Shloka 19
Pañcahotṛ-Vidhāna and the Dispute of the Five Vāyus (पञ्चहोतृविधानम् — पञ्चवायूनां श्रेष्ठत्वविवादः)
मयि प्रलीने प्रलयं व्रजन्ति सर्वे प्राणा: प्राणभूतां शरीरे । मयि प्रचीर्णे च पुनश्चरन्ति श्रेष्ठो हाहं पश्यत मां प्रलीनम्
mayi pralīne pralayaṁ vrajanti sarve prāṇāḥ prāṇabhūtāṁ śarīre | mayi pracīrṇe ca punaś caranti śreṣṭho hāhaṁ paśyata māṁ pralīnam ||
Брахман сказал: «Когда я растворяюсь, все жизненные дыхания — те, что составляют жизнь в телах воплощённых существ, — также растворяются в этом теле. А когда я вновь прихожу в движение, они все снова движутся. Потому я — первейший. Смотрите: ныне я вхожу в растворение (и затем последует и ваше растворение)».
(ब्राह्मण उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse asserts the dependence of all embodied life-functions (prāṇas) on a governing principle identified here as the speaker’s ‘I’: when that principle withdraws, the prāṇas cease; when it becomes active, they function again. It frames a hierarchy in which the animating principle is ‘foremost’ because it conditions the operation of the vital breaths.
In a didactic exchange, the brāhmaṇa speaker makes a demonstrative claim of superiority by describing (and theatrically indicating) his own ‘dissolution’ and ‘re-emergence,’ using it to show that the prāṇas in the body follow his state—ceasing when he withdraws and moving when he moves.