out of the body by the wise. The heart lights up.

And the soul departs through the hundred and first artery

 

Now the author commences a new topic, in order to show the difference in the methods of going out of body, in the case of the sage and of one who does not know. He had promised to show this difference in a preceding Sutra, and he now goes to fulfill that promise. In the Chhandogya Upanishad (VIII., 6. 6) as well as in the Katha Upanishad (VII, 6) there was mention of a hundred and one arteries by which the soul goes out The wise go out by the hundred and first artery (the Sushumna).

Doubt: Now arises the doubt; Is it right to make this restrictive rule that the wise alone go out by the hundred and first artery, while the ignorant leave the body, by any one of the remaining hundred arteries?

Purvapaksha: The opponent maintains the view that there can be no such restrictive rule. Because, in the first place, the arteries are very minute; secondly, they are very numerous; and thirdly, they are very difficult of distinction by the soul of the dying. Therefore, whether the man be a sage or an ordinary ignorant person, at the time of death his soul cannot distinguish the proper artery by which it should go out In fact, the words of the verse «Tayorddhvam ayan amritatvam eti» show that by going upwards by anyone of those arteries, the man gets immortality. Therefore, it is not necessary that the man should go out by the hundred and first artery only, but that he may go out by anyone of these arteries; provided that he goes upwards, and not horizontally or downwards.

Siddhanta: This view is refuted by the author in the next Sutra.