Bhashya
तस्यास्य यदेकां शाखां रोगग्रस्ताम् आहतां वा जीवः जहाति उपसंहरति शाखायां विप्रसृतमात्मांशम् , अथ सा शुष्यति ।वाङ्मनःप्राणकरणग्रामानुप्रविष्टो हि जीव इति तदुपसंहारे उपसंह्रियते ।जीवेन च प्राणयुक्तेन अशितं पीतं च रसतां गतं जीवच्छरीरं वृक्षं च वर्धयत् रसरूपेण जीवस्य सद्भावे लिङ्गं भवति ।अशितपीताभ्यां हि देहे जीवस्तिष्ठति ।ते च अशितपीते जीवकर्मानुसारिणी इति तस्यैकाङ्गवैकल्यनिमित्तं कर्म यदोपस्थितं भवति, तदा जीवः एकां शाखां जहाति शाखाया आत्मानमुपसंहरति ; अथ तदा सा शाखा शुष्यति ।जीवस्थितिनिमित्तो रसः जीवकर्माक्षिप्तः जीवोपसंहारे न तिष्ठति ।रसापगमे च शाखा शोषमुपैति ।तथा सर्वं वृक्षमेव यदा अयं जहाति तदा सर्वोऽपि वृक्षः शुष्यति ।वृक्षस्य रसस्रवणशोषणादि- लिङ्गात् जीववत्त्वं दृष्टान्तश्रुतेश्च चेतनावन्तः स्थावरा इति बौद्धकाणादमतमचेतनाः स्थावरा इत्येतदसारमिति दर्शितं भवति ॥
In plain words
When the living soul withdraws its presence from a single branch of a tree that has been struck or diseased, pulling back its extended life-fraction, that branch withers and dies. The living soul pervades all the instruments of speech, mind, and breath, and when those are retracted, the soul retracts with them. Food and drink, transformed into nourishing sap by the soul united with breath, sustain the living body and the tree, serving as unmistakable evidence that the soul resides within. The embodied soul remains in the body precisely through food and drink. Since food and drink are governed by the soul's past karma, when karma ripens to cause the impairment of a single limb, the soul withdraws its presence from that branch alone; thereupon, that branch dries up. The sap that sustains life, governed by the soul's action, flees when the soul withdraws. When the sap departs, the branch succumbs to dryness. In the exact same way, when the soul abandons the entire tree, the entire tree withers away. Through these observable signs of sap flowing and drying up, and through the authority of scriptural examples, it is clearly demonstrated that stationary plants possess a living soul, refuting the shallow doctrine of the Buddhists and Vaiśeṣikas that plants are entirely unconscious matter.
Close to the Sanskrit
Of this very tree, whichever single branch disease-stricken or struck the living soul abandons, withdrawing its self-portion extended in the branch, then that dries up. For the living soul has entered into the group of speech, mind, and breath instruments, and upon the withdrawal of those, it is withdrawn. And food and drink, brought to the state of sap by the living soul united with breath, nourishing the living body and the tree, serves as a sign of the living soul's presence. For the living soul stays in the body by means of food and drink. And those food and drink follow the soul's karma, so when karma causing deficiency in one limb presents itself, then the soul abandons one branch, withdrawing its self from the branch; then that branch dries up. The sap, which is the cause of life's persistence, impelled by the soul's karma, does not remain when the soul withdraws. Upon the departure of sap, the branch meets with dryness. Similarly, when this one abandons the entire tree, then the entire tree also dries up. From the sign of the tree's sap-flowing and drying up etc., its having a living soul and from the scriptural example, the Buddhist and Kaṇāda doctrine that stationary beings are unconscious is shown to be unsound.