The Vedanta Sutras of Badarayana: Third Adhyâya. Third Pâda.: III, 3, 43

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43. As in the case of the offerings, (Vâyu and Prâna. must be held apart). This has been explained (in the Pûrva Mîmâmsâ-sûtra).

The section of the Vâgasaneyaka which begins, 'Voice held, I shall speak' (Bri. Up. I. 5, 21). determines Prâna to be the best among the organs of the body, viz. speech and so on, and Vâyu to be the best among the Devas, viz. Agni and so on.--Similarly in the Khândogya, Vâyu is affirmed to be the general absorber of the Devas, 'Vâyu indeed is the absorber' (IV, 3, 1), while Prâna is said to be the general absorber of the organs of the body, 'Breath indeed is the absorber' (IV, 3, 3).--The doubt here arises whether Vâyu and Prâna are to be conceived as separate or not.

As non-separate, the pûrvapakshin maintains; because in

1, and that previously the term 'deity' had been applied to Vâyu, 'Vâyu is the deity that never sets.'--Analogously in the Khândogya-passage the text represents Vâyu and Prâna as different, 'These are the two absorbers, Vâyu among the Devas, Prâna among the prânas,' and in the concluding paragraph also (IV, 3,8) refers to them as distinct, 'These five and the other five make ten, and that is the Krita.'--For these reasons Vâyu and Prâna are to be conceived as different.

The Sûtra compares the case under discussion to a

1, the divinity is each time a different one according to the address, and from this it follows that the three offerings also are separate.--Thus, in the case under discussion, Vâyu and Prâna, although fundamentally non-different, are to be held apart as objects of meditation, and we have therefore to do with two separate meditations.--This is explained in the Saṅkarsha-kânda, 'The divinities are separate on account of their being cognized thus.'

But while in the case of the three purodâsas the difference of material and divinity involves a difference on the part of the oblations, we have in the case under discussion to do with one vidyâ only; for that the text enjoins one vidyâ only we conclude from the introductory and concluding statements. There is contained, however, in this one vidyâ a double meditative activity with regard to the bodily organs and the divinities, just as the agnihotra which is offered in the morning as well as in the evening requires a double activity. In this sense the Sûtra says, 'as in the case of the offerings.'

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Footnotes

258:1 Agnyâdîn apekshyânavakkhino devo vâyus te tu tenaivâvakkhinnâ iti samvargaguno vâyur anavakkhinnâ devatâ. Ân. Gi.

239:1 The yâgyâ-mantra of the first offering being used as anuvâkyâ in the second one and so on.