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.
Speech departs, and they live on
Speech departed. Having stayed away a whole year, it returned and said, How were you able to live without me? They said, Just as the dumb live, not speaking with the organ of speech, but breathing with the breath, seeing with the eye, hearing with the ear, knowing with the mind, begetting with the seed: thus did we live. Then speech entered again.
Speech left, stayed away a year, came back and asked, How did you survive without me? They replied, As the mute do: not speaking, yet still breathing with the breath, seeing with the eye, hearing with the ear, knowing with the mind, begetting with the seed. So we lived. Then speech returned to its place.