न प्राणेन नापानेन मर्त्यो जीवति कश्चन ।
इतरेण तु जीवन्ति यस्मिन्नेतावुपाश्रितौ ॥ ५॥
na prāṇena nāpānena martyo jīvati kaścana .
itareṇa tu jīvanti yasminnetāvupāśritau .. 5..
No mortal ever lives by prana, which goes up, nor by apana, which goes down. Men live by something different, on which these two depend.
Commentary:
We sometimes believe that we are living because of the breath, that if the breath stops, we are no more. But actually, we do not live by breathing; we live by that which causes the breathing. If that propulsion to breathe inwardly and outwardly is not to be there, if that billowing action of the coming and going of the breath is not to be there, if somebody inside is not working this incessant operation of the breathing process, exhalation and inhalation, there would be no life at all. We are not living by our breathing process. Itareṇa tu jīvanti: We are living by something which is other than the breathing process, on which the prana and apana are dependent, on which the fivefold prana is fixed. Breath is not the source of our life; that which causes the breathing process, which is very important indeed, which is invisible to the eyes, that is what is to be considered as the source.
When the body is cast off in the case of a person who is ignorant, how he takes rebirth is explained in the following verses.