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Kena and Other Upanishads: Part One
of our material and phenomenal existence and within the triple term of the Ignorance the knowledge aspect of the Brahman, the consciousness of the knower, and body is that which similarly represents the being of the existent in the mask of phenomenally divisible substance, so Prana or life-energy represents in the flux of phenomenal things the force, the active dynamis of the Lord who controls and enjoys the manifestation of His own being.1 It is a universal energy present in every atom and particle of the universe and active in every stirring and current of the constant flux and interchange which constitutes the world. But just as mind is only an inferior movement of the supreme Conscious-Being and above mind there is a divine and infinite principle of consciousness, will and knowledge which controls the ignorant action of mind, and it is by this superior principle and not by mind that Brahman cognises His own being whether in itself or in its manifestation, so also it must be with this Lifeforce. The characteristics of the life-force as it manifests itself in us are desire, hunger, an enjoyment which devours the object enjoyed and a sensational movement and activity of response which gropes after possession and seeks to pervade, embrace, take into itself the object of its desire.2 It is not in this breath of desire and mortal enjoyment that the true life can consist or the highest, divine energy act, any more than the supreme knowledge can think in the terms of ignorant, groping, limited and divided mind. As the movements of mind are merely representations in the terms of the duality and the ignorance, reflections of a supreme consciousness and knowledge, so the movements of this life-force can only be similar representations of a supreme energy expressing a higher and truer existence possessed of that consciousness and knowledge and therefore free from desire, hunger, transient enjoyment and hampered activity. What is desire here must there be self-existent Will or Love; what is hunger 1 The three are the reverse aspects of Chit, Sat and Chit-Tapas. 2 All these significances are intended by the Vedic Rishis in their use of the word
Ashwa, Horse, for the Prana, the root being capable of all of them as we see from the ¯ sa, ¯ hope; a´sana, ¯ hunger; a´s, to eat; a´s, to enjoy; a´ ¯ su, swift; a´s, to move, attain, words a´ pervade, etc.