Kathopanishad- Verse 5 - kathopanishad-2-2-5-na prāṇena

Kathopanishad – Part 2 – Canto 2 – Verse 5 « »

न प्राणेन नापानेन मर्त्यो जीवति कश्चन ।
इतरेण तु जीवन्ति यस्मिन्नेतावुपाश्रितौ ॥ ५॥

na prāṇena nāpānena martyo jīvati kaścana .
itareṇa tu jīvanti yasminnetāvupāśritau .. 5..

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.

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Sri Shankara’s Commentary (Bhashya) translated by S. Sitarama Sastri

The theory may be urged ‘that the body becomes destroyed only by the exit of prana, apâna, etc., and not by the exit of the âtman distinct from these; for, man lives only by prana and the rest’. This is not so; not by prâna, not by apâna, not by the eyes, etc., does a mortal having a body live. These acting jointly for the benefit of some other cannot be the source of life. The existence of houses, etc., composite in their nature, has not been seen in the world to be undirected by some other not connected with them, for whose benefit they exist; so also, it should be in the case of the combination of prâna and the rest. Therefore, it is by some other alone, dissimilar to the combination of prâpa and the rest, all these combined maintain their life. On which âtman, dissimilar to those combined, the really existent and the highest, these two prâna, and apâna combined with the eyes and the rest, depend and for the benefit of whom (not so combined) prâna, apâna and the rest perform their functions in combination, he is established to be other than they.

Commentary by Swami Krishnananda of the great Divine Life Society

Na prāṇena nāpānena martyo jīvati kaś cana, itareṇa tu jīvanti, yasminn etāv upāśritau (2.2.5): 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.

Links
Various resources on the Kathopanishad
Upanishad Series – Katopanishad Commentary by Swami Chinmayananda

Kathopanishad – Verse 5 – kathopanishad-2-2-5-na prāṇena – In Sanskrit with English Transliteration, Meaning and Commentary by Adi Shankaracharya (Sankara Bhashya) – Katha-2-2-5