According to the five functional distinctions of speech, action, movement, excretion and procreation we determine the individual characteristic of the motor organs. There are functional distinctions among the sensory organs also: the ear receives sounds, the subtlest of the tanma’tras, and so it imbibes the greatest amount of sattvagu’na. The nose is tamogu’nii in the highest degree. The ear and the skin are sattvagunii and the tongue and nose tamogu’nii.
The greater the control one has over this vital principle of pra’n’a,
the stronger is one’s power to accept or reject sam’ska’ras.
The greater the control one has over this vital principle of pra’n’a, the stronger is one’s power to accept or reject sam’ska’ras. These acquired sam’ska’ras are perceived in the mind during the still condition of the pra’n’a’ wherein it finds it fulfillment. You are taking pra’n’a’s help every moment of your daily life. Just as you feel the heat or coldness of things through tactual inference or sparsha-tanma’tra, similarly you know their hardness and softness through pra’n’a. Suppose there is cotton and gold of equal temperature. The eye sensory organ will see them, the skin sensory organ will feel their hotness or coldness and the pra’n’a will feel the hardness of the gold and the softness of the cotton. The ear sensory
organ will hear the song and the pra’n’a will appreciate its melody. The ears will hear the scandal and the pra’n’a will receive its harshness and severity; and thus hearing will become hurt and feel pain–it will hold anguish (dha’rya) in the mind. This capacity of the pra’n’a to hold feelings we call the vital core or marma.”
P.R. Sarkar (Subhasita Samgraha – 4)
