2. On account of the impossibility of a secondary (origin of the prânas).
Against the objection that the origin of the prânas must be understood in a secondary sense because the text states that they existed before the origin of the world, the Sûtrakâra declares 'on account of the impossibility of a secondary origin.' The statement as to the origin of the prânas cannot be taken in a secondary sense because therefrom would result the abandonment of a general assertion. For after the text has asserted that the knowledge of everything depends on the knowledge of one ('What is that through which when it is known everything else becomes known?' Mu. Up. I, 1, 3), it goes on to say, in order to prove that assertion, that 'From him is born prâna,' &c. (Mu. Up. II, 1, 3). Now the assertion is made good only if the whole world including the prânas is an effect of Brahman, because then there is no effect independent of the material cause; if on the other hand the statement as to the origin of the prânas were taken in a secondary sense, the assertion would thereby be stultified. The text, moreover, makes some concluding statements about the matter asserted, 'The Person is all this, sacrifice, penance, Brahman, the highest Immortal' (II, 1, 10), and 'Brahman alone is all this; it is the Best.'--That same
77:1 Such as Hiranyagarbha.
