blished one.--But no, an objector will say,
just as in the case of the preceding Sutra, so here also Brahman is
meant, on account of characteristic marks being mentioned; for here also
a complementary passage gives us to understand that all beings spring
from and merge into pra/n/a; a process which can take place in connexion
with the highest Lord only.--This objection, the purvapakshin replies,
is futile, since we see that the beings enter into and proceed from the
principal vital air also. For Scripture makes the following statement
(Sat. Br. X, 3, 3, 6), 'When man sleeps, then into breath indeed speech
merges, into breath the eye, into breath the ear, into breath the mind;
when he awakes then they spring again from breath alone.' What the Veda
here states is, moreover, a matter of observation, for during sleep,
while the process of breathing goes on uninterruptedly, the activity of
the sense organs is interrupted and again becomes manifest at the time
of awaking only. And as the sense organs are the essence of all material
beings, the complementary passage which speaks of the merging and
emerging of the beings can be reconciled with the principal vital air
also. Moreover, subsequently to pra/n/a being mentioned as the divinity
of the prastava the sun and food are designated as the divinities of the
udgitha and the pratibara. Now as they are not Brahman, the pra/n/a
also, by parity of reasoning, cannot be Brahman.

To this argumentation the author of the Sutras replies: For the same
reason pra/n/a--that means: on account of the presence of characteristic
marks--which constituted the reason stated in the preceding Sutra--the
word pra/n/a also must be held to denote Brahman. For Scripture says of
pra/n/a also, that it is connected with marks characteristic of Brahman.
The sentence, 'All these beings merge into breath alone, and from breath
they arise,' which declares that the origination and retractation of all
beings depend on pra/n/a, clearly shows pra/n/a to be Brahman. In reply
to the assertion that the origination and retractation of all beings can
be reconciled equally well with the assumption of pra/n/a denoting the
chief vital air, because origination and retractation take place in the
state of waking and of sleep also, we remark that in those two states
only the senses are merged into, and emerge from, the chief vital air,
while, according to the scriptural passage, 'For all these beings, &c.,'
all beings whatev