Once the sense organs began to argue about which of them was the most important, and all of them said: ‘I am the most important, I am the most important!’ The sense organs went to their father, Prajapati, and said:
– Venerable lord, which of us is the most important?
He answered thus:
– The most excellent among you is the one whose departure the body feels most keenly.
Speech went away, stayed away for a year, then returned.
– How did you manage to live without me? – it asked.
– Like a mute who does not speak, but breathes with the breath, sees with the eye, hears with the ear, thinks with the mind; so we lived.
With that, speech returned to its place.
Then the eye went away, stayed away for a year, then returned.
– How did you manage to live without me? – it asked.
– Like a blind man who does not see, but breathes with the breath, speaks with the voice, hears with the ear, thinks with the mind; so we lived.
With that, the eye returned to its place.
Then the ear went away, stayed away for a year, then returned.
– How did you manage to live without me? – it asked.
– Like a deaf man who does not hear, but breathes with the breath, speaks with the voice, sees with the eye, thinks with the mind; so we lived.
With that, the ear returned to its place.
Then the mind went away, stayed away for a year, then returned.
– How did you manage to live without me? – it asked.
– Like a witless child, who still breathes with the breath, speaks with the voice, sees with the eye, hears with the ear; so we lived.
With that, the mind returned to its place.
But when the breath was about to depart, it dragged the other sense organs along with it, as a spirited horse wrenches out the pegs of its tether. They gathered round it and said:
– Venerable lord, stay, you are the most excellent among us.
Then speech said:
– If I am the most excellent, then you too are the most excellent.
Then the eye said:
– If I am steadfastness, then you too are steadfastness.
Then the ear said:
– If I am success, then you too are success.
Then the mind said:
– If I am a refuge, then you too are a refuge.
Since then, to be sure, they call themselves not speeches, not eyes, not ears or minds, but breaths, for all this is breath alone. (Chandogya Upanishad 5.1.6–15.)
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This parable is human, deeply human. In man, too, there is the desire for dominance, the competitive spirit, the need to rule. And yet we must ask: what makes life work? What is its most important element? And everything else that depends on it is, in truth, that same factor.