The Chhandogya Upanishad and Sri Sankara's Commentary (Part II)

He who knows the oldest and. the best becomes the oldest and best. Breath indeed is the oldest and the best. (1).

Com . — The northern way of the philosophy of the conditioned Brahman has been explained. Now, in the fifth Adhydya, after having explained the same way with regard to the knowers of the Five Fires, and to such householders and celibates as are devotional in their nature and endowed with other sciences, — what is to be desmbed is another way, the Southern, characterised by 4 4 Smolce ” and the rest, which belongs to those who perform sacrifices alone, and which is in the shape of frequent returns, a wa} r of metempsychosis, much harder than the previous one. Such explanation, being for the purpose of creating dispassion in the minds of men, is now begun. “Breath is the best” among speech &c. This Breath lias been frequently mentioned in the foregoing sections.: “Breath is Samvargd ” &c., &c. 44 But how is Breath the best among Speech &c., when the character of functioning conjointly belongs equally to all of them; and whence follows its meditation?” In order to establish the fact of Breath being the best, the present section is begun. Any one, who knows that which is the oldest in age, and the best in quality, becomes the oldest and the best. Having attracted the listener by mentioning the* result, the text lays down that “Breath is the oldest v in age, among speech and the rest; because while the child is in the womb, the Breath attains its functioning stage, before speech- and the rest, and it is by this prior functioning of the Breath that the foetus grows; while it is only after the organs of sight &c., have been developed in the foetus, that speech &c„ begin to function;hence, Breath becomes the oldest in age. The fact of Breath being the best will be explained by the instance of the Suhctya (horse) &c., &c. Hence, in “this aggregate of causes and effects, Breath is the oldest and best.