4. They are seven...

4. (They are seven) on account of the going of the seven and of specification.

The question here arises whether those organs are seven only, or eleven--the doubt on this point being due to the conflicting nature of scriptural texts.--The Pûrvapakshin maintains the former alternative.--On what grounds?--'On account of going, and of specification.' For the text refers to the 'going,' i.e. to the moving about in the different worlds, together with the soul when being born or dying, of seven prânas only, 'seven are these worlds in which the prânas move which rest in the cave, being placed there as seven and seven' (Mu. Up. II, 1, 8)--where the repetition 'seven and seven' intimates the plurality of souls to which the prânas are attached. Moreover those moving prânas are distinctly specified in the following text, 'when the five instruments of knowledge stand still, together with the mind (manas), and when the buddhi does not move, that they call the highest "going"' (gati--Ka. Up. II, 6, 10). The 'highest going' here means the moving towards Release, all movement within the body having

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come to an end. As thus the text declares that at the time of birth and death seven prânas only accompany the soul, and as, with regard to the condition of final concentration, those prânas are distinctly specified as forms of knowledge (gñânâni), we conclude that the prânas are the seven following instruments of the soul--the organs of hearing, feeling, seeing, tasting and smelling, the buddhi and the manas. In various other passages indeed, which refer to the prânas, higher numbers are mentioned, viz. up to fourteen, speech, the hands, the feet, the anus, the organ of generation, the ahankâra and the kitta being added to those mentioned above; cp. e.g. 'there are eight grahas' (Bri. Up. III, 2, i); 'Seven are the prânas of the head, two the lower ones '(Taitt. Samh. V, 3, 2, 5). But as the text says nothing about those additional organs accompanying the soul, we assume that they are called prânas in a metaphorical sense only, since they all, more or less, assist the soul.--This view the next Sûtra sets aside.