ: the word prāṇa.
For the same reason, the word prāṇa also denotes Brahman.
Commentary: This sūtra refers to another passage of the Chāndogya Upaniṣad (1.11.4-5), which now describes prāṇa:
katamā sā devateti, prāṇa iti hovāca
sarvāṇi ha vā imāni bhūtāni prāṇam eva abhi-sam-viśanti
prāṇam abhyujjihate“[The priest asked]: Who is this deity of whom you speak? [Uṣasti replied:] He is prāṇa. From prāṇa all beings have emanated, and into prāṇa they enter at the end.”
This passage appears in the context of the story of Uṣasti, who, although a qualified Brāhmana, lived in poverty together with his wife. Once, without any food to eat, he begged an elephant keeper for some cooked grains he was eating, just to be able to maintain his life. The elephant keeper also offered him some water he was drinking, but he refused it, arguing that he could get water from somewhere else, and thus there was no need to accept this contaminated water. However, he accepted the contaminated grains because he would not be able to maintain his life without them.
He shared these contaminated grains with his wife, but having already eaten that day, she just stored the grains. The next day, he got the news that the king was performing a great sacrifice and decided to go there to participate in it and receive some remuneration. He asked his wife if there was any food at home, and she gave him the contaminated and now stale grains, which he accepted to be able to perform his duties. In general, a Brāhmana should never accept contaminated food, but he may do so in case of emergency. In his purport to SB 1.17.16, for example, Śrīla Prabhupāda mentions:
“In the scriptures, there is mention of āpad-dharma, or occupational duty at times of extraordinary happenings. It is said that sometimes the great sage Viśvāmitra had to live on the flesh of dogs in some extraordinarily dangerous position. In cases of emergency, one may be allowed to live on the flesh of animals of all descriptions, but that does not mean that there should be regular slaughterhouses to feed the animal-eaters and that this system should be encouraged by the state. No one should try to live on flesh in ordinary times simply for the sake of the palate. If anyone does so, the king or the executive head should punish him for gross enjoyment.”
In any case, after eating the grains, Uṣasti went to the sacrifice and sat close to the three priests in charge of chanting the mantras. He said to the first priest, the prastotā: “O prastotā! If you chant the mantra without knowing the worshipable deity to whom the mantra is destined, your head will fall off.“ He said the same to the two other priests, the udgātā and the pratihartā. As a result, all three priests became silent, afraid of conducting the sacrifice.
Observing this, the king inquired about his identity, and he answered he was Uṣasti, the son of Cakra. The king knew about him and immediately asked him to conduct the sacrifice, to which Uṣasti happily accepted, under the condition of receiving some remuneration. The three priests then approached him to inquire about the identity of the three deities they were supposed to worship.
Uṣasti then revealed the identity of the three deities to each one of the three priests:
prāṇa iti hovāca, sarvāṇi ha vā imāni bhūtāni prāṇam evābhisamviśanti prāṇam abhyujjihate saiṣā devatā prastāvam anvāyattā tām ced avidvān prāstoṣyo mūrdhā te vyapatiṣyat tathoktasya mayeti
“He is prāṇa. From prāṇa all beings have emanated, and into prāṇa they enter at the end. If you would lead the chanting of the prastotā without knowing who the deity is, your head would fall off.” (1.11.5)
āditya iti hovāca, sarvāṇi ha vā imāni bhūtāny ādityam uccaiḥ santam gāyanti saiṣā devatodgītham anvāyattā tām ced avidvān udagāsyo mūrdhā te vyapatiṣyat tathoktasya mayeti
“He is the Sun, Āditya. He is above all others. All beings depend on Him for their subsistence. He is glorified by all. If you would lead the chanting of the udgītha without knowing who the deity is, your head would fall off.” (1.11.7)
annam iti hovāca, sarvāṇi ha vā imāni bhūtāny annam eva pratiharamāṇāni jīvanti saiṣā devatā pratihāram anvāyattā tām ced avidvān pratyahariṣyo mūrdhā te vyapatiṣyat tathoktasya mayeti tathoktasya mayeti
“He is anna (food). All living beings live by eating food, and by food alone are they maintained. He is glorified by all. If you would lead the chanting of the pratihāra without knowing who the deity is, your head would fall off.” (1.11.9)
In the previous sūtras, we already studied the identity of the Sun and anna, or food. Both words are used to address the Supreme Lord. The Lord is the food that maintains all, and He is the Sun. However, the identity of prāṇa was still not discussed.
The word prāṇa can be used in the sense of “air”, but a more exact meaning is “life air” or “vital force”. When we take into account this meaning, prāṇa means the five types of vital airs that sustain the life of all living beings.
On his purport to SB 4.25.21, Śrīla Prabhupāda mentions that: “The vital force of a living entity includes the five kinds of air working within the body, which are known as prāṇa, apāna, vyāna, samāna, and udāna. The vital force is compared to a serpent because a serpent can live by simply drinking air. The vital force carried by the air is described as the pratīhāra, or the bodyguard. Without the vital force, one cannot live for a moment. Indeed, all the senses are working under the protection of the vital force.”
Not only are these five kinds of vital air responsible for maintaining the body, but they also serve as a sitting place for the soul inside the heart. When the soul leaves the body, the vital air also leaves, and this is the end of life for the body. After prāṇa leaves, the body becomes just a corpse and starts decomposing.
One could argue that “prāṇa iti hovāca, sarvāṇi ha vā imāni bhūtāni prāṇam evābhisamviśanti prāṇam abhyujjihate” indicates that prāṇa is the supreme origin, but that’s not the case. Just like in the previous sūtra, the prāṇa mentioned here means ultimately the supreme Brahman. Due to the workings of the material energy, prāṇa maintains the life of all living beings. Just like ether, prāṇa is just an instrument and not the cause.
Another argument is that the verse mentions that prāṇa creates and destroys, but these are qualities of the Supreme Brahman, not of the material prāṇa. When we say that “the hammer hit the nail”, one can understand that a human being took the hammer and used it to hit the nail. It would be silly to presume that the hammer hit the nail of its own will.
Being just an inanimate force, prāṇa is just a tool for the will of the Supreme Lord, being part of His energy. Thus, when the verse speaks about prāṇa, it is actually speaking about the Supreme Brahman working through it.
Exercise
Now it’s your turn. Can you answer the following arguments using the ideas from this section?
Opponent: “The passage of the Chāndogya Upaniṣad describes prāṇa in the regular sense of the word, as the vital air, or the life force. Why are you trying to misinterpret the passage as meaning a personal deity?
The passage mentions: sarvāṇi ha vā imāni bhūtāni prāṇam evābhisamviśanti prāṇam abhyujjihate, “All beings arise from prāṇa and merge into prāṇa”. This describes an observable fact: Prāṇa is the energy that sustains all life. All life starts with breath and ends with its cessation. There is no necessity to imagine a formless Brahman or personal God behind this function, since prāṇa itself is sufficient to explain the process from the viewpoint of cause and effect.”
Description: This purvāpakṣa represents a student of the Sānkhya school of the atheistic Kapila. Their philosophy studies only prakṛti and puruṣa: matter and the individual souls entangled in matter, rejecting the existence of God. Passages of the scriptures that refer to the Lord are thus interpreted as meaning the individual soul, or different material elements and material manifestations. In this case, the passage about prāṇa is interpreted in their line as meaning the vital air and nothing more.
How can you answer this challenge?
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