Khila Kanda. Adhyaya 6, Brahmana 1. The contest of the organs: the vital breath is greatest
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Each mantra is given four ways: the Sanskrit in its Devanagari script, the same sounds in Roman letters, an English translation set in our own voice, and then the line once more in plain words, for a first and unhurried reading.
Not every passage is opened to the same depth. A few central mantras carry the full cross-school commentary, where the schools are set side by side. The rest are kept here whole and faithful, set in their place but not expounded, so the book stays entire and nothing is dropped for being thought minor.
Where the schools read a line differently, the difference is kept open. None is crowned and none is corrected. Each is met on its own terms, and where they contradict, the contradiction is left standing for you to sit with.
The breath is oldest and greatest
He who knows the oldest and the greatest becomes the oldest and the greatest among his own people. The vital breath is indeed the oldest and the greatest. He becomes the oldest and the greatest among his own people, and also among those over whom he wishes to prevail, who knows this.
Whoever knows the oldest and greatest (jyestha, srestha) becomes the oldest and greatest among his kin. The breath (prana) is that oldest and greatest. The one who knows this becomes foremost among his own people, and over any others he wishes to surpass.
In the commentaries
The breath is oldest because it begins to function first in the embryo, and greatest because it sustains the body; meditating on it as such, one gains seniority and pre-eminence among one's people.