वेदान्त पारिजात सौरभ (भगवद् निम्बार्काचार्य - द्वैताद्वैत वेदान्त ब्रह्मसूत्र भाष्य सटीक)

[SŪ. 2. 4. 9.
460 VEDĀNTA-KAUSTUBHA ADH. 5.]
is nothing but air that has assumed a different condition, “on account
of the separate teaching”, viz ‘From him arise the vital-breath, the
mind and all the sense-organs, the ether, the air’ (Muṇḍ. 2 1.3).
Vedānta-kaustubha
Now the author is stating the nature of the chief vital-breath.
On the doubt, viz. whether the vital-breath, the oldest, is the air,
one of the great elements, or the general function of the sense-organs,
or nothing but the great element air that has assumed a different
condition, if it be suggested In accordance with the statement, viz.:
“What is the vital-breath that is the air. This air is five-fold, prāṇa,
apāna, vyāna, udāna, samāna”,¹ it is nothing but the air. Or else,
the vital-breath is the common function of the sense-organs as held
by the Sāṁkhyas ² and is of five kinds,—
We reply: The vital-breath is “not the air” simply, nor a general
mode consisting in the function of the sense-organs. Why? “On
account of the separate teaching,” i.e. because in the text: ‘From
him arise the vital breath, the mind and all the sense-organs, the ether,
the air’ (Muṇḍ. 2.1.3), the vital-breath is taught as something
different from the second great element air and from the sense-organs.
If the vital-breath be mere air, then this separate designation would
be set aside. And, if it be a mere mode of the sense-organs, then, too,
its separate designation from the possessors of the mode (viz. the
sense-organs) would be futile, as what arises separately being itself
an object, cannot be the function of other objects like the sense-
organs. The vital-breath, thus, is nothing but the great element air
that has assumed a different condition, this being the only alternative
left. Hereby, any conflict with the text ‘What is the vital-breath
that is the air’, too, is avoided.
¹ For the nature and function of these five modes, see V.R.M.
² Vide Sām. Sū. 2.31.