state of
dream and the waking state. And as in the state of deep sleep the vital
air remains awake, the word 'samprasada' is employed in the Sutra to
denote the vital air; so that the Sutra means, 'on account of
information being given about the bhuman, subsequently to (the
information given about) the vital air.' If the bhuman were the vital
air itself, it would be a strange proceeding to make statements about
the bhuman in addition to the statements about the vital air. For in the
preceding passages also we do not meet, for instance, with a statement
about name subsequent to the previous statement about name (i.e. the
text does not say 'name is more than name'), but after something has
been said about name, a new statement is made about speech, which is
something different from name (i.e. the text says, 'Speech is more than
name'), and so on up to the statement about vital air, each subsequent
statement referring to something other than the topic of the preceding
one. We therefore conclude that the bhuman also, the statement about
which follows on the statement about the vital air, is something other
than the vital air. But--it may be objected--we meet here neither with a
question, such as, 'Is there something more than vital air?' nor with an
answer, such as, 'That and that is more than vital air.' How, then, can
it be said that the information about the bhuman is given subsequently
to the information about the vital air?--Moreover, we see that the
circumstance of being an ativadin, which is exclusively connected with
the vital air, is referred to in the subsequent passage (viz. 'But in
reality he is an ativadin who makes a statement surpassing (the
preceding statements) by means of the True'). There is thus no
information additional to the information about the vital air.--To this
objection we reply that it is impossible to maintain that the passage
last quoted merely continues the discussion of the quality of being an
ativadin, as connected with the knowledge of the vital air; since the
clause, 'He who makes a statement surpassing, &c. by means of the True,'
states a specification.--But, the objector resumes, this very statement
of a specification may be explained as referring to the vital air. If
you ask how, we refer you to an analogous case. If somebody says, 'This
Agnihotrin speaks the truth,' the meaning is not that the quality of
being an Agnihotrin depends on speaking the truth; that quality rather
depends on