Another (commentator) explains:  just as in ordinary language a falcon, although not in contact with the top of a tree, is not only said to be above the top of the tree but also on the top of the tree, so Brahman also, which is in reality beyond heaven, is (in the former of the two passages) said to be in heaven.  Therefore the Brahman spoken of in the former passage can be recognised in the latter also, and it remains therefore a settled conclusion that the word ‘light’ denotes Brahman.

28.  Pra/n/a (breath) is Brahman, that being understood from a connected consideration (of the passages referring to pra/n/a).

In the Kaushitaki-brahma/n/a-upanishad there is recorded a legend of Indra and Pratardana which begins with the words, ’Pratardana, forsooth, the son of Divodasa came by means of fighting and strength to the beloved abode of Indra’ (Kau.  Up.  III, 1).  In this legend we read:  ’He said:  I am pra/n/a, the intelligent Self (praj/n/atman), meditate on me as Life, as Immortality’ (III, 2).  And later on (III, 3), ’Pra/n/a alone, the intelligent Self, having laid hold of this body, makes it rise up.’  Then, again (III, 8), ’Let no man try to find out what speech is, let him know the speaker.’  And in the end (III, 8), ’That breath indeed is the intelligent Self, bliss, imperishable, immortal.’—­Here the doubt presents itself whether the word pra/n/a denotes merely breath, the modification of air, or the Self of some divinity, or the individual soul, or the highest Brahman.—­But, it will be said at the outset, the Sutra I, 1, 21 already has shown that the word pra/n/a refers to Brahman, and as here also we meet with characteristic marks of Brahman, viz. the words ‘bliss, imperishable, immortal,’ what reason is there for again raising the same doubt?—­We reply:  Because there are observed here characteristic marks of different kinds.  For in the legend we meet not only with marks indicating Brahman, but also with marks pointing to other beings Thus Indra’s words, ‘Know me only’ (III, 1) point to the Self of a divinity; the words, ’Having laid hold of this body it makes it rise up,’ point to the breath; the words, ’Let no man try to find out what speech is, let him know the speaker,’ point to the individual soul.  There is thus room for doubt.

If, now, the purvapakshin maintains that the term pra/n/a here denotes the well-known modification of air, i.e. breath, we, on our side, assert that the word pra/n/a must be understood to denote Brahman.—­For what reason?—­On account of such being the consecutive meaning of the passages.  For if we examine the connexion of the entire section which treats of the pra/n/a, we observe that all the single passages can be construed into a whole only if they are viewed as referring to Brahman.  At the beginning of the legend Pratardana, having been allowed by Indra to choose a boon, mentions the highest good of man, which he selects for his boon, in the following words,