lling of a Brahman. If
he is going to commit a sin, the bloom does not depart from his face. I
am prana, meditate on me as the conscious self, as life, as immortality.
Life is prana, prana is life. Immortality is prana, prana is
immortality. As long as prana dwells in this body, so long surely there
is life. By prana he obtains immortality in the other world, by
knowledge true conception. He who meditates on me as life and
immortality, gains his full life in this world, and obtains in the
Svarga world immortality and indestructibility."

Pratardana said: "Some maintain here, that the pranas become one, for
otherwise no one could at the same time make known a name by speech, see
a form with the eye, hear a sound with the ear, think a thought with the
mind. After having become one, the pranas perceive all these together,
one by one. While speech speaks, all pranas speak after it. While the
eye sees, all pranas see after it. While the ear hears, all pranas hear
after it. While the mind thinks, all pranas think after it. While the
prana breathes, all pranas breathe after it."

"Thus it is indeed," said Indra, "but nevertheless there is a
preeminence among the pranas. Man lives deprived of speech, for we see
dumb people. Man lives deprived of sight, for we see blind people. Man
lives deprived of hearing, for we see deaf people. Man lives deprived of
mind, for we see infants. Man lives deprived of his arms, deprived of
his legs, for we see it thus. But prana alone is the conscious self, and
having laid hold of this body, it makes it rise up. Therefore it is
said, 'Let man worship it alone as uktha.' What is prana, that is
pragna, or self-consciousness; what is pragna (self-consciousness), that
is prana, for together they live in this body, and together they go out
of it. Of that, this is the evidence, this is the understanding. When a
man, being thus asleep, sees no dream whatever, he becomes one with that
prana alone. Then speech goes to him, when he is absorbed in prana, with
all names, the eye with all forms, the ear with all sounds, the mind
with all thoughts. And when he awakes, then, as from a burning fire
sparks proceed in all directions; thus from that self the pranas
proceed, each towards its place: from the pranas the gods, from the gods
the worlds.

"Of this, this is the proof, this is the understanding. When a man is
thus sick, going to die, falling into weakness and faintness, they say:
'His thought has depart