Shloka 25
Vāc–Manas Saṃvāda: Prāṇa-Apāna and the Primacy Debate (वाक्–मनस् संवादः)
ब्राह्मण उवाच प्राणेन या सम्भवते शरीरे प्राणादपानं प्रतिपद्यते च । उदानभूता च विस्ज्य देहं व्यानेन सर्व दिवमावृणोति,ब्राह्मणने कहा--प्रिये! वह वाक् प्राणके द्वारा शरीरमें प्रकट होती है, फिर प्राणसे अपानभावको प्राप्त होती है। तत्पश्चात् उदानस्वरूप होकर शरीरको छोड़कर व्यानरूपसे सम्पूर्ण आकाशको व्याप्त कर लेती है। तदनन्तर समान वायुमें प्रतिष्ठित होती है। इस प्रकार वाणीने पहले अपनी उत्पत्तिका प्रकार बताया था।” इसलिये स्थावर होनेके कारण मन श्रेष्ठ है और जंगम होनेके कारण वाग्देवी श्रेष्ठ हैं
brāhmaṇa uvāca | prāṇena yā sambhavate śarīre prāṇād apānaṁ pratipadyate ca | udānabhūtā ca visṛjya dehaṁ vyānena sarvaṁ divam āvṛṇoti |
The Brāhmaṇa said: “Beloved, that power of speech first manifests within the body through the vital breath (prāṇa). From prāṇa it then assumes the mode of apāna. Thereafter, becoming udāna, it departs the body; and as vyāna it pervades the whole expanse of the sky.”
ब्राह्मण उवाच
Educational Q&A
Speech (vāk) is portrayed as operating through the vital airs—prāṇa, apāna, udāna, and vyāna—linking human utterance to the life-force and even to the cosmic expanse. The implied ethical point is that speech is powerful and should be governed with awareness of its life-sustaining, far-reaching nature.
A Brāhmaṇa explains to a beloved interlocutor how speech arises and moves through the body via the different prāṇas, culminating in a description of its pervasion beyond the body. This forms part of a reflective, philosophical dialogue characteristic of the Ashvamedhika Parva’s didactic sections.