Kausalya Ashvalayana asks harder questions: from where is prana born, how does it enter the body, how does it divide itself and dwell, how does it leave? Prana is born of the Self, as a shadow falls from a man, and comes into the body through the working of the mind. Like a king who posts his officers, prana sets apana in the lower body, samana in the middle to digest food, and dwells itself in eyes, ears, mouth and nose. The Self lives in the heart, whose hundred and one channels branch into thousands, where vyana moves. Udana, rising by one channel, leads the soul at death to a good world, a bad one, or the human world, by its deeds.
Then Kausalya son of Ashvala asked him: "Revered sir, from where is this prana born? How does it come into this body? Having divided itself, how does it dwell there? By what does it depart? How does it support the outer world, and how the inner?"
As an emperor commands his officers, "Rule over these villages, and those," so prana sets the other pranas each in its own place. Apana dwells in the organs of excretion and generation; prana itself dwells in the eye and ear, the mouth and nose; samana is in the middle. It distributes evenly the food that is offered, and from it rise the seven flames.
This Self dwells in the heart. There are a hundred and one channels (nadis). Each of these has a hundred branches, and each branch seventy-two thousand smaller ones. Through all of them moves vyana.
आदित्यो ह वै बाह्यः प्राण उदयत्येष ह्येनं चाक्षुषं प्राणमनुगृह्णानः । पृथिव्यां या देवता सैषा पुरुषस्य अपानमवष्टभ्यान्तरा यदाकाशः स समानो वायुर्व्यानः
ādityo ha vai bāhyaḥ prāṇa udayatyeṣa hyenaṃ cākṣuṣaṃ prāṇamanugṛhṇānaḥ | pṛthivyāṃ yā devatā saiṣā puruṣasya apānamavaṣṭabhyāntarā yadākāśaḥ sa samāno vāyurvyānaḥ
The sun is the outer prana; it rises and favours the prana in the eye. The deity of the earth holds up the apana of a person. The space between is samana, and the wind is vyana.
Whatever his thought at that time, with that he enters prana. Prana, joined with udana's fire and with the Self, leads him to the world he has shaped in thought.
Knowing the origin of prana, its coming, its seat, its fivefold sway and its place in the body, one gains immortality. Knowing this, one gains immortality.
English translation · F. Max Müller
1. Then Kausalya Âsvalâyana asked: "Sir, whence is that Prâna (spirit) born? How does it come into this body? And how does it abide, after it has divided itself? How does it go out? How does it support what is without, and how what is within?"
2. He replied: "You ask questions more difficult, but you are very fond of Brahman, therefore I shall tell it you.
3. This Prâna (spirit) is born of the Self. Like the shadow thrown on a man, this (the prâna) is spread out over it (the Brahman). By the work of the mind does it come into this body.
4. As a king commands officials, saying to them: Rule these villages or those, so does that Prâna (spirit) dispose the other prânas, each for their separate work.
5. The Apâna (the down-breathing) in the organs of excretion and generation; the Prâna himself dwells in eye and ear, passing through mouth and nose. In the middle is the Samâna (the on-breathing); it carries what has been sacrificed as food equally (over the body), and the seven lights proceed from it.
6. The Self is in the heart. There are the 101 arteries, and in each of them there are a hundred (smaller veins), and for each of these branches there are 72,000. In these the Vyâna (the back-breathing) moves.
7. Through one of them, the Udâna (the out-breathing) leads (us) upwards to the good world by good work, to the bad world by bad work, to the world of men by both.
8. The sun rises as the external Prâna, for it assists the Prâna in the eye. The deity that exists in the earth, is there in support of man's Apâna (down-breathing). The ether between (sun and earth) is the Samâna (on-breathing), the air is Vyâna (back-breathing).
9. Light is the Udâna (out-breathing), and therefore he whose light has gone out comes to a new birth with his senses absorbed in the mind.
10. Whatever his thought (at the time of death) with that he goes back to Prâna, and the Prâna, united with light, together with the self (the gîvâtmâ) leads on to the world, as deserved.
11. He who, thus knowing, knows Prâna, his offspring does not perish, and he becomes immortal. Thus says the Sloka:
12. He who has known the origin, the entry, the place, the fivefold distribution, and the internal state of the Prâna, obtains immortality, yes, obtains immortality."
Public-domain translation by F. Max Müller (1884).
Text source: Wikisource · CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikisource transcription of a public-domain text)
