Bhashya
कोऽसौ? योऽयं मध्यमः प्राणः,शरीरमध्ये यः प्राणो लिङ्गात्मा, यः पञ्चधा शरीरमा-विष्टः- बृहन्पाण्डरवासः सोम राजन्नित्युक्तः, यस्मिन्वाङ्मनःप्रभृतीनि करणानि विषक्तानि-पड्वीशशकुनिदर्शनात्स एष शिशुरिव, विषयेष्वितरकरणवदपटुत्वात् ; शिशुं सा-धानमित्युक्तम् ; किं पुनस्तस्य शिशोः वत्सस्थानीयस्य करणा-त्मन आधानम् तस्य इदमेव शरीरम् आधानं कार्यात्मकम्-आधीयतेऽस्मिन्नित्याधानम् ; तस्य हि शिशोः प्राणस्य इदंशरीरमधिष्ठानम् ; अस्मिन्हि करणान्यधिष्ठितानि लब्धा-त्मकानि उपलब्धिद्वाराणि भवन्ति, न तु प्राणमात्रे विष-क्तानि ; तथा हि दर्शितमजातशत्रुणा-उपसंहृतेषु करणेषु वि-ज्ञानमयो नोपलभ्यते, शरीरदेशव्यूढेषु तु करणेषु विज्ञानमयउपलभमान उपलभ्यते-तच्च दर्शितं पाणिपेषप्रतिबोधनेन ।इदं प्रत्याधानं शिरः; प्रदेशविशेषेषु- प्रति- प्रत्याधीयतइति प्रत्याधानम् ।प्राणः स्थूणा अन्नपानजनिता शक्तिः-प्राणो बलमिति पर्यायः ; बलावष्टम्भो हि प्राणः अस्मिन्शरीरे- 'स यत्रायमात्माबल्यं न्येत्य संमोहमिव' इतिदर्शनात्- यथा वत्सः स्थूणावष्टम्भः एवम् ।शरीरपक्ष-पाती वायुः प्राणः स्थूणेति केचित् ।अन्नं दाम- अन्नंहि भुक्तं त्रेधा परिणमते ; यः स्थूलः परिणामः, स एत-द्वयं भूत्वा, इमामप्येति- मूत्रं च पुरीषं च ; यो मध्यमोरसः, स रसो लोहितादिक्रमेण स्वकार्यं शरीरं सप्तधातुक-मुपचिनोति ; स्वयोन्यन्नागमे हि शरीरमुपचीयते, अन्नमय-त्वात् ; विपर्ययेऽपक्षीयते पतति ; यस्तु अणिष्ठो रसः-अमृतम् ऊर्ध्व प्रभावः- इति च कथ्यते, स नाभेरुर्ध्वं हृद-यदेशमागत्य, हृदयाद्विप्रसृतेषु द्वासप्ततिनाडीसहस्रेष्वनुप्र-विश्य, यत्तत् करणसंघातरूपं लिङ्गं शिशुसंज्ञकम्, तस्यशरीरे स्थितिकारणं भवति बलमुपजनयत् स्थूणाख्यम् ; तेनअन्नम् उभयतः पाशवत्सदामवत् प्राणशरीयोर्निबन्धनंभवति ॥
In plain words
So who is this child? It is the breath moving through the middle of the body — the breath that forms the subtle body, spreading through the body in five currents, addressed in scripture as 'Great one, clothed in white, King Soma.' Speech, mind, and all the other organs are tied to it, the way a bird is tied by a cord to a stake. It earns the name child because, like a child, it can do nothing with the objects of the world on its own — exactly as helpless as the other organs. That is why the mantra calls it 'the child, together with its support.' But what actually supports this child, standing there like a tethered calf, itself just an instrument? Its support is nothing but the body — something made, something produced. A support, because things are placed in it: that is literally what the word means. This body is the ground the breath, the child, stands on. It is only once the organs take their place in the body that they become working doors of perception, fully themselves; tied to the breath alone, without a body, they are nothing. Ajātaśatru showed this precisely: pull the organs inward, and the conscious experiencer cannot be found; spread them out through the waking body, and that same experiencer, now perceiving, becomes something you can point to — exactly what happens when you wake a sleeper by rubbing their palm. The head is the child's second support, its pratyādhāna, placed against particular spots — hence the name. The breath itself is the post: the strength that food and drink give rise to, since here 'breath' and 'strength' mean much the same thing. The breath is what props up your strength in this body, and scripture confirms it: 'when this self sinks into weakness, it is almost a swoon.' A calf leans on its post the same way. Some say it is the wind coursing through the body, the breath, that is this post. And food is the rope. Once eaten, food breaks down three ways. Its grossest part becomes what eventually leaves the body — urine and feces. Its middle portion, the essence, moves through blood and further stages, building the body's own seven tissues, since the body itself is made of food and grows only when it keeps receiving the food proper to it; starved of that, it wastes and falls. But the finest essence of all, called the nectar, the one that works upward, rises from the navel to the heart, then spreads into the seventy-two thousand channels branching out from there. That essence becomes, for this bundle of organs we call the child, exactly what keeps it standing steady in the body — generating the very strength that earns the breath its name, the post. And through this, food becomes the rope tying breath and body together from both ends, like a tether, like a cord.
Close to the Sanskrit
Who is that? It is this middle breath — the breath which, in the middle of the body, has the nature of the subtle body, which pervades the body in five ways, addressed as 'O great one, white-robed King Soma'; in which speech, mind, and the rest, the organs, are attached — from the analogy of a bird tied by a cord to a stake. This is like a child, because of its incapacity regarding objects, like the other organs. 'The child, together with its support' — thus it was said. But what, then, is the support of that child, occupying the position of a calf, having the nature of an organ? Of it, this very body is the support, which is of the nature of an effect — 'it is placed in this', thus 'ādhāna'. For, of that child, the breath, this body is the substratum; for it is in this that the organs, being established, having attained their own nature, become gateways of perception — but they are not attached to the breath alone. For thus it was shown by Ajātaśatru: when the organs are withdrawn, the conscious experiencer is not perceived; but when the organs are arrayed in the regions of the body, the conscious experiencer, perceiving, is perceived — and that too was shown by the waking through the rubbing of the hand. This — the head — is the counter-support: 'in particular places, it is placed against' — thus 'pratyādhāna'. The breath is the post: the power born of food and drink; 'breath' is a synonym for 'strength'; for the breath is the prop of strength in this body — from the observation, 'when this self, having gone into weakness, is as if in a swoon' — just as a calf is propped by a post, so this. Some say the wind favoring the body, the breath, is the post. Food is the rope: for food, when eaten, transforms in three ways. The transformation which is gross, having become these two, goes also to this state — urine and feces. The essence which is middling — that essence, by the sequence beginning with blood, builds up its own product, the body, composed of seven tissues; for the body is nourished when food proper to it arrives, because it is made of food; in the reverse case, it wastes away and falls. But the essence which is subtlest — called the nectar, of upward effect — that, having come up from the navel to the region of the heart, and having entered into the seventy-two thousand channels spread out from the heart, becomes, for that subtle body which has the form of an aggregate of organs and is called 'the child', the cause of its stability in the body, generating the strength called 'the post'. By that, food becomes, on both sides, like a tether, like a rope, the binding tie of the breath and the body.