the organs merged in the vital air, the
vital air itself may be characterised by a passage such as, 'Where one
sees nothing else.' Similarly, another scriptural passage (Pra. Up. IV,
2; 3) describes at first (in the words, 'He does not hear, he does not
see,' &c.) the state of deep sleep as characterised by the cessation of
the activity of all bodily organs, and then by declaring that in that
state the vital air, with its five modifications, remains awake ('The
fires of the pra/n/as are awake in that town'), shows the vital air to
occupy the principal position in the state of deep sleep.--That passage
also, which speaks of the bliss of the bhuman ('The bhuman is bliss,'
Ch. Up. VII, 23), can be reconciled with our explanation, because Pra.
Up. IV, 6 declares bliss to attach to the state of deep sleep ('Then
that god sees no dreams and at that time that happiness arises in his
body').--Again, the statement, 'The bhuman is immortality' (Ch. Up. VII,
24, 1), may likewise refer to the vital air; for another scriptural
passage says, 'Pra/n/a is immortality' (Kau. Up. III, 2).--But how can
the view according to which the bhuman is the vital air be reconciled
with the fact that in the beginning of the chapter the knowledge of the
Self is represented as the general topic ('He who knows the Self
overcomes grief,' &c.)?--By the Self there referred to, the purvapakshin
replies, nothing else is meant but the vital air. For the passage, 'The
vital air is father, the vital air is mother, the vital air is brother,
the vital air is sister, the vital air is teacher, the vital air is
Brahma/n/a' (Ch. Up. VII, 15, 1), represents the vital air as the Self
of everything. As, moreover, the passage, 'As the spokes of a wheel rest
in the nave, so all this rests in pra/n/a,' declares the pra/n/a to be
the Self of all--by means of a comparison with the spokes and the nave
of a wheel--the pra/n/a may be conceived under the form of bhuman, i.e.
plenitude.--Bhuman, therefore, means the vital air.

To this we make the following reply.--Bhuman can mean the highest Self
only, not the vital air.--Why?--'On account of information being given
about it, subsequent to bliss.' The word 'bliss' (samprasada) means the
state of deep sleep, as may be concluded, firstly, from the etymology of
the word ('In it he, i.e. man, is altogether
pleased--samprasidati')--and, secondly, from the fact of samprasada
being mentioned in the B/ri/hadara/n/yaka together with the