The five beings referred to in the above passage of the Brihadaraynaka Upanishad are the Prana and the rest, as appears from the next verse of that Upanishad. — 120.

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11. Even the enumeration of numbers peculiar to the Sankhyas, does not make this passage refer to their Prakriti, because the Tattvas of the Sankhyas have diversity, and because there is an excess in the above enumeration — 119.

COMMENTARY

The word ‘Api’ or even shows possibility, that is to say, that if five times five products be taken, for the Sankhya categories, still the passage win be open to certain objections. Those objections ate two. (i) The categories of the Sankhyas are not five collections of five; they are twenty-five separate things that enter into the composition of every being. (ii) The above passage also enumerates twenty-seven and not twenty-five, for it includes Atma and Amsha as separate entities, from the five times five mentioned above. We must not fall into the error of thinking that the twenty-five categories of the Sankhyas are meant, merely by hearing the phrase ‘five times five’.

How then do you explain the above passage? We reply to this as follows: The word Pancha-janah is a group-denoting term, and is the special name belonging to all the members of that group. The group consists of five members, each of whom is called a Pancha-janah. Therefore, the phrase Pancha-pancha-janah does not mean five times five beings, but five beings, every one of whom is called a Pancha-janah. It is just like the phrase Saptarishi, which denotes the constellation Ursa Major, consisting of seven stars. The word Saptarishi is a special name of every one of these stars, and when we say seven Saptarishis we do not mean seven times seven stars, but seven stars each one of whom is called a Saptarishi. Therefore, Pancha-pancha-janah does not mean five times five products, but five people every one of whom is called a Pancha-janah.

Note: The term Pancha-janah is formed under Panini I., 1. 15 and denotes a special name. There are certain beings, the special name of which is five people, and of these beings the additional word Pancha predicates that they are five in number. The twenty-five Tattvas of the Sankhyas are these: Prakriti, 2-8 seven modifications of it, namely, Mahat, etc., which are causal substances as well as effects; and 9-24 sixteen effects and, (25) the 25 soul which is neither a causal substance nor an effect. See Sankhya Karika 3.

Who then are these beings called Pancha-janah? To this the next Sutra gives the reply.

SUTRA I. 4. 12.

प्राणादयो वाक्यशेषात्॥१.४.१२॥

prāṇādayo vākyaśeṣāt ..1.4.12..

… Pranadayah, the Prana and the rest … Vakya, a sentence. …. Sheshat, because of the complement: the subsequent passage which completes the verse.

COMMENTARY

The Prana and the rest are given in the following verse:

They who know the life of life, the eye of the eye, the ear of the ear, the food of the food, the mind of the mind, they have comprehended the ancient, primeval Brahman. (Bri. Up., IV., 4. 18)

So the five beings are life, eye, car, food, and mind, every one of which is called a Pancha-janah.

Objection: But this is possible only in the recension of the Madhyandinas, who read the additional word Annasya Annam. But in the Kanva recension that phrase Annasya Annam is omitted and we have only four. This objection is answered by the author in the next Sutra.

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