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Why learn Tattva Bōdhaḥ ? Self-knowledge and its benefits
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Tattva Bōdhaḥ’ is an introductory text generally prescribed at the initial stages of Vēdāntā study by a student who is keen to learn the scriptures like the Bhagavad Gītā or the Upaniṣads or even the Śrīmad Bhāgavataṁ. All scriptural text books can be studied and understood well, if one goes through the Tattva Bōdhaḥ in the beginning. As the very title of this books shows, it deals with the knowledge of ‘Tattva’. बोध:(Bōdhaḥ) means knowledge and तत् (Tattva) in this context means the reality or true nature. So Tattva Bōdhaḥ means the knowledge of the reality or true nature. Now a question may arise - True nature of what? The answer is the true nature of oneself, the true self, the real self. So we can understand that the meaning of the word Tattva here connotes the real nature of oneself. In short, Tattva Bōdhaḥ is ‘self-knowledge’; that is, knowledge about ourselves. Why should we gain this self-knowledge? Do we get any benefit from this self-knowledge? Is it not a fact that no one will undertake anything unless there is some benefit? These are natural questions which may arise in one’s mind. Every human being is benefit oriented. There is an old Sanskrit saying: प्रयोज ननु म िश् न मन्दऽ�प प्रवतर
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Prayōjanamanudhdhiśya na mandō'pi pravartatē No thinking human being or even a dull witted person will undertake any activity unless he/she gets some benefit out of that. So the question is “What does one gain out of self-knowledge?” There are numerous benefits that we can get out of this knowledge. But here are the five most significant benefits. a) िज�ासा �नवि ृत्त (Jijñāsā nivṛttiḥ) – Satisfaction of natural curiosity Every human being, because of his advanced intellect as compared to other living things, has a natural curiosity to know about things which are around him. This natural curiosity expresses itself in the form of one’s exploring tendency. Wherever we go, we tend to look around. What are the things here? Who are all present here? What is this place? Even as a baby we have done that exploration. In fact a mother gets tired of answering the child’s questions that sometimes she may even get wild with the number and type of questions the child asks. It is this tendency to explore; it is this curiosity, which is responsible for the constant increase in human knowledge. The entire humanity has all the time explored. The lands have been explored, continents have been discovered and explored, oceans and deep sea bed have been explored to discover the flora and fauna present there. We are not only exploring the land and the ocean but we are also exploring deep into the sky, space, planets, other galaxies, distant stars etc. We even have dedicated TV channels which show the lives of animals and plants.
Why learn Tattva Bōdhaḥ ? Self-knowledge and its benefits
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One cannot imagine the amount of exploration that is going on even to know the habits of a lobster! Such exploration prompts certain fundamental questions raised by our intellect. What is this creation? How did this creation start? Is there somebody as the creator of the Universe? Is there a God? If there is God, where is he? Why did he create this world? Why did he create me and dumped me in this world? When did life start? Did I have a past life or birth? What will happen to me after my death? Where do I go? Do I survive at all? Such questions can be endless. When these fundamental questions are answered, there is total intellectual satisfaction.
Wherever there is a developed intellect, curiosity to know three things abounds - to know about the World, to know about God and ultimately to know about oneself – expressed in Sanskrit, these are जगत्( Jagat)- the World , ईश्व: (Īśvaraḥ)- God and जीव: (Jīvaḥ) - Self. This natural curiosity is known as िज�ासा (Jijñāsā) in Sanskrit. Amongst the three, the maximum curiosity is to know more and more about oneself. Am I a free individual or is my life governed by other forces which I cannot control at all? How come certain things happen in my life even though I cannot find any reason for such experiences? There are infinite questions about ourselves which we cannot avoid. We don’t get answers from our parents. Parents generally evade these questions because they themselves do not know the answer. And as we grow up and become adults,
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we get busy in setting up our life, our family etc. and consequently we are unable to find the answers in our pre-occupation with worldly affairs. So while these questions are always kept aside and never answered, the curiosity never wanes. For example, let us suppose that in a class room, the teacher places a big box in the middle which is covered with a cloth. All the students will be unable to focus on the lecture because they will constantly be thinking about the box, guessing what it could contain and speculating why it was placed there etc. This highlights the basic human tendency of the inability to withstand ignorance. Ignorance always drives us to explore. Ignorance makes us restless. Man cannot stand any ignorance especially ignorance of the self. And this self-knowledge, once gained brings a big relief to us. Thus the first benefit of this study is removing or quenching the curiosity expressed in questions like “Who am I? Why am I here? What is my destination?” “Am I in the right direction or not?” which is िज�ासा �नवि ृत्त (Jijñāsā nivṛttiḥ). The second benefit of this knowledge is the experience of a great sense of fulfillment on attaining this knowledge.This is called �वद्यानन प्रािप (Vidyānanda prāptiḥ) – Gaining knowledge driven happiness. It is a happiness or joy born out of the discovery of our real nature; gaining the knowledge of the self, which is so wonderful, so unique that we would not have ever imagined. Vidyānandā is ānandā or happiness born out of vidyā – Knowledge. In this
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context vidyā means self-knowledge. And since this knowledge is permanent and is never lost, this ānandā or happiness also continues perennially. All other things are exhausted in time or exhausted because we spend them, just as the body is exhausted in time and money is exhausted when we spend. Whereas, knowledge never gets exhausted, even after we share it with others. There is a famous adage in Sanskrit. न चोरहाय�न च राजहाय�न भ्रातृ भाजन च भारकार� । व्ययक ृतेवधर्तएव �नत्य�वद्याधन सवर्धनात प्रधम ्॥ Na cōrahāryaṁ na ca rājahāryaṁ na bhrātṛbhājyaṁ na ca bhārakārī . Vyayē kṛtē vardhatē ēva nityaṁ vidyādhanaṁ sarvadhanāt pradhānam. Knowledge cannot be stolen by a thief. Knowledge cannot be taken away by the King or the Government and attached. Knowledge cannot be taken away by our relatives and knowledge cannot be a burden also. When we share the knowledge with others vyayē kṛtē vardhatē ēva nityaṁ i.e. the more we teach or ‘spend’ the knowledge, it only keeps growing perennially. So knowledge is the highest form of wealth. Any knowledge or any discovery gives us happiness. Here it is a subtler form of happiness because it is an intellectual pleasure and not a sensory pleasure. When we eat something tasty, there is happiness but it is a gross form of happiness – gross sensory
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pleasure. When we read poetry or appreciate some art work – we get a happiness which is a bit more refined. But when we get knowledge especially the knowledge of the self, we get a still more refined happiness which is very subtle. This is called vidyānandā. We all can recall how Archimedes behaved as a result of the happiness he experienced when he made his discovery in a bath tub. Is he not known to have taken to the streets naked crying “Eureka!”, so excited by his discovery that he had even forgotten to dress!!! The knowledge about oneself is much more fulfilling as compared to any other knowledge because it is the knowledge about the most intimate thing i.e. oneself . This is the ultimate knowledge. There is no knowledge beyond the knowledge of the self. And this happiness is most wonderful because when the scriptures give us this self-knowledge, they tell us that we are not ordinary defective persons that we think we are and take ourselves to be. The scriptures point out that we are the most wonderful beings in this creation. And when we learn about our real nature, which is such a unique and wonderful thing – our self-image gets a huge boost. At present our self-image is in a miserable state. That is why all the time we are working to improve our image. Right from changing the hair style, dying the hair, changing the eyebrow, changing the tip of the nose, changing the alignment of the teeth, doing plastic surgery to facial parts etc., we are constantly trying to improve our self image. We feel that we have an awful and miserable selfimage and we indulge in these cosmetic improvements so as to
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present a better self-image to the society, an image which we know we don’t naturally have. The irony is that all the while we are fully aware that it is all a false façade or front. We do this because we are not happy with what we are. And that is why, perhaps, most of us do not want anyone to visit us without advance notice!!! We don’t want to be caught unawares with our natural image!!! So most of our struggles in our life are to constantly improve our miserable self-image with which we are never satisfied. The scriptures talk about our image which is far different from and far superior to what we think. The scriptures affirm that: त्व�स (twamasi) - You are - �नत् (nitya) –Eternal; शदु (śudhdha) – Pure; बदु (budhdha) – Enlightened; मक ु् (mukta) – Liberated; असङ् (asaṅga) – Unattached; सवर्ग (sarvagatha) – All pervading - स्वरू (svarūpaḥ) – Self. So contrary to what we think, our nature is eternal, pure, enlightened, liberated, unattached and all pervading. It sounds is unbelievable, but it is true. So when we gain this self-knowledge, it gives us the greatest joy. Thus the second benefit is vidyānanda prāptiḥ, the knowledge that “I have the best image in the world”. What a nice thing to know!!! Even if it is false (which it is not), it is worth rejoicing!!! The third benefit is काप्र ण �नवि ृत्त (kārpaṇya nivṛttiḥ) – Freedom from desperation. It is also known as
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पारातं�त् �नवि ृत्त (pārātantriya nivṛttiḥ) or पारावश् �नवि ृत्त (pārāvaśya nivṛttiḥ) – both meaning freedom from dependence. The vidyānandā that we get by self-knowledge is such a unique happiness that it is available to us all the time, unlike any other happiness in the world which is bound by time and space. If we think about it, all other forms of happiness are all bound by time. The happiness that we derive from listening to music will last as long as the music is playing. It has a beginning and it has an end. Further the happiness depends upon so many collateral conditions, like a noise free environment, good sound equipments, good rendering by the musician and the like. There is a dependence on so many conditions including the proper functioning of our sense faculties. For example, a person hard of hearing cannot get the same happiness from hearing music which another one with excellent hearing faculty can get. Take any type of pleasure we can imagine, it will have a beginning and an end and also often the conditions will be unpredictable. All worldly pleasures are wonderful but they have certain associated negative points. Firstly, they are all finite. Secondly, they are unpredictable. In Sanskrit the worldly pleasures are called �वषयानन्द (viṣayānandā) - experiential pleasures. They are time bound, conditional, unpredictable pleasures. Wherever there is unpredictability, the resultant experience will be one of stress,
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strain and anxiety. So in such circumstances, vidyānandā can serve as a wonderful standby. For example, in worldly affairs, if we have unpredictability about our income, we will want some other source of income to fall back upon as a standby. An intelligent person will never rely upon an unpredictable thing. The scriptures point out that vidyānandā is a standby for viṣayānandā. And once there is a standby, we will be totally relaxed. There is no desperation. Are we not relaxed when we have a UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) device in our house as a standby for power cuts!!! Once we have vidyānandā, the advantage we enjoy is that with regard to worldly pleasures, we are not desperate. We have a standby. Thus we don’t become a slave of worldly pleasures because whether worldly pleasures come or not, we already have a permanent source of joy. Just as we have some bank balance for emergency or a borewell as a standby for water supply, when we have a perennial source for joy, our dependence on the unpredictable and unreliable worldly pleasures gets reduced. If worldly pleasures come, it is wonderful. If not, we have got some other source to tap from. Thus the 3rd benefit is the reduction of the desperate dependence upon the joy given by worldly people, relatives, possession or even the Government. In short, it is the freedom from desperation or freedom from helplessness. There is no stress or strain. This is very important because in modern times, everyone keeps talking about stress and strain. Seminars are organized on the subject of
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stress and strain and ways and means to manage them. And the irony is that more often than not, the organizers themselves are fully stressed in their anxiety about the successful conduct of the programme in the light of various uncertainties!!! This freedom from desperation is kārpaṇya nivṛttiḥ, the third benefit. The fourth benefit is आघात �नवि ृत्त (āghāta nivṛttiḥ) – Freedom from shock, trauma. We all know from our experience that our life is not always a bed of roses. It is not always smooth sailing. Of course a number of things do go according to our plans. But in spite of our best efforts, planning, knowledge, etc. things can go beyond our control and they can lead to painful experiences. There can be no disagreement that life is a mixture of pleasurable and painful experiences. Wherever we would like to change the painful experiences, we would certainly work for that. So if electric power supply fails, we will buy a generator. If the atmospheric temperature goes too high, we will try to get an air-conditioner. If the local transport system infrastructure is awful in the City, we may think of buying a car. Thus we may have solutions to many problems. However, we all know that there are many situations for which we have no remedy at all. Even doctors sometimes say that one has to live with a certain physical condition. Medical science, no doubt, is very advanced and there are cures for many diseases. Even then, there are diseases for which medical science doesn’t have any cure.
Why learn Tattva Bōdhaḥ ? Self-knowledge and its benefits
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Leave aside the cure, they don’t even know the cause of these diseases e.g. idiopathic diseases. Have we not come across such cases? All the parameters in the pathological tests could be clear but we may have continuous stomach problem. Even the advanced tests may fail to diagnose the cause of illness. This is just an example, but there are so many such situations over which we have no control including the behavior of our family members, be it husband, wife, in-laws, teenage children etc.!!! Self-knowledge serves as a wonderful shock absorber. When we are facing adverse and challenging situations in life, this knowledge serves as a cushion, just like a shock absorber in a car. The shock absorbers are not needed when the roads are fine and smooth but when the roads are rough and bumpy with lot of potholes, they become useful. So we need to have them in the car always. They help us to withstand the shock when the roads are terrible. They help us in the prevention of ailments like spondylitis. Similarly self-knowledge helps us to avoid psychological spondylitis which is depression, anxiety, fear etc. We can change some situations but there are many which we cannot change. Lord Kṛṣṇa calls them in the Gītā अप�रहायार्थ (aparihāryārtha) - choiceless situations, which we cannot escape and will have to live with. Some people try to commit suicide by taking some poisonous medicine but even those don’t work properly at times and they survive!!!
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पा�रहायर(pārihārya) means remediable. अथर (artha ) means situations. So aparihāryārtha means non-remediable or remedyless situations – choice less situations. The scriptures point out that we cannot find a remedy for choice-less situations. Why? Because – they are choice-less!!! The scriptures also point out that, even though we may not be able to change the situation; we can modify or reduce and in some cases totally avoid their impact on us or how it affects us psychologically. So while the situations cannot be changed, their impact can be altered. And that is why we often observe even within one family itself, when a tragedy strikes, different people are affected by different degrees. Event is one but the reactions are different. When a toy falls down and breaks, it is the greatest tragedy for the child. But the mother or father does not react in the same manner as the child does. They console the child. The situation is the same but the reaction is different. So the situations may not change but their impact can be controlled by us. There is a beautiful example to understand this. Imagine there are three cups of water placed in a row. The cup on the left side has hot water and the one on the right has cold water. The one in the middle has luke-warm water- medium temperature. You dip your fingers on the extreme cups, say for half a minute. And then you take the two fingers and dip them in the cup in the middle. The temperature in the cup is the same for both fingers. But the two fingers will experience it differently. To the finger which was earlier dipped in hot water, the water in the
Why learn Tattva Bōdhaḥ ? Self-knowledge and its benefits
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middle cup will appear cold. Similarly, to the finger which was earlier dipped in cold water, the water in the middle cup will appear hot. This shows that the situations remaining the same, what we experience could be different and what we experience could be altered. And the contention of the scriptures is that we cannot change many situations, peoples, events etc. in the world but we can alter their impact on us, reduce the impact and sometimes even totally wipe out the impact. And this is what is termed as āghāta nivṛttiḥ. In Sanskrit, the word āghātaḥ means impact, blow, shock, trauma, deep and permanent injury etc. caused by certain experiences. Certain acts of our family members, certain acts of our close friends may sometimes cause a deep injury and scar and some people never come out of that experience. They call it trauma. And our scriptures assert that self-knowledge or ātmā jñānaṁ is a very powerful medicine which can reduce the āghātaḥ of all painful experiences in life. It is the greatest shock absorber. It can reduce the impact of any worst tragedy in life so that a person does not suffer any permanent scar. The person is able to wipe out the pain within a few days and start living again. This resilience of the mind, this immunity of the mind, this self re-generation capacity of the mind can be obtained through self-knowledge, so that we can avoid going to psychiatrists or even think of suicide!!! This strength we get from self-knowledge. A wise person never has a shock, irrespective of the experience the life gives.
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The 5th benefit is – द�ता प्रािप (dakṣatā prāptiḥ) – Gaining efficiency. When our mind is well balanced because we have got a shock absorber, the mind does not go through turbulent conditions at all. A poised mind is an effective mind. An emotionally disturbed mind is a handicapped mind. And even if we have high learning and we are highly educated, if we don’t have emotional balance, our education becomes useless because in a disturbed mind, we cannot tap the knowledge. And that is why nowadays Psychologists say that Emotional Quotient (EQ) is more important that Intelligence Quotient (IQ). IQ represents high intellect, high knowledge, sharpness of mind etc. EQ represents the capacity to remain balanced when things go haywire. And they say a person with a high IQ cannot perform better if he has a low EQ. On the contrary, if a person has a high EQ, he can fully tap whatever knowledge he has, because emotionally balanced mind means intellectually available. In fact, emotional disturbance is like VIRUS for the brain computer – Vital Information Resources under Siege, which means that the information stored in our brain is not available for our tapping. The intelligence has been hijacked by the terrorists and militants called ‘emotional problem’. And selfknowledge is an effective protection against this VIRUS. And once this VIRUS is handled, the IQ becomes fully available for our present performance and naturally a poised person is able to perform better. Thus even from a worldly angle, a person of selfknowledge can accomplish better than other people.
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When we transact with the world on a day to day basis, there are two personalities of us, which are functioning all the time. The first is ‘Receiver-Reactor’ personality and the second the ‘Doer’ personality. The ‘Receiver-Reactor’ personality is that which receives the experiences of life – the ‘Receiver’ by way of the inputs which keep coming continuously from the world – things, people, relationships and experiences etc. Even as we receive them we react to those inputs, as happy, unhappy, satisfied, joyous, miserable, terrible, elated etc. This is the ‘Reactor’ side of the ‘Receiver-Reactor’ personality. In the scriptures this is called भोक्त (bhōktā) – the one who receives the experiences and goes through emotional reactions like राग (rāga) - attachment, द्वे (dvēṣa) - hatred, काम (kāma) - pleasure, क्र (krōdha) – anger, मोह (mōha) - delusion, लोभ (lōbha) – greed, मद (mada) – conceit or pride and मात्सय(mātsarya) – envy or jealousy; they all belong to the bhōktā . And there is a second personality which is constantly working – that is “I want to do a lot of things in my life. I have several goals, plans. I have got an agenda for the entire life and am continuously adding fresh ones, etc”. The one who is working in life to fulfill the agenda is called the कतार(kartā) – the doer.
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These two personalities i.e. bhōktā and kartā, are closely interconnected i.e. the receiver of experiences and the performer of actions. They are like the two sides of the same coin. Since they are so intimately connected, the efficiency of the kartā is heavily dependent on the condition of the bhōktā. Even in sports, the performance of a sports person is heavily affected when he or she has some problem in the personal life, family life etc. We have numerous examples of this. If early in the morning we have some sour experience because of which our mind is disturbed, it will have a negative impact on all our actions during that day. So if the bhōktā is disturbed, it will affect the efficiency of the kartā. So it follows that, if bhōktā can be improved, the efficiency of the kartā can be improved. We have already seen that the 4th benefit is āghāta nivṛttiḥ, which is a shock absorber. So as a bhōktā, if we have a shock absorber, as a kartā, we will perform better. So āghāta nivṛttiḥ leads to a better performance in life. We will be able to set aside those disturbing experiences because the bhōktā is not traumatized. Thus the 5th benefit is the improvement the efficiency of whatever we choose to do in life. This is because as a bhōktā, we have the shock absorber which will keep our mind calm and poised and which will help us to significantly improve our efficiency in all our actions. Many times children have this problem. The child would have studied very well for the examination and would be confident of scoring full marks. But when he or she gets the question paper in the examination hall, the child may not know the answer to the first
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question. He or she is bound to get flustered and nervous. Even though there may be many alternate choices in the question paper, the poise and mental faculty is bound to get disturbed. But if the child can maintain the balance and forget the first question, read the other questions carefully and answer them properly, the bhōktā child will not be affected by the kartā child. But some children become panicky. Even though such children may know the answer to the second question, because of the panic, they are likely to forget the answer to the second question. And when this happens the panic multiplies and this leads to confusion and forgetfulness of the answers to all other questions. Therefore, this capacity to shelve the bhōktā, not to get traumatized, have the emotional balance and be efficient in whatever we are doing, is called dakṣatā prāptiḥ. Dakṣatā means efficiency. Thus improving our efficiency in every field is the 5th benefit. Thus all these 5 benefits will be achieved through acquiring selfknowledge.
Scheme of the Śāstrās
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Scheme of the Śāstrās Once we have understood the benefits of self-knowledge, an obvious question is - Where can we find this knowledge? What are the sources of this self-knowledge? People may be academically well qualified with degrees that literally run from A to Z - and are professionally well accomplished. But they often tend to break down when faced with life as a householder or even some competitive situations in their workplace. These issues could range from a simple difference of opinion with the spouse, disagreement with children, a misunderstanding with a close friend or differences with superiors and colleagues in office etc. When faced with such situations, all academic degrees and professional achievements, all the knowledge from these sources, do not come to the rescue, because all this knowledge and professional achievements do not provide any guidance . They do not deal with the moot question “Whom am I who is facing this world? In what capacity am I dealing with this world?” And, therefore, when all the worldly knowledge fails, it follows that one should go in search of some other source for gaining the knowledge required to face the world. This is where our traditional scriptural literature plays a very very important role. In this vast ocean of literature, we have four layers of scriptures that concentrate on self-knowledge.
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The first and original source is called the वेद (Vēda) or श्रु (Śruti), which is said to be discovered by the ṛṣis or sages. It is said that the Vēdās were directly revealed to the ṛṣis by the Lord or ‘the Creator’ himself when they were in deep meditation. The sages were the ‘seers’ of the Vēdās. They did not compose them. They received the Vēdās directly when their minds were attuned to the frequency in which these were transmitted by the Lord. It’s just like television or radio where one can watch or listen to a particular program only by tuning into a specific transmission centre and a specific frequency channel. Similarly the sages received these revelations called Vēdās, which are the source of knowledge. Vēda means true knowledge. This is the first layer - which we will call Śruti. The second layer of knowledge is called स्मृ (Smṛti). Smṛti is a body of literature written by the ṛṣis – the sages elaborating the contents of the Śruti. So unlike the Śrutis, the ṛṣis are the authors of the Smṛtis. The third layer of literature is called ब्र सत ू ्रा (Brahma sūtrāṇi) or the sūtrā literature, which is also written by ṛṣis. The most important sūtrā is the Brahma sūtrā. This literature is unique because it gives a logical support to the teachings in the Śruti and Smṛti. It reinforces the teachings, satisfying our reasoning and scientific intellect. Our intellect understands the language of reason only. And therefore the sūtrā literature reinforces the
Scheme of the Śāstrās
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knowledge contained in Śruti and Smṛti with तकर (tarka) – reasoning and न्या (nyāya) – logical inference. This is the third layer of literature and these three layers are considered to be the most important sources for self knowledge. These are the foundations or pillars of our traditional wisdom. These three are called प्रस् त्रय (prasthāna trayaṁ). Prasthāna means the method of gaining knowledge or the path of knowing and trayaṁ means three; the fundamental three; the original source of selfknowledge. Upaniṣads come under the Vēdās or the original source. All the Upaniṣads are called Śruti prasthānaṁ. The Bhagavad Gītā comes under Smṛti because it has been written by Sage Vyāsācārya, a great ṛṣi as a part of the great epic Mahābhārata. The Bhagavad Gītā is called Smṛti prasthānaṁ. Brahma sūtrā is called Nyāya prasthānaṁ. And then we have a fourth layer which is called प्रकरण (prakaraṇaṁ) which is authored by the various आचायार् (ācāryās) - teachers or the gurus in our परम्पर (paramparā) or tradition. The original wisdom has been carried forward generation after generation by the ग ु र-�शष् (guru-śiṣya) paramparā. Several works have been written by traditional teachers like Ādi Śaṅkarācārya and his disciples like Surēśvarācārya and Vidyāraṇya Svāmi who was a great ācāryā of Śṛṅgērī pīṭham.
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Even today, great ācāryās are continuously adding to these teachings. Therefore, unlike the first three which are the works of sages or ṛṣis, the prakaraṇaṁ are works of the ācāryās. These are the four sources of self-knowledge. We have innumerable prakaraṇaṁs written by innumerable ācāryās. And generally a systematic Vēdāntik study starts with prakaraṇaṁs rather than delving straight into the prasthāna trayaṁ – the original souces. The reason we choose the prakaraṇaṁs is that they are written by later ācāryās who can understand the minds of the modern generation. They have the ability to present the teachings in a language and with modern examples that can be better understood by the present generation. The original works cannot give modern examples. Moreover, these works are in Sanskrit, a language which many people in the modern times do not follow. As the later ācāryās can render the teaching in a language understood by the modern students, it is easier to start with the prakaraṇaṁs. One of the simplest prakaraṇaṁ is known as Tattva bōdhaḥ, a text we have selected for our current study. Tattva bōdhaḥ is based on on the teachings contained in the prasthāna trayam.It is written using a simple form and in a simple language. It is comprehensive and the thoughts are presented systematically. The author has adopted a prose style in this text. It is generally believed that the Tattva bōdhaḥ was originally written by Ādi Śaṅkarācārya. However, opinions differ on this. Another school of thought claims that this was actually written by a disciple of an ācāryā
Scheme of the Śāstrās
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called Vāsudēvēndra Sarasvatī because, as we shall see later, the text starts with prayers offered to Vāsudēvēndra who is stated to be the guru of the author. It is the tradition of all ācāryās to start their works with a prayer offered to their gurus and God. The author’s name does not appear anywhere in the text. It can therefore be surmised that the Tattva bōdhaḥ was written by an un-named author who was a disciple of a ācāryā called Vāsudēvēndra Sarasvatī. Generally, this name is given to ācāryās belonging to the Kāñcī pīṭhaṁ tradition. Indra Sarasvatī is the suffix that all ācāryās of the Kāñcī tradition use. For example, we all know of Candrasēkharēndra Sarasvatī, Jayēndra Sarasvatī, Śankara Vijayēndra Sarasvatī – all ācāryās belonging to the Kāñcī pīṭhaṁ paramparā. And, therefore, the author could have been a ācāryā connected with the Kāñcī pīṭhaṁ. However, these are mere conjectures as no more details are available. Having said that, it does not really matter who the author of the text is? It is enough to understand that the author is a ācāryā who had complete knowledge of the scriptures and being of the modern times, has presented this knowledge is a simple and easy to understand format. The studying of the Tattva bōdhaḥ has twin objectives. The first is to systematically acquire self-knowledge, which is the primary aim. We have already seen in the previous chapter that selfknowledge has a five-fold benefit. Therefore, gathering selfknowledge in a systematic manner is the first objective.
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The second objective is, as even the author gives or imparts this knowledge; the author is systematically introducing us to the technical terms used in the scriptures. We call it the jargons of a particular science. Like a lawyer uses legal jargons, a doctor uses medical jargons, etc., every subject has got its own technical terms which are almost impossible to translate in any other language. An effective way to study any subject is to learn and understand the technical terms and start using them in learning that subject. The author, through Tattva bōdhaḥ introduces us to these technical terms found in our scriptures. In Sanskrit these technical terms are called प�रभाषा (paribhāṣā). The word भाषा (bhāṣā) means normal terms and paribhāṣā means technical terms used only in that particular śāstrā or scripture. For example, there are different śāstrās or scriptures like तकर शास् (tarka śāstra), व्याकर शास् (vyākaraṇa śāstra), मीमांसा शास् (mīmāṁsā śāstra), योग शास् (Yōga śāstra), वेदान् शास् (vēdānta śāstra), नाट् शास् (nāṭya śāstra) etc. and in every śāstrā there are paribhāṣā शब्दा (śabdāḥ) – words or terms and we start our learning with these technical terms. Once we are equipped with this tool, it becomes a lot easier later on to read and understand the the prasthāna trayam. With this background we now enter the text proper. The entire text of Tattva bōdhaḥ is in a prose form, except for the first and last portions, which are in the form of verses.
Invocation- Prayer
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Invocation - Prayer वासदु ेवेन्द्रयोगीनत्व �ानप्रग ु रुम I मम ु �ूणु ां�हताथार् तत्त्वब ोS�भधीयतेI I Vāsudēvēndrayōgīndraṁ natvā jñānapradaṁ guruṁ Mumukṣūṇāṁ hitārthāya tattvabōdhō'bhidhīyatē In the Indian tradition, before starting any project, undertaking or endeavour - be it a worldly or a religious activity - it is customary to start with a prayer offering. A prayerful attitude is the uniqueness of the Indian culture. In this culture, prayer is not confined to a particular place and time but it is believed that our whole life should be conducted with a prayerful attitude. We believe that we have to convert every activity into a worship of the Lord. Work is worship for us. That is why at the end of the 9 days of navarātri (nine nights) pūjā, we celebrate the āyudha (Instruments) pūjā, which has nothing to do with the religious festival of navarātri. On this day, the instruments that a person uses to earn his living like a carpenter’s tools, the tools of a goldsmith or an ironsmith, musical instruments and the like are worshipped. Another example of this reverential attitude is that a bus driver, when he takes out his bus in the morning, first offers a prayer. Also most drivers will not go in reverse while driving the bus for the first time in a day. They will go forward a little bit and then only go in the reverse. These are examples of attitude. The philosophy is that in life one should always go forward.
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According to the philosophy, success always depends on two factors. The first factor is our own sincere effort, which we call प्रयत (prayatnaḥ) – self effort. Without this self effort nothing can take place and nothing can be achieved. The second factor is ईश्व अनग ु ्र (Īśvara anugrahaḥ) – the Grace of the Lord, which pertains to all the unseen, unpredictable factors. It is equally important that these factors are favourable to us for the success of our endeavour. For example, as a farmer we can sow the seeds for a good crop, but rains must come on time. This is not in our control. We can set out on a journey or a trip, but we wouldn’t know if we will get caught in the traffic or will have to reroute due to a road diversion. We may plan a grand party to entertain friends at home but we cannot know if the fun will be spoiled by a sudden power cut. There are a number of such factors that are beyond our control. All these external uncontrollable factors are called दैवं (Daivaṁ) in the scriptures.Daivaṁ is equal to unpredictable, uncontrollable factors. Therefore before we start any endeavour, we pray that this Daivaṁ must be favourable to us. Some may choose to call it luck or good luck. But the scriptures don’t call it luck. It is called Īśvara anugrahaḥ. Thus both self-effort and Grace of the Lord are equally important for success. Effort is something we can take care of. It is under our control. But the question is how to handle Daivaṁ? This is
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accomplished by offering prayers. The scriptures proclaim that prayers have the capacity to alter extraneous factors. One can, therefore, fully understand the anxiety of the author of Tattva bōdhaḥ. He may start writing the book but he does not know if he will be able to complete it. He knows that there are factors beyond his control which will determine the success or otherwise of this endeavour. And therefore, the author invokes the grace of the Lord in the very first verse. And for the students for whom this text is meant, their anxiety would be that the study, which they have commenced, should conclude successfully. Even for this, they require the grace of the Lord; to overcome obstacles that may come in the way of their pursuit. The first verse is, therefore, called the invocatory verse or in Sanskrit प्राथर श्लोक (prārthanā ślōkā). Another uniqueness of the Hindu tradition is that the teachers or gurus are looked upon as manifestations of the Lord himself. They are the blessings given by the Lord himself. That the guru or teacher is held in the highest esteem is demonstrated in the following verse. ग ु रुब्रर ह्मा गुरु : ह्मा गुरु ग ु रुदवो महेश्वरः ग ु रुरे परं ब्रह्म तस्मै श् ीगुरर ीगुर I I Gururbrahmā gururviṣṇuḥ gururdēvō mahēśvaraḥ Gururēva paraṁ brahma tasmai śrīguravē namaḥ.
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ब्रह (Brahmā), �वष्णु (Viṣṇuḥ) and महेश्वर (Mahēśvaraḥ) are the Hindu trinity Gods. So this verse means the teacher i.e. guru is Brahmā, the guru is Viṣṇuḥ, the Guru is Mahēśvaraḥ. The guru is verily the परब्रह paraṁ Brahma – the Supreme Brahman; Salutations to that guru. As stated earlier, since guru and God are one and the same, often a prayer to the Lord is replaced by a prayer to the guru. ईश्व प्राथर (Īśvara prārthanā) is replaced by ग ु र प्राथर (guru prārthanā). And, therefore, this author also is offering his salutations to his guru – Vāsudēvēndra yōgīndra. Now let’s consider the meaning of the verse. नत्व (natvā) means I offer; my नमस्कार (namaskāraḥ) i.e salutations. (And alongwith the author we also offer our prostrations); to वासदु ेवेन्द्रयोगी (Vāsudēvēndra yōgīndraṁ) – the guru whose name is Vāsudēvēndra and who is योगीन्: (yōgīndraḥ) – a great yōgi. In Sanskrit, the word इन्: (indraḥ) means ‘great’, when it occurs as a suffix at the end of a word. For example, �सम्हेन् (simhēndraḥ) means the ‘Great Lion’, मनष ु्येन् (manuṣyēndraḥ) means ‘Great man’ etc. The word yōga has several meanings. The most popular one refers to the yōga āsanās, which are physical exercises or postures.
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But in this context, the word yōga means self-knowledge. Therefore, yōgi means the one who has self-knowledge – a wise person – a jñāni. So yōgīndraḥ means jñānēndraḥ that is a ‘Great jñāni ’. And interestingly Vāsudēva is also one of the names of Lord Kṛṣṇa who is also considered as a great guru as he gave the teachings contained in the Bhagavad Gītā to the world. Thus the author indirectly salutes Lord Kṛṣṇa also. Lord Kṛṣṇa is referred to as a Jagadguru – teacher to the world, in the following oft quoted verse. वसदु ेवसतं ु देवंकंसचाणू रमदर्नम दवक�परमानन्दं कृष्णं वंदे ज ग द्गु I Vasudēvasutaṁ dēvaṁ kaṁsacāṇūramardanam Dēvakīparamānandaṁ kṛṣṇaṁ vandē jagadgurum Thus indirectly the namaskāraḥ or salutations go to Jagadguru Kṛṣṇa also. And why is the author offering salutations to Vāsudēvēndra? He gives the reason. The author says that Vāsudēvēndra is ग ु रुम (guruṁ) that is, “my guru, my ācāryaḥ, my guide, my master, my teacher”. The word guru means the one who shines the light to remove the darkness or ignorance. In Sanskrit, ru means light and gu means darkness. So guru means the light which removes darkness. The derivation of this word is explained in the following verse.
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ग ु कारस्त्वन्धक वैरुकारस्तिन्नवतर अन्धका �नव�तर्त्वा ग ु रुरत्यभधीयत Gukārastvandhakārō vai rukārastannivartakaḥ Andhakāranivartitvāt gururityabhidhīyatē The meaning of this verse is that the local light will remove the external darkness whereas knowledge will remove the internal darkness. And the person who removes the internal darkness called ignorance through knowledge is called a guru. And what has the guru given? �ानप्र (jñāna pradaṁ)- �ानम ्(jñānaṁ) means knowledge. प्र (pradaṁ) means grant or bestow. The author says that his guru has given him knowledge; he has blessed him with knowledge. And we need to understand in this context that the knowledge he is referring to is आत्म �ानम ्(ātma jñānaṁ) i.e knowledge of the self. And through this verse the author is hinting at another important idea also. He implies that he did not beget this self-knowledge by self-study. He did not attain self-knowledge by his own sādhanā – efforts. He took the help of a guru. Just as every person pursuing his Doctoral degree should have a guide, in the spiritual field also having a guide is compulsory. Without that, one is liable to be misguided, and confused. And therefore, the author says by
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implication, that like him, every student should get this self knowledge only through a guru. Thus the underlying message is that, one should obtain this knowledge from someone who is competent to teach this subject. One must not rely on translations. If sports like cricket, football, tennis etc. require a guide or a coach, what to talk of this highest pursuit in life of acquiring self-knowledge? Having offered his salutations and also glorified his guru, the author next states the purpose of his endeavour. तत्त बोधः अ�भधीयते(Tattva bōdhaḥ abhidhīyatē). Abhidhīyatē means teaching or imparting. He says that he is going to teach or impart; bōdhaḥ the knowledge of; the Tattvaṁ i.e the real self, the real nature, the higher nature, the superior nature. And here is another important message from the author. What we see, what we perceive with the help of our senses need not be the real nature of any thing or any object. Let us take the case of scientific progress. When the scientists initially entered into the enquiry of the creation, they found that the creation has some other truth than what they could perceive. This led to the discovery of many elements. Their first conclusion was that the combination of the elements was the creation. Thereafter, after further research, their views changed. They then thought that the elements were not the true nature but that they were made up various molecules, and so the molecules were the true nature of
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the creation. Thereafter, more research followed and they discovered that the molecules were made up of atoms. Now they surmised that it was not the molecules but the atoms which formed the fundamentals of the nature or creation. This theory also got negated when they discovered the sub-atomic particles and said that the creation was made up of sub-atomic particles. And now the current thinking is that creation is nothing but energy in motion. So according to modern Science, the true nature of the solid tangible wall that we see with our eyes and feel with our hands is in fact, the non-tangible energy! Does this sound believable? Energy cannot be seen but we can see the wall. Energy cannot be touched, but the wall we can touch. This untouchable, imperceptible energy is the true nature of this tangible and perceptible wall. This means what the eyes see is not the true nature of anything. What the sense organs perceive is not the true nature of anything in the creation. So we can conclude that sense organs do not report the real nature. Similarly, the author seems to be implying here that “When I am seeing your self, it is not the real you that I see. It is something different. I cannot trust my sense organs to see the real self in you. And that is why I am going to impart the knowledge of the real nature of the self”. And all this is for whose benefit?
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मम ु �ूणां ु �हताथार् (mumukṣūṇāṁ hitārthāya). Hitārthāya means for the benefit of; mumukṣūṇāṁ refers to those persons who are serious seekers of मो�ः (mōkṣaḥ) - the five fold benefits discussed in the previous chapter, which collectively is called mōkṣaḥ. This is मंगल श्लो: (mangala ślōkaḥ) - auspicious verse or prārthanā ślōkaḥ – prayer verse. In English, we call it the benedictory verse. In the Vēdās such a verse is called शािन् पाठ: (śānti pāṭhaḥ). This opening prayer is in verse form. Hereafter we enter the text which is in prose form.
Sādhana Catuṣṭaya Sampattiḥ- The Four-fold qualifications
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Sādhana Catuṣṭaya Sampattiḥ- The Four-fold qualifications
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Introduction to the four-fold qualifications The author commences his teaching by outlining the qualifications required for a serious seeker to pursue this knowledge. He briefly states that in the following sentence. साधनचतु ष्टयसंपन्नाधकारण मो�साधानभतं ू तत्त्वववे कप्रक व�यामः Sādhanacatuṣṭaya sampannādhikāriṇāṁ mōkṣasādhānabhūtaṁ tattvavivēkaprakāram vakṣyāmaḥ The author introduces the text in a very beautiful and systematic manner. He expresses three points in this opening sentence. Top
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. What I am going to teach? What is the subject to be taught? Top
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. What is the purpose of this study? What benefit is to be derived from teaching? and Top
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. For whom is this teaching meant? What is the target group, if one were to borrow a term from the modern business management parlance? The opening sentence, therefore, addresses what, for what and for whom? First let us consider the question ‘What is being taught?’ The author says तत्त्वववे कप्रक (tattvavivēkaprakāram). Tattva in this context means oneself i.e. real nature of oneself which is popularly called as ātmā in the śāstrās. �ववेकः (vivēkaḥ) means
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analysis or enquiry. So tattva vivēkaḥ means self-analysis, selfenquiry or finding out whom really am I? प्रका (prakāraḥ) means the method, the procedures. So joining the three words Tattva vivēka prakāraḥ means the method of selfenquiry, the method of self-analysis. Self-enquiry will lead to self-knowledge. We know that an enquiry into any subject will lead to the knowledge of that subject. And, therefore, the author says that he is going to deal with the topic of self knowledge through self enquiry so that “you will know yourself better”. Now if you say, “I already know about myself”, the response of the scriptures is “‘you think you know. But really speaking, you don’t know who you are? And even if you don’t know, it doesn’t matter because ignorance, it is said, is bliss. The problem is that not only you don’t know who you are but you have got all kinds of misconceptions about yourself which makes the life worse. Ignorance, by itself, will not create that much of a problem, but erroneous conclusions will lead to worse problems. Self-ignorance and self-error or misconception, are two problems that are causing havoc in your life. Therefore, better remove the ignorance and misconception and know who you really are”. This is the answer to the first question ‘What is the subject to be taught?’ The second question one may ask is “What is the benefit or purpose for which I have to gain this knowledge? I have successfully managed so many years. I have got married, I have
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got children, I have got grand-children. If I have managed successfully for so many years, can I not manage a few more years without Tattva bōdhaḥ? Why are you interfering in my life”. To this, the author responds “Do you really believe that all along you have led a quality life, a life free of strife and misery, life full of happiness and liberation? You have to be honest to yourself”. Other than a jñāni, a realized soul, no one can honestly answer this question in the affirmative. “So”, the author continues “why can’t you have a quality life for atleast the remaining few years of your life?” And this knowledge is the only means to have that quality life which is मो� साधन भतमू ्(mōkṣa sādhāna bhūtaṁ). Bhūtaṁ means in the form of; sādhānaṁ means an intrument or a cause; mōkṣa means the five fold benefits described in the first Chapter. So, mōkṣa sādhāna bhūtaṁ means that which happens to be the means of attaining mōkṣa. The author says “I shall teach you this knowledge”. This knowledge will give mōkṣa which would be a welcome benefit for every human being. This will transform the quality of one’s life. The advantage will be, when the quality of one’s life increases, it benefits other members of the family also. So atleast for the benefit of other members of the family, for the peace of mind of other members of the family, shouldn’t one improve? The next question is “For whom, is this teaching meant for? What is the target audience?” Every institution, be it educational
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institution, or a commercial organization or a scientific research institution etc., has to address this question right in the beginning of undertaking any venture. That is who is eligible to use the product? For example, a student who has to seek admission in any institution has to have several qualifications or eligibility etc. If he has to study any professional course, he needs to go through an Aptitude Test. If he has to seek admission in a US University for a Master’s level programme, he has to first qualify through the GMAT or GRE examinations. Even in sports one has to go through qualifying rounds. In this case, the author calls the target audience for this knowledge as अ धका�रणां(adhikāriṇāṁ). अ धकार� (adhikārī) means the eligible students, fit students, prepared students. So the author says that I am teaching this self-knowledge for those students who are fit, ready and prepared to receive this knowledge. The eligible students are those who possess साधन चतु ष्ट संपित्त (sādhana catuṣṭaya sampattiḥ). संपन्न (sampannaḥ ) means the one who has or is endowed with virtue and this virtue is साधनचतु ष्टय(sādhana catuṣṭayaṁ). Catuṣṭaya means the four fold virtues, the four fold disciplines or the four fold qualifications.Whoever possess these are called the adhikārīs. So to sum up, the author says that he is imparting self-knowledge to the qualified students for attainment of mōkṣa. व�यामः
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(vakṣyāmaḥ). The author completes the sentence stating “I am communicating, I am transferring this knowledge.” Obviously, the next question would be “what are these virtues or qualifications?”, so that one can find out if one is eligible or not for receiving this self-knowledge. It is worth pointing out here that the author presents the entire teaching in the form of a dialogue. This is one of the methods of teaching used by ācāryās especially philosophers. Even some Western philosophers use the format of dialogue for presenting their thoughts. Some of the philosophical books themselves are called ‘Dialogues’. The advantage of this method is that there is an imaginary student and an imaginary teacher. The student raises the questions and the teacher answers. And the questions raised by the students are generally the ones commonly asked by the people. In the modern parlance they are called FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions. So the author uses the FAQ method to communicate this teaching. Now in a dialogue format, it is necessary to know what words are spoken by the student and what words are spoken by the teacher. Mostly, the context itself would supply this detail. However, if it is absent, like in this text, we have to supply the same. So wherever a question is raised in this text, we have to assume that the student is raising the question. In scriptural parlance this would be stated as �शष्: उवाच (śiṣyaḥ uvāca) – the student asks or
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states. Similarly for the answers we have to supply ग ु र: उवाच (guruḥ uvāca) or आचायर् उवाच (ācāryāḥ uvāca). With this background let us look at this set of Q & A. साधनचतु ष्टय�कम ्? �नत्यानत्यवस् तुवव I इहामत ु ्राथर्फलभोगवर I शमा�दषट्कसपित्त I मम ु � ु तु्वम च�ेत I Sādhana catuṣṭayaṁ kiṁ? Nityānityavastu vivēkaḥ. Ihāmutrārthaphalabhōga virāgaḥ. Śamādi Ṣaṭka sampattiḥ. Mumukṣutvam cēti. The student asks: Sādhana catuṣṭayaṁ kiṁ? What is the four fold requirement for self-knowledge, so that I can acquire them (if I do not have them)? The teacher enumerates. Top
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) �नत् अ�नत् वस्त �ववेकववे ः (nityānityavastu vivēkaḥ). The first one is vivēkaḥ which means discriminative knowledge or clarity in thinking. The most important virtue in life is freedom from muddled or confused thinking. Even in the worst crisis the one that can keep his cool and enjoy clarity in thinking, can win. Ādi Śaṅkarācārya has written a very famous work called �ववेकववे चडामू ण (Vivēka cūḍāmaṇi) which consists of 580+ verses. Cūḍāmaṇi means the Crest Jewel. The ācāryā says that
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discrimination or clear thinking alone is the primary ornament of a human being. The gold ornaments and jewels are the not the real ornaments. Of course, in the contemporary times, the word discrimination is used in the media and newspapers in a negative sense. For example, caste discrimination, gender discrimination, nationality discrimination etc. In these contexts, the word discrimination has the connotation of partiality. But in Vēdāntā the word used is vivēkaḥ which, in the absence of a better equivalent in English, is translated as discrimination in a positive sense which connotes clear thinking; insight; discernment. So the first qualification is vivēkaḥ or discrimination. Before going into the details, let us briefly understand what is meant by nitya anitya vastuvivēkaḥ. Nitya vastu means a permanent one; a permanent thing or a permanent entity. Whatever is permanent is called nityaṁ. Anitya Vastu means that which is impermanent. And vivēkaḥ, as we have seen means discrimination. So the author says that the first qualification is to have a clear awareness of the fact of what is permanent and what is impermanent. What is the purpose of knowing that? The purpose is that if one knows what is impermanent, he will never have wrong expectations. He will not expect permanence in an impermanent thing. For example, permanent happiness cannot come from an impermanent thing. This is a very simple fact. But we always expect otherwise. Permanent security cannot come from an
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impermanent thing. So if one is expecting permanent happiness and permanent security from impermanent sources, then that becomes a foolish and unintelligent expectation. And every unintelligent expectation will lead to sorrows in life. In fact most of our sorrows in life are not caused by the world or other people. If we examine carefully, we will find that our own wrong expectations are the causes for our sorrow. Every grief which comes into our life is caused by wrong expectations. In our younger days we might have liked something. And as we grew up, the likes changed. They would have been replaced by new likes and dislikes. It is, therefore, clear that no like is permanent and no dislike is permanent. And this is not only with regard to things but with regard to people also. And, therefore, the people who once upon a time said “I love you” may not all the time say “I love you”. Why? - Because mind changes; values change; ideas change; perceptions change. So we have to understand that our body changes, our mind changes and none of them can remain the same all the time. If we expect them to remain the same all the time, whose mistake is it? It is not the mistake of the changing world but it is the mistake of our unintelligent expectation. And if we want anything permanent, i.e. permanent happiness or permanent security, we should seek them from a permanent source. An intelligent person will seek permanent happiness from permanent source, temporary happiness from a temporary source. There is no harm in seeking temporary happiness or temporary security knowing fully well that it is temporary, because we know
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that it will end, sooner or later. So there is no damage. There is no false expectation. We should, therefore, have clarity in thinking of what we should seek where? For example, if we go an Apparel shop for Deepavali or Christmas shopping... What will we get there? – Only clothes and dresses. If we want shoes we have to go a shoe shop. So we must be very clear what we will get where. This clarity of thinking regarding what is permanent and what is impermanent is called vivēkaḥ. . As regards the second qualification i.e. dispassion the author states इहामत ु्राथर्फलभोगवर (ihāmutrārtha phala bhōga virāgaḥ) – in short we can say, virāgaḥ. This means dispassion; freedom from all types of addiction; freedom from all types of sensory slavery; freedom from all types of emotional hooks. Freedom here connotes mastery. Any type of addiction or slavery creates a stress in the mind. A slave can never think clearly and therefore, an important qualification for any learning is emotional relaxation. So virāgaḥ means freedom from slavery or addictions. One should be very careful in understanding this qualification. There is a general misconception that dispassion means controlling the mind or suppressing the desires.Vēdāntā never advocates such an approach as it is dangerous and could lead to a lot of unpleasant consequences. What is meant by dispassion is gaining mastery over the mind and sense organs so that their activities can be carefully regulated. What Vēdāntā scorns at is addiction or
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slavery to sensory pleasures. It does not advocate complete avoidance. Any addiction is bad and unhealthy and once a person is addicted to sensory pleasures, he will have no time for other useful pursuits, what to talk of learning Vēdāntā! Thus the author is not against sense pleasures but he is against addiction to sense pleasures. And sense pleasures are again divided into two. इह अथर(iha artha) and अमत ु अथर(amutra artha). Iha artha means sense pleasures available at present or in current times. Amutra artha means the sense pleasures which would become available in future, in a different time and a different place. We know that human beings are obsessed with both; not only with the present but we are also obsessed with the future. Building castles in the air is a favourite past time for most us! “What will happen after my child completes his or her education? He/She will get a wonderful job, get enough money, get settled, get married, have children and take me for a world tour etc.” Such dreams are not uncommon. The irony is that the child being talked about will be only 2 years old now and this parent is imagining a world tour being sponsored by the child!!! This is called fantasy or fantasising. Our mind is trapped permanently in these two types of pleasures. Sometimes we are so obsessed and preoccupied with the future that we tend to ignore the present.
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The author, therefore, talks about the फलम ्(phalaṁ) - the result of one’s efforts, in both iha and amutra arthās i.e. present and future sensory pleasures. These are कमरफलम ्(karma phalaṁ). भोग (bhōga) means enjoyment. So with regard to the sensory enjoyment of the present and future, the qualification required is virāgaḥ – i.e freedom from addiction, obsession, craving, madness etc. The third qualification is शमा�दषट्संपित्त (śamādi Ṣaṭka sampattiḥ). Ṣaṭka sampattiḥ means the six fold self-discipline. Sampattiḥ in general means wealth but in this context, this refers to the wealth of discipline. The scriptures consider discipline as the greatest inner wealth of a human being. One may possess or not possess external wealth. It does not matter. The scriptures consider inner wealth as crucial. And that inner wealth is self-discipline. This self discipline; self organization; self-integration; selffocussing is categorized into six components. They are collectively called Ṣaṭka sampattiḥ. The six fold discipline which begins with शमा (śamā). आ�द (ādi ) means ‘and the like or etc”. So the author quotes the first discipline which is śamā and says ‘etc.’ Śamā means mind discipline; mental discipline; thought discipline. The author later explains what are all included in ‘etc.’
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The fourth qualification is मम ु � ु तु्वम (mumukṣutvaṁ). We have seen the word mumukṣūḥ while discussing the prayer verse. So mumukṣutvaṁ means desire for mōkṣaḥ, which is the five fold benefits discussed in the first Chapter. In any transaction of giving and receiving, one can give something, only if there was someone willing to receive it. Giving requires two people. A giver cannot give if the other person is not willing to receive. So the author may say that he is ready to give selfknowledge. He may say that he is ready ready to give mōkṣaḥ, but he can not move a step unless the person at the other end also wants that. This desire for mōkṣaḥ and that too an intense desire is called mumukṣutvaṁ. And last but not the least, च�ेत (cēti) is not another qualification. It is a conjuction used in Sanskrit language which roughly means ‘and’. In Sanskrit, unlike English language the conjunction ‘and’ can be placed either in between the two independent clauses or at the end of the sentence. Cēti has to be split as C and Iti. Thus simply put, the four requirements are Discrimination, Dispassion, Discipline and Desire – the 4 Ds – it would be easy to remember. Having listened to the above teaching, a mumukṣūḥ – a student with an intense desire to obtain this knowledge will naturally raise several questions, to get more details and complete clarity of the
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concepts. He will be keen to know how these qualifications apply in the context of self-knowledge. So the next set of Q & A is: Qualification 1: Vivēka ḥ - Discrimination �नत्यानत्यवस् तुवव कः? Nityānityavastu vivēkaḥ kaḥ? �नत्यवस्त्वे ब्र तद्व्य �तरक सवर्मनत्य I अयमेव �नत्यानत्यवस् तुवव I Nityavastvēkaṁ Brahma tadvyatiriktaṁ sarvamanityaṁ. Ayamēva nityānityavastuvivēkaḥ. The student asks कः �ववेकः ववे (kaḥ vivēkaḥ). What do you mean by discrimination between nitya vastu and anitya vastu, the impermanent thing? The thought behind this question is “In fact I wonder if there is indeed a permanent thing at all. Because in life, what we have been seeing is that, whatever we come across is impermanent. One may live longer but that also will end at some time. The earth also has a very long period of life but the scientists and astronomers tell us that the earth also will not exist permanently. The Sun may live for millions of years, but one day the Sun will also collapse. The astronomers have studied how the stars explode – Nova, Super Nova etc. – so even the stars are impermanent. Thus the Solar system itself is impermanent. And, therefore, the question is “Is there such thing which is a permanent at all?”
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The author says fortunately, there is something which is permanent. He says �नत् वस्त एकं ब्र (nityavastu ēkaṁ Brahma). There is one permanent thing. Ēkam – One; Impermanent things are many but there is one permanent thing – ēkam nitya vastu and the name of that permanent things is Brahma. The word Brahma or Brahman means the infinite principle. It means infinitely big or a limitless entity. This word is derived from the root words बहृ (bṛh) and बहतृ ्(bṛhat) which mean big. So Brahman means the biggest thing; superlatively big; infinitely big; infinite or limitless means freedom from finitude or freedom from limitations. It is free from the two fold limitations which characterises every thing, every object in this world – space-wise limitation and time-wise limitation. That is spatial limitation and temporal limitation. If we take the example of our own body, the space-wise limitation is that, at any given time, each one of us can be only at one place. If we are at place A, we cannot be at place B or anywhere else. We cannot be here and elsewhere simultaneously. This is spatial limitation.
Similarly time-wise limitation is that we are existent only during a particular period of time. Each one of us has a date of birth and we will also have a date of death in future. We did not exist before we were born and after our date of death we will cease to exist. This is called time-wise or temporal limitation.
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When we say Brahman is limitless, it means that it doesn’t have spatial limitation. It is here, there and everywhere at the same time. It is all pervading. That is why we say in our Hindu religion that God is all pervading. He is to be found everwhere, in every pillar and in every rust particle. This sentiment is expressed in the mantrās that are chanted in the pūjās. सवर व्यापननमः (sarva vyāpinē namaḥ) or अनन्ता नमः (anantāya namaḥ). Namaḥ - salutations to; sarva means all; vyāpinē means pervading and anantā means endless; boundless; eternal. If we are asked whether God is present in the heaven or a temple or in our heart, our answer should be God is present in heaven, temple and in our heart also, because he is present everywhere. And when we say it doesn’t have time-wise limitation, it means that it was always there in the past, it is there at present, and it will always be there in future. It means that Brahman’s existence is eternal. Even during प्रलय (pralayaṁ) - the dissolution of the whole world; even when the whole universe resolves, Brahman will continue to exist. So Brahman means eternal, all-pervading entity. That, the author says, is the only permanent thing - nitya vastu ēkaṁ brahma. It is everywhere. Only we have to discern what it is. Only we have to discover that Brahman. In the context of the religious scriptures, Brahman is popularly known as God but in philosophical literature, the name Brahman is used. So God or Brahman alone is permanent.
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According to our scriptures, a real thing alone can give us real and permanent happiness. Anantaṁ – the permanent one alone can give ānandaṁ – happiness. And therefore, Brahman alone can be the real source of happiness. That Brahman alone is the real source of security also, because an impermanent entity cannot give us security. An impermanent thing itself is insecure. So how can one insecure thing give security to another insecure thing? How can one beggar give alms to another beggar? If he does, the giver will no longer be called a beggar!!! So, security and happiness can come only from a permanent source and that is Brahman alone. This knowledge is called vivēkaḥ. The author further goes on to say तत्व्यतरक् सव�अ�नत्य(tat vyatiriktaṁ sarvaṁ anityaṁ). Sarvaṁ means everything; vyatiriktaṁ means other than; tat refers to Brahman. So, the meaning is - other than Brahman everything else is anityaṁ – impermanent. ayameva means this i.e this understanding is nityānitya vastu vivēkaḥ. So, understanding very clearly and assimilitating this fact that other than Brahman, everything else that one can think of is, impermanent, situations are impermanent, people are impermanent and objects are impermanent, is called vivēkaḥ. This is the definition of discrimination.
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Qualification 2: Virāgaḥ - Dispassion Now for the next set of Q & A. �वरागः कः? [Virāgaḥ kaḥ?] इहस्वगर्भोगे इच्छाराहत्य I्छाराहत्य Iha svargabhōgēṣu icchārāhityaṁ The question is “What is meant by virāgaḥ or dispassion?” The author says that dispassion refers to icchārāhityaṁ. rāhityaṁ means absence of or freedom from and icchā means desire, passion, addiction, slavery, total dependence etc. So absence of or freedom from addiction or total slavery is called virāgaḥ or dispassion. And this dispassion is with reference to भोगेष ु(bhōgēṣu) – sense pleasures. So the full answer is freedom from addiction or slavery to sensory pleasures. The sensory pleasures are divided into two types. (1)अधा�मर्क (adhārmik) or immoral sensory pleasures. These are धमर�वरुध भोग: (dharma virudhddha bhōgaḥ) those pleasures which are not supported by the dharma or righteous living. These are unethical, immoral sensory pleasures. (2)The second category is ethical and moral sensory pleasures which are called धा�मर् कामः (dhārmika kāmaḥ) or bhōgaḥ.
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The scriptures say that one has to be totally free from adhārmika kāmaḥ. Such pleasures should be totally rejected, totally avoided and that is dispassion. And with regard to dhārmika kāmaḥ, dispassion is indulgence in moderation. These sense pleasures are further divided into two types. One is इह लोक भोगः (iha loka bhōgaḥ) and पर लोक भोगः (para Loka bhōgaḥ). Iha loka means this world or this life; para loka means after life or स्वग(svarga) means heaven. That is the present pleasures and the future pleasures. The author advocates, icchā rāhityam or dispassion from the point of view of both and that is virāgaḥ. This is the second qualification required for self-knowledge. The rationale behind insisting upon this qualification is very simple. A person who is addicted to sense pleasures will end up spending his whole life in the indulgence of such pleasures only. Where will he find time the time for Vēdāntā? An addict will not get time for any worthwhile pursuit in life. And that is why one should not be addicted to anything. The scriptures say that in the final analysis one should not be addicted to even good things. That is the ultimate freedom. Lord Kṛṣṇa tells at the end of the Gītā, even addiction to dharmā is a form of addiction. सवरधमार् प�रत्यज मामके ं शरणंव् अहम ्त्व सवर पापभे ्य मो��श्याम मा शचः ु
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Sarva dharmān parityajya māmēkaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja Aham tvā sarva pāpēbhyō mōkṣiśyāmī mā śucaḥ. Lord Kṛṣṇa says this towards the end of Gītā teaching because, otherwise, people may take advantage of this statement and start following this advice from now itself by giving up all dhārmik actions!!! So the right course is to first give up addiction to adharma by developing addiction to dharma. First develop good addiction to get rid of bad addiction - just as removing one thorn with the help of another thorn. And later, we need to transcend the good addiction also through wisdom. Jñānaṁ or self-knowledge helps us in transcending. That state is the state of absolute freedom. The student now proceeds with his next question. शमा�दसाधनसंपित्त का? Śamādi sādhana sampattiḥ kā? And the teacher replies: शमो दम उपर�तिस्तत श्र समाधानंच इ�त I Śamō dama uparatistitikṣā śraddhā samādhānaṁ ca iti Qualification 3: Śamādi Ṣaṭka sampattiḥ - The six disciplines The third qualification is referred to as संपित्त (sampattiḥ). In Sanskrit, sampattiḥ means wealth but what is referred to here is the inner wealth. This is the wealth of discipline which is an internal wealth consisting of six types of discipline or six fold discipline referred to as शमा�दसाधनं(śamādi sādhanaṁ). The
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student wants to know about the six disciplines of inner wealth starting from śamā. The teacher enumerates them here. Later he will explain each one in detail. Top
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. शमः (śamaḥ) - Mind control Top
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. दमः (damaḥ) - Sense control or control of sensory faculties. Top
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. उपरमः (uparamaḥ or uparatiḥ) - Withdrawal or Quitetude Top
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. �तती�ा (titīkṣā) - Endurance, patience, forbearance etc. Top
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. श्र (śraddhā) - Faith or trust Top
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. समाधानं (samādhānaṁ) - Concentration, focussing power Top
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. च इ�त (ca Iti) – just a conjunction meaning ‘and’. Next is the detailed definition of each of these six disciplines. We will discuss each Q & A in relation to these. Discipline 1: Śamaḥ- Mind Control शमः कः? मनो-�नग्र I Śamaḥ kaḥ? Manō-nigrahaḥ The first discipline is śamaḥ or mind control. The word śamaḥ literally means śāntiḥ – peace, which also means samatwaṁ - equanimity. So, śamaḥ means peace of mind; poise of the mind; tranquillity of the mind. To use the modern terminology, it means a mind which is free from stress and strain. Stress is a very big problem that everybody faces today. Śamaḥ means freedom from mental stress.
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But, why do we say peace of mind is important? When the mind is stressed or tense or anxious, the mind becomes a भारः (bhāraḥ) or burden for us. It is said that अशान्त्य मनो भारः (aśāntyasya manō bhāraḥ). For a person who does not have peace of mind, the mind itself becomes a burden. Life itself becomes a dragging life. That is why when we ask someone “How is life? “We can hear hardly anyone saying that it is wonderful”. In every language we have some word or the other to connote ‘pulling on’, ‘dragging on’, ‘surviving’, ‘chalta hai’ etc., because the very journey of life becomes a burden and life becomes a drudgery. Whereas, when the mind enjoys peace and freedom from stress, the mind is a light mind. In such a state, the journey of life itself becomes enjoyable. Only a light mind can be used as an instrument for accomplishing our goal. If we study the human life, the uniqueness of a human being is that we have an extraordinary mind. The difference between other animals and a human being is that we alone are endowed with a superior mind which is a wonderful instrument for accomplishing any type of goal whether it is material goal or spiritual goal. Therefore, the shastras call the mind अन्तःकरण (antaḥkaraṇaṁ) – antaḥ means inner and karaṇaṁ means instrument. Only a light mind can be carried by us and only a light mind can be used as an instrument by us. Even in the case of weapons, we can use them effectively only if they are light enough to be lifted
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and carried by us. If the weapon is heavy and one cannot even lift it, how can one think of using it!!! So मनःशािन् (manaḥśānti) – peace of mind is required first for our very survival itself, what to talk of achieving the goals? This manaḥśānti is required for maintaining physical health also. A person who has stress consistently for a long time is bound to have varieties of physical problems. Therefore, physical health also requires a stress free mind. Not only that, even our intelligence can be utilized effectively only when the mind is calm. When the mind is disturbed, however educated one may be, however rational one may be, all the knowledge that we have will not be available for us. Like the VIRUS infected computer where, even though a lot of information stored in the computer, it becomes inaccessible. Similarly all our knowledge, all our studies, all our IQ etc., will all be useless when the mind is disturbed. And that is why the management gurus these days are focussing on EQ – Emotional Quotient to tap the IQ - Intelligence Quotient. A balanced mind is a must to use our knowledge effectively. Thus, peace of mind is required for maintaining physical health, for the upkeep of the intellectual health and for the spiritual journey. Śamaḥ is, therefore, one of the most important qualifications. Lord Kṛṣṇa tells in the Gītā, that śāntiḥ alone can give us happiness. No happiness is possible when there is no manaḥ śānti. So the first discipline is stress management. We should learn to enjoy a poised mind. However, the author while advocating stress management or mind management does not talk about the method
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or process to do that. He seems to say “I don’t care how you do that but if you want to come to Vēdāntā, you should have a balanced mind’!!! Tattva bōdhaḥ does not teach us how to get śamaḥ. For that we have to refer to the Bhagavad Gītā, where Lord Kṛṣṇa himself details the method of stress management. Discipline 2: Damaḥ- Sense Control The next discipline is damaḥ. दमः कः? च�रुा�दबाह्यिन्द्रयन I Damaḥ kaḥ? Cakṣurādi bāhyēndriya nigrahaḥ. Damaḥ means इिन्द �नग्र (indriya nigrahaḥ). Nigrahaḥ means mastery or control. Indriyaḥ means sense organs. Bāhya indriyaḥ means external sense organs. We have already seen that mind is the internal sense organ. The exernal sense organs are five in number and they are the eyes, ears, nose, skin and tongue. च�ुरा�द (cakṣurādi). Cakṣuḥ means eyes and ādi as we have already seen means ‘etc.’ Now what is meant by control or management of the sense organs? As already discussed earlier and at the cost of repetition which is worthwhile, we need to understand this discipline very carefully. Control does not mean suppression. Our scriptures never believe in suppression. Any form of suppression is dangerous because it has the potential to explode later. So by control we mean, intelligently directing them or intelligently channelizing them. We shouldn’t allow the sense organs to go
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where they want. We should direct them to go where we want or decide. It is like damming a river. If the dams are not constructed, the water resources will go to the ocean and will be a waste. By constructing a dam, we will be saving the water resources so that the same water can be channelized to areas and purposes that we want. Similarly here also nigrahaḥ means not allowing the sensory energy to go where they want but deciding to send them in the direction that we want. For example, when a student comes to the class, his ears should be directed towards what is being taught. But if his sense organs are not co-operative, he will be here but will not hear! If he is here and can hear, he has indriya nigrahaḥ. Now why do we insist upon proper direction of sense organs? Why do we say sensory control is required? There are several reasons. One reason is that our mental condition is dependent on our sense organs because sense organs alone are the gates, the doors for the external world to enter our mind. They decide which part of the world and which sound must enter us, which form must enter us, which smell must enter us. What enters our mind is determined by the sense organs. And if these organs are not properly managed, anything and everything will enter our mind and there will be a security problem. Whenever there is a security problem, militant problem or terrorist problem, what do the officials do? They employ metal detectors and every one is frisked at the Gate to determine if he is a threat to peace or not. Similarly the all worldly things can enter our mind and cause a lot of disturbances. We, therefore, have to have a check and control.
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Whatever can disturb our mind, whatever can cause internal law and order problem – for such things there should be a strict ‘No admission’ policy. And this is called damaḥ. This is very important for mental health which is śamaḥ and which is required for the pursuit of knowledge. All these Lord Kṛṣṇa elaborately discusses in the Bhagavad Gītā. Discipline 3: Uparamaḥ - Withdrawal or quietude Going on to the third discipline the dialogue is उपरमः कः? स्वधमार्नुष्ठान I Uparamaḥ kaḥ? Svadharmānuṣṭhānaṁ ēva. This word uparamaḥ has several meanings. One meaning is maintaining the peace of mind which has been acquired through śamaḥ. This means preventing the disturbance. So the difference between śamaḥ and uparamaḥ is that śamaḥ means calming the disturbed mind and uparamaḥ means maintaining the calmness. So the remedy for disturbance is śamaḥ and the prevention of disturbance or maintainance of the peace of mind is uparamaḥ. One is a treatment and the other is prevention. This is one meaning. The second meaning is सन्या आश्र (sanyāsa āśramaḥ) – a monastic life or monasticism itself is called uparamaḥ. But here, the author gives yet another meaning and that is स्धमरअनष ु्ठानम (svadharma anuṣṭhānam). This is the third meaning.
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Now let us see what is meant by svadharma anuṣṭhānam. The scriptures give a technical meaning to this term. In the scriptures our actions are divided into several types. Five types of activities are talked about in the scriptures. These are Top
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. �नत् कमर(nitya karma) – karmās or rituals which have to be performed on a daily basis. Top
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. नै�मित्त कमर(naimittika karma) – karmās or rituals which have to be performed occasionally. Top
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. काम् कमर(kāmya karma) – karmās or rituals performed for the purpose of attaining some desired results e.g. going to heaven after death or for begetting children etc. Top
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. प्रायिश् कमर(prāyaścitta karma) – karmās or rituals performed for expiation of sins or making amends for sins. Top
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. �न�षद कमर(niṣiddha karma) – karmās or rituals performed for causing some harm to someone. These are forbidden karmās. Of these five types of karmās, the scriptures say that we should eliminate the last three to the extent possible and retain the first two. That is nitya and naimittika karmās should be performed without fail and kāmya, prāyaścitta and niṣiddha karmās should be reduced significantly. The reason for this injuction is that the first two i.e. nitya and naimittika are supposed to be conducive for spiritual growth. They
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can be called Vēdāntā friendly karmās. Just as we have a gymnasium where we can do certain types of exercises for the sake of our physical health or growth, we require a ‘gymnasium’ for our mental health and spiritual growth. According to the scriptures, the nitya and naimittika karmās act like that ‘gymnasium’. We can, therefore, term these two karmās as spiritual growth oriented activities or spiritual activities. The other three i.e. kāmya, prāyaścitta and niṣiddha karmās are supposed to be Vēdāntā unfriendly karmās. Kāmya karmās are meant for the material growth of the individual or external growth of the individual for prosperity, name, fame etc. We can simply call them materialistic activities. Prāyaścitta karmās are those activities which are meant to neutralize or nullify our own past negative actions or activities. They are like medicinal karmās. If we have eaten something which is not suitable to our system, we are bound to end up with a stomach upset. So there has been a wrong action on our part which is - eating the wrong food. We take certain medicines to treat this condition. This medicine consumption is an activity not meant for spiritual growth, not meant for material growth. But it is meant for neutralising the previous negative activities. They are called prāyaścitta karmās or parihāra karmās. The fifth type of Karmā is known as niṣiddha karmās. They represents all those actions which may be beneficial to us but which are harmful to the other people. One should not, therefore, engage in those actions.
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For example, let us take the case of a person wanting to smoke. It may give him some pleasure. But as long as it is damaging to other people, through passive smoking, he should not do that action, if he is sensible and considerate. It is a different matter that irrespective of giving him some pleasure, smoking is bad for his own health also. We can imagine any number of such activities. The scriptures ban such karmās`. So niṣiddha karmās mean prohibited actions. The scriptures contain a huge a list of such actions. We need to study them not for following but for avoiding. Like in diet we have got what to eat and what to avoid. Similarly we have a huge list of such prohibited actions in the scriptures for diligently avoiding them. Uparamaḥ, therefore, is the gradual increase of the first two types of activities which are meant for spiritual growth and the gradual reduction of the other three activities. Thus we need to tilt the balance of activities in our life. And here the use of the word svadharma by the author refers to the nitya and naimittika karmās. अनष ु्ठानम (anuṣṭhānam) means performance. And एव (eva) means only i.e. confining to those activities only. One should, therefore, confine oneself only to the two Vēdāntā friendly activities and avoid or reduce the other three types of karmās.
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Discipline 4: Titikṣā – Endurance or forbearance �त�त�ा का? शीतोष्णसुखद : ्णसुखदख़ा�दस�हष्णु त्व I Titikṣā kā? Śītōṣṇa sukhaduḥḵẖādi sahiṣṇutvaṁ The fourth discipline which is part of the third qualification is called Titikṣā. This is considered to be a very important and useful discipline not only for spiritual seekers but also for all others who may not be spiritually oriented. This is based on the idea that we, human beings will have to often face painful experiences in life. No human being’s life is a uniform path of roses. Everyone will have to face painful experiences. And that is why we are advised to read the scriptures and the mythological stories i.e Purānās regularly because when we read them we find that all people, irrespective of whether they were good or bad, dhārmik or adhārmik - everyone confronts misery and pain. And that is why Bhagavān Rāmā himself incarnated as a human being, and suffered painful experiences. Lord Kṛṣṇa was born in a jail. So from his birth itself he faced challenges. Dharmaputra Yudhistirā considered as an embodiment of dharmā and a paragon of virtue had to live in the forests for fourteen long years. Then we have the story of Nala and Damayanti. We have got stories after stories from which we learn that life has got lot of pleasurable moments but whether we like it or not, life involves various painful experiences also with various gradations. Some of these are in the form of physical pain and some of them are in the form of mental anguish. Physical pain is called
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व्या (vyādhi) in Sanskrit. Mental pain is called आ ध (ādhi). So it is said that आ धव्या स�हतंजन् (ādhivyādhi sahitaṁ janma) – Physical pain and mental anguish are constant companions in life. The unfortunate fact is that when we go through pain, be it physical or mental, it invariably results in the mind becoming burdensome. As we have seen earlier a burdened mind is good for nothing. Conducting life itself becomes very difficult. One cannot engage in any constructive activity – what to talk of spiritual studies! So it follows that every human being has to find a method of handling pain. When faced with such situation, we all first try some of the conventional methods. The first method we generally try is finding out a solution or a remedy for the pain by bringing about the appropriate changes in the conditions. This is the remedial method and sometimes this method works also. But often the remedial measures may prove to be very expensive - physically, mentally, timewise, energy wise, tension wise, stress wise etc. And worse still, often we may find that with the remedy the present pain may go away but it may soon get replaced with another type of pain. Bhāgawathaṁ gives an example of a person carrying a load on his right shoulder. When he switches the load from the right shoulder to the left shoulder, he gets immense relief for a short while but soon enough the pain starts in his left shoulder. Nevertheless, we do tend to take this approach which we may call the ‘solution’ approach.
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Then there is a second method. We go on tolerating the pain because either there is no remedy, or the remedy is very expensive or we know that the remedy would lead to some other pain. Whatever be the reason, we go on experiencing the pain because of which pressure mounts up in our mind and body. A time comes when we are no longer able to handle the pain. And then the only solution we find is to convert the pain into anger and explode. It is called blowing the top, letting out the steam on any helpless victim who comes in the vicinity. This is the ‘explosion’ approach. But there may situation when we cannot explode because the all the people around are elderly or seniors etc. and therefore, we may opt to suppress the pain and suffer it silently for years and years. And in such suppression, there will not be an explosion but an implosion. We will end up victimising ourselves resulting in a lot of psychological damage. One may feel that one has become a worthless, useless person, psychologically, because of deep trauma. Therefore suppression is also not a proper solution because that will cause immense self-damage. We are aware of only these three methods to solve our problem. But our scriptures talk about a fourth method which we do not know or think about much. Bhagavān or the Lord has given all of us a capacity to tolerate pain or withstand pain. This is called endurance or tolerance which is called titikṣā. Everyone has got this tolerance, but the only difference is that this tolerance threshold varies from individual to individual. Therefore, we talk about a short-tempered person. The
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situation remaining the same, one person explodes immediately, another person after a few days and another person after a few more days. So all of us have titikṣā but the threshold varies. When the pain is within the threshold limits or tolerance levels, we do not experience it as pain at all. Pain is not pain within our threshold. A pain is a pain only when it goes beyond the threshold. And so suppose if we find out a method by which the threshold levels or titikṣā is gradually increased by appropriate understanding and sādhanā or practice? If we can thus increase the threshold, what is pain to others will not be one for us because feeling of pain is highly subjective. When the pain falls within the threshold, the mind calls it a situation. When it goes beyond the threshold, we call it pain. So titikṣā means increasing the level of endurance or patience or immunity or resistance power – both physically and mentally. Like a healthy body is immune to diseases that are around, a healthy mind also has a high resistance or tolerance power. The author, therefore, says that the fourth method is the elevation of the threshold level of our endurance or capacity. This capacity he refers to as स�हष्णु त्व (sahiṣṇutvam) which means endurance or forbearance. At the physical level it is called endurance and at the mental level it is called forbearance or patience. These two together is called titikṣā. The author illustrates this qualification both at the physical and mental level. At the physical level, he refers to sahiṣṇutvam with
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regard to शीत (śīta) i.e. cold and उष् (uṣṇa) i.e. heat. So one aspect of sahiṣṇutvam is the physical capacity to withstand the ups and downs in the physical conditions like summer winter, rain etc. For example, in hot summer season, one may use an airconditioner at home but airconditioners may not be available everywhere where one goes. If the physical body cannot tolerate the conditions in a non-airconditioned place like a class room, the student will not be able to concentrate in the class. It is, therefore, very important to develop physical toughness. This is referred to by the author as śītōṣṇa sahiṣṇutvam. The author also talks about developing this endurance at the mental level and refers to it as सख ु (sukha) – pleasure and दःख ु (duḥkha) – mental agony. It is with regard to emotional pain we suffer, due to the actions of people around including our own family members. We usually have got high expectations. How our spouses should treat us, how our children should treat us or the daughter-in-law should treat us, how the grand children should treat us, how the taxi driver should treat us, how the vendor should treat us, how a beggar should treat us etc. We have expectations and any expectation not fulfilled comes as mental pain. It can be caused by their behaviour or it can be caused by their language. Suppose we are talking to a person and that person looks elsewhere. This will cause us pain. The more sensitive we are, the greater the pain we will suffer. So the greater the sensitivity, the greater should be the tolerance level. Otherwise the
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life will be miserable. And even if we want to share the pain with someone, nobody will be available. Therefore, in all unfavourable situations - we should have the capacity to bring all of them within our tolerance limits. That means that we should make our tolerance limit higher and higher so that all situations which cause pain can come with those limits. We need to understand one aspect carefully. Suppose after increasing our tolerance limits, we find that our child misbehaves or throws tantrums. What should we do? Do we say that because of the highly increased tolerance levels, we have now the capacity to tolerate the misbehaviour? That would be foolish. We will need to correct the child. Now we may correct the child for two reasons – one, because of our intolerence and the second because such a behaviour is not good for the child’s growth. Therefore, it does not mean that a man or woman of titikṣā should go on endlessly tolerating such misbehaviour. They have also a responsibility to work to improve the situation, not because of intolerance but because the situation needs to be improved for the sake of the child’s future. This is titikṣā, the fourth discipline. The fifth discipline is śraddhā. Discipline 5: Śraddhā – Faith or trust श्र क�दृश ? ग ु रुवेदान्तवाक्या �वश्वास श्र I Śraddhā kīdṛśī? Guru vēdāntavākyādiṣu viśvāsaḥ śraddhā Guru means teacher or the scriptural preceptor. Literally, it means the one who dispels the internal darkness which is ignorance.
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All emotional problems, which are called सम्सार (samsārā), are caused only due to ignorance. And according to Vēdāntā, the samsārā disease is caused by the bacteria called self-ignorance. And if we want to cure this रोग (roga) – disease, this samsārā roga or bhava roga as it also called, we have to approach that doctor who can destroy the bacteria called ignorance. . For the normal biological bacteria the antidote is anti-biotics. But for this ‘ignorance bacteria’, jñānaṁ or knowledge tablet is the only medicine which can remove the bacteria. And therefore, we have to undergo a treatment, a therapy to cure this bhava roga. The shāstrās say that, whenever we undergo a medical treatment, it is very important that we have faith in the doctor and also the course of treatment that he prescribes. Even the modern medical system accepts that. If the patient does not have faith in the doctor, even the best of the medicines will not work. The researchers have found another factor also. If the patient has full faith in the doctor, even a dummy medicine or pure water injection i.e what is called a placebo, also will work wonders. So it is an accepted fact that faith plays a very very important role in any therapy and spiritual sādhanā is also a form of treatment that we undergo to get out of samsārā roga or bhava roga. So the first requirement is to have faith in the doctor and also in the system. We have so many ‘pathys’ - Allopathy, Homeopathy, Naturopathy etc. The interesting aspect is that each one says the other system is useless. If we go to a Homeopathy doctor, he will advice us to stop
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all Allopathic medicines because, he will say that if we continue to take Allopathic medicines, Homeopathy wont’ work!!! And within one ‘pathy’ itself, two doctors will not agree on a course of treatment. There is an interesting anecdote. Once a person went to a doctor and told him that till then he was taking the treatment from another neighbourhood doctor. So this doctor asked him “What foolish advice did the other doctor give?” To which the patient replied “He advised me to come to you!!!” One doctor will insist that we have to undergo chemotherapy. Another doctor will say, ‘No’, we have to undergo surgery. Yet another doctor will say that we will have to take radiation. And an Ayurvēda doctor will say that he will give some paste and the ailment will vanish in thin air. It is humoursly said about Ayurvēda medicine that: यस् कस् तरोम ू र्ल यने केन प्पेषयेर पेषये । यस्मकस्मप्रदातव यद्व तद्व भ�वष्य ॥ Yasya kasya tarōrmūlaṁ yēna kēna prapēṣayēt. Yasmai kasmai pradātavyaṁ yadvā tadvā bhaviṣyati. It means, just pick up some root, any root and make a paste with something like milk, honey or butter milk etc. And administer the paste to whichever victim comes to you. What will happen? It says something or the other is sure to happen!!! So given this state of affairs, it will not be surprising if we will be utterly confused especially in case of very serious diseases There
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will be a terrible conflict in our minds. So what can we do? It is here that we need to have faith in a particular doctor and surrender to Lord Vaidyanāthā - the Lord of all medicines and go ahead. If this is true for physical diseases, this truth holds good for the spiritual disease also. So, whomsoever you have chosen for a Guru, pray that he is not a quack. This guru may practice a particular system called Advaita Vēdāntā. Here also there could be a conflict. There are other systems called Dvaita, Vishistādvaita etc. This guru may claim that he is teaching Advaita Vēdāntā. As we know nothing about any of these systems, we should hope and pray that this teaching will be useful to us. If that faith, that śraddhā is not there, it will not work. So the student asks śraddhā kīdṛśī? What is that śraddhā that one should have? And the author says viśvāsaḥ – faith; Guru Vēdānta vākyēṣu - in the words of the guru and Vēdāntā i.e. scriptures. Reverting to the example of doctor and medicine cited earlier, guru is the doctor and Vēdāntā is the system of medicine – we need to have faith in both. Discipline 6: Samādhānaṁ – Concentration or focusing power Now the sixth and final discipline relating to the third qualification which it would be useful to remember is षट् संपित्त (Ṣaṭka sampattiḥ) – the six fold discipline. The Q & A is: समाधानं�कम? ् चत्तैकाग् I
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Samādhānaṁ kiṁ? Cittaikāgratā. Citta ēkāgratā is the focusing capacity of mind. Concentration or attention span is called samādhānaṁ. In life we should be first clear about our goal. What do we want in life? For many of us, even this would not be clear. They would have lived their whole life of 70+ years without knowing what they wanted. They just follow others like sheep. It is a mechanical flow without any clear idea about the goal. We, therefore, need to fix the goals, both short term and long term goals. We should be clear about our immediate goal and our long term goal. It should be thoughtfully decided and once we have decided them, we should carry them in our mind all the time. Is the ultimate goal of our life merely earning money, securing food, clothing and shelter and producing some children? Is that the life’s goal? If that is the goal, animals are better than humans because some of them do these tasks much more efficiently than humans! On the contrary, if our goals are something more exalted, we should take them very seriously and have a clear idea about our priorities. Once these short and long term goals are fixed, we should always remember these two goals. This capacity to keep the goals in the mind all the time is called ēkāgratā. Thus citta ēkāgratā is samādhānaṁ which includes our capacity to focus on the teachings given by the Guru. This is required not only for Vēdāntā but for
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any achievement in life, be it sports or any other discipline. Success in any field requires concentration. So this completes the six fold inner discipline as also the third qualification. The next i.e. the fourth qualification that the author talks about is mumukṣutvam. Qualification 4: Mumukṣutvaṁ - Intense desire मम ु � ु तु्वम �कम ्? मो�ो मेभया ू द इ�त इच्छ I Mumukṣutvaṁ kiṁ? Mōkṣō mē bhūyād iti icchā. The student now raises the question “What is the fourth qualification called desire”? And the teacher answers iti – it is; icchā – an intense yearning, an intense desire, teevra icchā for mōkṣō mē bhūyād – for me to attain liberation; let me attain mōkṣaḥ. As we have seen earlier, this desire for mōkṣaḥ is called mumukṣutvaṁ. The desire is called mumukshaḥ the person who has the desire is called mumukshuḥ. If a person has got desire for mōkṣaḥ, he should work to acquire self-knowledge because selfknowledge is the only means for attaining mōkṣaḥ. This involves three stages. If one has a desire for mōkṣaḥ, one should get self-knowledge. And for acquiring self-knowledge, one should have the necessary qualifications. So qualifcations to knowledge to liberation is the journey. But one may say that he is not interested in getting mōkṣaḥ. He or she may not, perhaps, be
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interested only because of lack of knowledge of what the glory of mōkṣaḥ is! That is why, in the beginning itself, it was pointed out that mōkṣaḥ consists of five fold benefits. No rational person can say that he was not interested in those benefits. Freedom from slavery to immunity from problems to efficiency in our undertakings – do we want these or not? That is the moot question. Will anyone say no? So if we want all these, they are collectively called mōkṣaḥ. And this mōkṣaḥ we can get only through self-knowledge. For self-knowledge, we first need to get the qualifications. Having this enumerated the four fold qualification, the author concludes एतत्साधनचतु ष्यम ्I ततस्तत्त्वववेकस्या�धका भवि न् I Ētat sādhanacatuṣṭayaṁ. Tatastattva vivēkasyādhikāriṇō bhavanti. Ētat means these i.e. the four fold qualifications enumerated above which are discrimination, dispassion, discipline and desire. These four qualifications are technically known as sādhana catuṣṭayaṁ. So in our scriptural vocabulary we have to include this word so that while learning the Bhagavad Gītā whenever we come across this phrase, we should not look bewildered or perplexed. These qualifications comprising of 4 Ds should immediately spring in the mind.
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The author continues ततः (tataḥ) – therefore or due to that which means साधन चतु ष्ट संपन् प्राि अनन्तरम (sādhana catuṣṭaya sampanna prāpti anantaram) – that is, after acquiring these qualifications; अ धका�रणः भविन् (adhikāriṇaḥ bhavanti) – that person becomes a अ धकार� (adhikārī). In Vēdāntā an adhikārī is any person who has managed to acquire the 4 Ds. And he becomes eligible for self-knowledge. So the author says तत्त �ववेकस् (Tattva vivēkasya). Tattva vivekaḥ means Tattva bōdhaḥ which we have seen right in the beginning which means self knowledge. Thus a person becomes eligible for self-knowledge. Now one question that may naturally arise is that while the author has enumerated the four qualifications as conditions for selfknowledge, what should one do to acquire these qualifications? If one enjoys these qualifications right now, he should consider himself a very lucky person and he can straight away enter into the studies to acquire self-knowledge. But what if one doesn’t have these qualifications? What is he to do? Unfortunately, the author is silent on this issue. He does not talk about how and where to get this training. Perhaps the author assumes that everyone who is taking up the study of Tattva bōdhaḥ is already eligible. But the question remains - how to become eligible, if we are not already eligible? What is the method of getting sādhana catuṣṭayaṁ? Even though the author is silent in this text, Lord Kṛṣṇa gives an elaborate answer to this question in the Bhagavad Gītā which we
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will be studying later But in this context, we can understand the the essence of the answer given by Lord Kṛṣṇa . Kṛṣṇa says that there is only method to acquire sādhana catuṣṭayaṁ and that method he calls as कमरयोगः (karma yogaḥ). Kṛṣṇa points out that karma yogaḥ is not any particular action but it is a particular way of life which a person has to follow for a length of time. It is not a crash programme. It is a not something like an instant coffee etc. But it is a particular way of life which has to be followed for, not a few days; not a few weeks; not a few months; but for a number of years. And Kṛṣṇa calls that karma yogaḥ way of life. In a simple language we can say, a religious life style. Karma yogaḥ or a religious life style is the only method which will give a person this degree SCS- Sādhana Catuṣṭaya Sampanna. Even to acquire degrees like B.Sc, MSc etc. we spend 20+ years of study. Thus even for secular knowledge we have to spend such a long time. Then how can we expect to gain self-knowledge in a half-an hour crash programme? Whatever we achieve in a crash programme is bound to crash! Such a religious way of life has to be cultivated and nourished. Then the next question would be what is that religious way of life conceived as karma yogaḥ? To put it in a simple language, karma yogaḥ or religious life involves three aspects. Briefly stated, those three factors are सत ्कमार् (sat karmāṇi),
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सत्ग ु णाः (sat guṇāḥ) and सत्भावना (sat bhāvanā). Sat karmāṇi means good actions or noble actions. A good action is defined as that in which the number of beneficiaries or the number of people who will benefit from the action is large. Higher the number of beneficiaries, superior is the action. Lesser the number of beneficiaries, the inferior the karmā is. So the most inferior karmā would be an action in which there is only one beneficiary i.e. oneself. Therefore, Sat karmāṇi, otherwise called परोपकार कमार् (paropakāra karmāṇi) – benevolent actions is the first factor. It should be clarified that in an action where the number of beneficiaries is large, one can include oneself also as a beneficiary. There is no need to exclude the self. The second part of karma yogaḥ is sat guṇāḥ. This connotes healthy virtues, healthy values like truthfulness, compassion, humility, consideration for others etc. These healthy virtues, healthy values, healthy morals are called sat guṇāḥ. The third part is sat bhāvanā. This refers to a healthy attitude towards everything in the creation. This would include attitude towards the family members, the neighbours, fellow human beings, animals, plants, nature etc. One general attitude that our scriptures emphasize is a reverential attitude towards everything.
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The scriptures beseech us not to look upon the creation as an enemy to be conquered but look upon it as a friend with which one has to co-exist, work and grow. And that is why in our Hindu culture, we treat everything reverentially. Earth is sacred for us, water is sacred, air is sacred, sun is sacred, moon is sacred, and food is sacred. Anything and everything is sacred. Money is sacred. Goddess Lakṣmī Dēvī symbolises wealth. This reverential attitude towards everything is a very important bhāvanā. In addition to that there are several other similar bhāvanās also. Collectively we call them sat bhāvanā. One such sentiment talks about sitting down on the floor while learning from a guru. One may wonder why one should do that. After all, one may sit anywhere, where he or she is comfortable. Why should the guru be in a higher pedestal and the students in a lower pedestal? In fact, in modern times, some people feel that the guru should be in a lower pedestal and the students should be in a higher pedestal, like in a gallery, so that the guru can look up to the students. And the students look down upon the guru! So why do we insist upon even such simple things? This is because vidyā or any knowledge is considered to be sacred symbolised by Goddess Sarasvatī Dēvī and guru is not looked upon as a person there, but guru is looked upon as a teacher who is equivalent to God. So the principle is that one should receive the knowledge with all humility. So if one were sitting in a higher pedestal than the preceptor, there is a risk of compromising with
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the humility. Thus everything we do in our traditional culture is with a reverential attitude. And this is called sat bhāvanā. So sat karmāṇi plus sat guṇāḥ plus sat bhāvanā is called karma yogaḥ, a religious life. This we have to practise for a number of years. In fact a considerable part of our early stages of life should be spent in practicing this karma yogaḥ. If we examine the entire Vēdā literature, the earlier or the first part of the Vēdās concentrate on the religious way of life or karma yogaḥ which will give us the the necessary qualifications of sādhana catuṣṭayaṁ. Once we have acquired them, the second or later part of the Vēdās called Vēdāntā takes over, like a relay race. This Vēdāntā part is meant for imparting self- knowledge. Thus the first part gives �ान योग्यत (jñāna yōgyatā) – the eligibility for receiving the knowledge of the self. And the second part imparts आत् �ानम ्(ātma jñānam) – self knowledge. Thus the equation is Vēdā+ Vēdāntā = Mōkṣaḥ. This is how our Vēdik culture is defined. In this text the author is dealing with only the second part. He takes for granted that we have all gone through the first part and that is why he assumes that we are all eligible for receiving this self knowledge. Thus the author concludes the first part of his teaching stating that the one, who has acquired the necessary qualifications as outlined above, becomes the adhikārī for receiving tattva vivekaḥ.
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Tattvavivēkaḥ - Inquiry into Truth Having learnt the benefits of self knowledge and the qualifications required for seeking this knowledge, the student wants to go into further details now. He has heard the word Tattva vivekaḥ in the earlier section. His curiosity to know what this means leads to the following question and answer. तत्त्वववे कः? आत्म सत्यतदन्यतसव��मथ्ये I Tattvavivēkaḥ kaḥ? Ātmā satyaṁ tadanyat sarvaṁ mithyēti In his question, the student implies that he has already undergone karma yogaḥ and that he has already acquired sādhana catuṣṭaya sampattiḥ. That is why he pursues with the question. Otherwise, the teaching would have stopped here! So the student is now ready for Tattva bōdhaḥ i.e self-knowledge. He refers to Tattva bōdhaḥ as Tattva vivēkaḥ and hence raises the question ‘what is Tattva vivēkaḥ’? He wants to know what type of knowledge it is. The teacher first defines self-knowledge in a short statement which he will elaborate later. This is the method of communication mostly adopted in the scriptures. The entire teaching of a particular text is first presented in a nutshell. This is called सग् ं वाक्यम (sangraha vākyam) or सत ू वाक्यम (sūtra vākyam) or स�ं ेप
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वाक्यम (sankṣēpa vākyam). In English it could be called synopsis, summary or abstract. This statement contains in a nutshell or gist of what is going to be talked about. And thereafter, the topic will be magnified or expanded. We can see this method being practiced in the newscasts in radio and television media. First the headlines are read. This would give us an opportunity to decide whether to continue to hear or watch the news or not. And thereafter the news reader will be heard to say “And now the news in detail”. So here too the author employs a sūtra vākyam to give a synopsis of the teaching of self knowledge. His reply is ātmā satyaṁ tadanyat sarvaṁ mithyā . This means that the only reality is ātmā. Other than that everything else is false or an illusion. It is to be noted that the author uses three technical words – ātmā satyaṁ and mithyā. All of them are significant words; unique words. It is almost impossible to translate them in English. So while each of them would be explained we should retain the Sanskrit words only, because the translation will spoil their connotation and lead to misinterpretation. Now let us look at these three words. Ātmā and anātmā - Real and unreal What is ātmā? According to Vēdāntā scriptures, every mortal, perishable individual has got an inner essence, an inner core which is immortal and imperishable. And this immortal inner essence is not visible to our ordinary eyes.
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Our ordinary eyes cannot see many things. Many people require spectacles to see even ordinary things! And this immortal essence is invisible and this invisible, immortal, inner essence of every mortal being is called ātmā. So hereafter whenever the word ātmā is spoken, we should understand it as the invisible and immortal inner essence of every individual entity in this universe. The next words are satyaṁ and mithyā. These two are interconnected words. They come as a pair. Therefore, we need to understand them together. First let us consider an example to understand these words. Suppose there is a desk in the room where we are sitting, which we all can see. All of us can clearly experience the desk. It is a solid, tangible desk having a specified weight of its own. And that is why it is able to hold or support books, other materials etc. So it is our direct experience that there is a tangible, weighty, visible and supportive desk in front of us. Vēdāntā says that if we enquire into the truth of this desk, we will have a surprising discovery. And that discovery is that there is no substance called desk at all! Desk is not a substantial entity. Desk is not a weighty entity. Desk is not a tangible entity. Desk is not a supporting the book. Are we surprised? Then what is it that is in front of us. Vēdāntā simply says that what is in front of us is not a desk. It is nothing but a piece of wood alone. Wood alone is the substance. Wood is tangible. It is wood alone we are touching. And the weight we talk about belongs to the wood alone. And wood alone supports the book. Other than the wood, there is no substance called desk at all.
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And when there is no substance called desk at all, where is the question of the weight of the desk. All these are myths; all these are misconceptions which are continuing because we refuse to think. We have successfully continued not to think. Vēdāntā avers that if a question is raised as to what is a desk, we need to understand that a desk is only a new name given to the wood itself. There is no substance called desk. All along there is only a substance called wood. Desk being a new name given to wood has only a nominal existence. Then the question may arise as to why do we give a new name to the wood? Why can’t we retain the word wood itself? Why do we give a name called desk? Because when we give a new name, it is confusing. We commit a mistake that there is a substance called desk. So why do we invent such new names? In response, Vēdāntā says that we give a new name because the wood is designed and given a particular form or shape by the carpenter. When the wood has got a particular form or shape we give a new name for that particular shape alone. The name does not belong to the substance wood. It is given only to the new shape given by the carpenter. Before the carpenter gave the new shape or form, the word ‘desk’ was not used. It is only after giving the new form that the new name ‘desk’ was used. And therefore, ‘desk’ is nothing but a name given to a form. So name desk is a name-form principle. In Vēdāntā it is called नाम रूपम (nāma rūpam). Desk is only nāma rūpam. It is not a substance. The substance is wood. Similarly, Almirah is only nāma rūpam. Chair is only a nāma
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rūpam. Non-substantial nāma rūpams are many. Substance is only one - wood. This is a very important principle we should know and remember in these studies. And the next important principle is that this non-substantial nāma rūpams can never exist separate from wood. Desk, Chair, Dias etc. are all nāma rūpams. They cannot exist independent or separate from the substance wood and therefore, all non substantial nāma rūpams have got only a dependent existence. They borrow their existence from the substance called wood, whereas, the substance wood does not depend upon the nāma rūpams for its existence. Even if the name and form of a desk is destroyed, wood will continue to exist. Therefore, only the substance has got independent existence. The non-substantial nāma rūpams have got only dependent existence. Other similar examples which we can use for our better understanding are Gold and ornaments; clay and pots; water and waves etc., where Gold, Clay and Water all have independent existence and ornaments, pots and waves have only a dependent existence. Now, Vēdāntā wants to do a नाम करणम् (nāma karaṇam) that is give a specific common name to the objects which have a dependent existence. According to Vēdāntā all non-substantial nāma rūpams which have only dependent existence are called mithyā. In Sanskrit, it is called परतन् सत्त (paratantra sattā). Paratantra means dependent and sattā means existence. This is
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called mithyā. Thus all the ornaments are like, bangles; necklace, chain etc. are are all non-substantial nāma rūpams. They have dependent existence on the substance gold or silver or platinum depending upon what the ornaments are made of. So the substance is satyaṁ. Nāma rūpams are mithyā. Substance is one. Nāma rūpams are many. Satyaṁ is one, mithyās are many. Vēdāntā declares that if we know this as a fact, all the problems of life will be solved. Even though it sounds incredible; unbelievable, that is the truth. Lord Kṛṣṇa states this truth in one pithy verse in the 2nd Chapter of the Gītā. नासतो �वध्यतभावो नाभावो �वध्यत सत: | उभयोर�प दृष्sन्तस्त्वनयोस्तत्वद : || Nāsatō vidhyatē bhāvō nābhāvō vidhyatē sataḥ. Ubhayōrapi dṛṣṭō’ntastvanayōstatva darśibhiḥ. The literal meaning of this verse is that the unreal has no being or existence; there is no non-being i.e non-existence of the Real; the truth about both these has been seen by the knower of the Truth (or the seers of the Essence). What Lord Kṛṣṇa wants to convey to Arjuna is that the whole creation consists of one (and only) satyaṁ or reality and innumerable mithyās. And what a foolish person does is, he holds on to mithyā and loses the sight of satyaṁ. This is root cause of the problems of life. Ātmā satyaṁ tadanyat sarvaṁ mithyēti
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The author, therefore, says that ātmā satyaṁ which means the invisible, immortal, inner essence is the only substance existing independently. Tadanyat sarvaṁ , everything else other than the ātmā, which we can call as anātmā or Non- ātmā, is all mithyā. Thus everything other than the ātmā in the creation is non-substantial nāma-rūpams having no independent existence. And that is why they are called mithyā. So to summarise, self-knowledge is to understand and assimilate the fact that ātmā satyaṁ, anātmā mithyā. Now the student has heard for the first time a new word Ātmā. So his curiosity is further aroused and he gets into the next logical question. आत्म कः? (ātmā kah) The teacher gives a detailed explanation. स्ू थ लसूलसमकार णशर राद्व्यतर पञ्चकोशा तीत सन ् अवस्थात् रयस सिच्चदा नन्दस्व सन्यिस्तष्ट स आत्म I Sthūlasūkṣmakāraṇa śarīrād vyatiriktaḥ pañcakōśātītaḥ san Avasthātraya sākṣī saccidānandasvarūpaḥ san yastiṣṭati sa ātmā. The student askes “What is this ātmā which is the invisible, immortal, inner essence?” And hidden behind this question is another question also, which is “What is anātmā”, the external shell. The author elaborates. He takes up the second part i.e. Anātmā first. In his answer, he divides anātmā into several portions or
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several layers for the convenience of understanding, just as the modern biological scientists who for the convenience of study of the body’s organs and structures, divide our body into various parts. They talk about dermatology. The skin is a very important component of the body. It is the first defence system. And thereafter they go down to epidermis, dermis, bone, bone marrow etc. And then the heart, lung, liver, intestines, brain etc. The Psychologists study mind, thoughts, thought patterns etc. One body is divided into so many components so that we can have a focussed, threadbare study. The same method is used by our scriptures also and based on that, the anātmā part of the individual is divided into three groups. And each group is later further subdivided. The first group of anātmā is शर�र त्रय (śarīra trayaṁ) – the three fold division of the body. The second group is कोश पञ्चकं (kōśa pañcakaṁ) – the five fold layers or strata of the human personality. The third group is called अवस्था त्र (avasthā trayaṁ) – the three fold awasthas or states of experience. So śarīra trayaṁ, kōśa pañcakaṁ, avasthā trayaṁ (3+5+3=11), these eleven components or parts together comprise the anātmā. The author enumerates all these eleven ingredients and also later points out that the ātmā is different from all the eleven items
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comprising the anātmā. This is the essence of this section of teaching. So, in response to the student’s question the author explains, that ātmā is व्यतरक् (vyatiriktaḥ) – separate from or different from; स्थू स�म ू कारण शर�रात्(sthūla sūkṣma kāraṇa śarīrāt). Even though he does not use the word ‘anātmā’ used by us earlier, we need to understand that when he refers to sthūla sūkṣma kāraṇa śarīraṁs, he is referring to anātmā in the context of the self. So, ātmā is different from anātmā which are the three śarīraṁs i.e bodies viz sthūla śarīraṁ, sūkṣma śarīraṁ and kāraṇa śarīraṁ. These are collectively called the śarīra trayaṁ. Trayaṁ means three. The author will elaborately define these later. Next, he talks about पञ्चको अतीतः (pañca kōśa atītaḥ) - the five strata or layers of the human personality. Unlike in the case of śarīra trayaṁ, where the author enumerates the three types of bodies, he does not enumerate the five kōśas here. But for the sake of our clear understanding these are अन्नम कोशः (annamaya kōśaḥ), प्राण कोशः (prāṇamaya kōśaḥ), मनोमय कोशः (manōmaya kōśaḥ), �व�ानमय कोशः (vijñānamaya kōśaḥ) and आनन्दम कोशः (ānandamaya kōśaḥ). All these five put to gether is called kōśa pañcakaṁ. And this group also belongs to anātmā category and anātmā is atītaḥ which means different from or transcending; that is beyond the कोश पञ्चक (kōśa pañcakaṁ).
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The third group the author refers to is अवस्थ त् सा�ी (avasthā traya sākṣī). Sākṣī means the witness or the observer who, therefore, is different from the avasthā trayaṁ – the three states of human experience. Here again the author does not enumerate the three states. So we need to understand that he is referring to जाग्र अवस्थ (jāgrat avasthā) - the waking stage of experience, स्वप अवस्थ (svapna avasthā) - the dream state of experience, and सष ु ुिप्त अवस्थ (suṣupti avasthā) - the dreamless sleep or deep sleep state of experience. These are the three states of experience called avasthā trayaṁ. All of them are also anātmā. And ātmā is avasthā traya sākṣī i.e. the witness or the observer of the three states. And, therefore, it is different from all these three. Thus, the three groups and their eleven components have been enumerated. Having said all this, the author still has to answer the student’s question. He has stated what all is not ātmā i.e. what all is anātmā, but he has not yet explained what is the nature of the ātmā. He refers to it as सिच्चदा नन स्वरू (saccidānanda svarūpaḥ). Svarūpaḥ means one’s own form i.e. one’s inherent nature. And this inherent nature, the author says is, सत्(sat), चत्(cit), and आनन्द (ānandaḥ); यः �तष्ठ (yaḥ tiṣṭhati) – abides in whom or in whom they inhere; सः आत्म (saḥ ātmā) – that is called ātmā. So ātmā is different from the eleven components of the self seen earlier which are anātmā. And ātmā is of the nature of
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saccidānanda. Now even though the author has answered the student’s question but in the process he has provided a ground for raising several more questions like ‘What is śarīra trayaṁ– the
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fold body? What is kōśa pañcakaṁ- the five fold layer? What is avasthā trayaṁ - the three fold states of experience?’The author has to now explain each one in addition to explaining what he means by saccidānanda svarūpaḥ. The Q & A continues.
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Sthūlaśarīraṁ - The Gross body - its elements and functions स्ू थ लशरर�कम ्? (sthūlaśarīraṁ kiṁ). And the author elaborates. पञ्ची कृतपञ ्चमहाभत ूक ृतंसत्कमर्जन सखद ु ःख ु ा�द भोगायतनंशर�रम ्अिस् जायतेवधर्त�वपरणमतेअप�ीयते �वनश्यती षड्वकारवदे ततस्ू थ शर�रम ्I Pañcīkṛtapañcamahābhūtaiḥ kṛtaṁ satkarmajanyaṁ sukhaduḥkhādi bhōgāyatanaṁ śarīraṁ. Asti jāyatē vardhatē vipariṇamatē apakṣīyatē vinaśyatīti Ṣaḍvikāravadētat sthūlaśarīraṁ So, of the 11 components of anātmā which all are mithyā in nature, the student takes up the first viz. sthūlaśarīraṁ for a complete understanding and asks the question ‘What is sthūlaśarīraṁ?’. The teacher gives a very elaborate explanation and covers four aspects viz. the cause, the function, the nature of and the condition of the sthūlaśarīraṁ. In English sthūlaśarīraṁ can be translated as the gross body or the physical body. And this very word sthūla indicates its condition. It means gross. Gross means visible, perceptible to the sense organs. The body can be seen, heard, smelt etc. So gross mean perceptible to the sense organs – इिन्द गोचरम ्(indriya gōcaram). It is perceptible not only to us but also to others.
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What is the cause of this physical body? He says that the physical body has two types of causes. One is the general cause – सामान् कारणम ्(sāmānya kāraṇam) – which is the same for every physical body. And the other is the specific cause – �वशषे कारणम ्(viśēṣa kāraṇam) – which varies from individual to individual. The physical body is made up the five fundamental elements called पञ् महाभता�न ू (pañca mahābhūtāni), just as, in Science we talk about various elements, which alone combine and form varieties of compounds. We have studied about the various elements in the periodic tables and have understood that everything in the the Universe is made up their combination alone. For example, starting from Aluminium we know of Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Calcium, Potassium upto Zircon. Just as Science talks about these elements, the shāstrās also have fundamental elements. In Science, the elements are more than hundred but in the scriptures the elements are only five. Another difference is that in Science all elements are components of the earth, whereas in the scriptures the elements are universal. Also what is an element in the scriptures is a compound according to Science e.g. water. The first element is आकाशः (ākāśaḥ) which means the ‘space’. Space is not a vaccum. Space is a positive material and therefore it is called आकाश भतमू ्(ākāśa bhūtam). The second element is वायः ु (vāyuḥ) which means air, the third is अिग्न (agniḥ) i.e. the fire, The
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fourth one is आपः (āpaḥ) or जलं (jalaṁ) which is water and the fifth one is पथ ृ ्व (pṛthvī ) i.e. earth. And all of them are called gross elements because we are able to physically perceive them. Earth is tangible. Water is tangible. We can feel the air through our skin. We can see fire. And we can recognize space sensorily. Ākāśaḥ or space is experienced in a peculariar manner. And that is why before sitting on a chair or a bench we see whether there is space or not. And we sit only when there is some empty space. If it is empty it means there is space. Therefore we are able to sensorily experience the emptiness of the chair in a peculiar way which is also इिन्द गोचरत्वम (indriya gōcaratvam). All these are called gross elements – स्थू भता� ू न (sthūla bhūtāni). And the author says these five gross elements are the basic raw material for the production of all the physical bodies. The physical body of every one of us, not only human beings, but all things in the creation including animals, plants, inert things, dēvatās etc. is made up these five elements only. The body has got a tangible part which is made of the Earth. From the Earth come the vegetables. From the vegetables the food comes. And from the food the body is formed. So Earth contributes to the formation of the tangible body. Next, the body has got Water element. In fact the very shape of the body is determined by Top
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% of Water. Then there is Fire principle because of that alone the body has got a standard temperature of 98.4 degree F. Even when go to Alaska or Arctic or Antartic Circle, the weather may be
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freezing cold, but the body maintains the temperature because of the fire of life in the body. Then the body has got air in the form of life breadth which enters our lungs and comes out. The body occupies a lot of space outside and lot of space inside the body also – stomach is but an empty space and that is why we can push the food inside it. So the body is made up of the five elements and therefore, it is called पाञ् भौ�तक शर�रं (pāñca bhautika śarīraṁ). Everybody is made of these five elements alone. It is a universal contributor. And that is why author says पञ्ची कृतपञ्चमहाभत ूक ृतं (pañcīkṛta pañca mahābhūtaiḥ kṛtaṁ). Kṛtaṁ means produced out of, manufactured out of, shaped out of. The manufacturing factory is the mother’s womb. At the time of conception, the body is formed. Undoubtedly, this is the most wonderful factory in the creation. The body is created out of pañca mahābhūtaiḥ – the great five gross elements – pañcī kṛta means – grossified or made gross, visible and perceptible. This is the sāmānya kāraṇam – the general cause. Now turning to viśēṣa kāraṇam, the author says सत्कमर्जन (satkarmajanyaṁ). The special cause is the karma – पुण् (puṇya) and पाप (pāpa) कमा: र (karmās) - which one has earned in the past births or janmās. This puṇya and pāpa karma, is also known as puṇya paapa अदृष (adṛṣṭa) – unseen or not see-able, The karma topic is dealt with in detail later in this book itself, where we will elaborately study what is puṇyaṁ, what is pāpaṁ, what is karma, what is the Law of karma, what is previous janma and what
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is future janma etc. At this stage it is sufficient to understand that the specific cause for the body is that it is born out of puṇya pāpa karmās. Karma alone determines the quality of the physical body and the type of physical body. Whether it should be an animal physical body, or whether it should be a human physical body or whether it should be a divine physical body. The raw material is the same but the type changes. For example, all houses are made out of the same bricks, cement, iron etc. but all houses are not the same. Each one is different because they have been built to different plans. So the raw material plus the architectural plan determines the type of house. The raw material is universal but plans will vary. Similarly our bodies are also made out of the same raw material but the shapes are different. Even among human beings one body is a male body and another is a female body. Both are made up of the same five elements only but what determines the body? Why should one body be male and another female? The author says it is because of puṇya pāpa karmās. And within the male body or the female body itself, certain bodies are fat, some are not so, some are healthy, some are sick, some have congenital diseases, some have short life, some have long life, some have got dark hair, some have got grey hair, some have got no hair! Who determines all these? – The karma. If one disagrees and says that these are all determined by parental genetics, the question would be, what determines one to be born to a specific set of parents. Why should a person be born to such parents? And
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that, the author says is determined by karma. And that is why he uses the term karma janyaṁ. Since this karma varies from individual to individual, it is called viśēṣa kāraṇaṁ– specific cause. The puṇya pāpa karmās which we have done in the past births will be responsible for the type of our body. Whether, human or animal, whether male or female, whether healthy or sick etc. all these are not accidental. Our scriptures never accept anything as accidental. Any event is an incident. Even an accident is an incident whose cause we are not able to find out. There is no accident. Birth is not an accident. So if a baby is born with congenital diseases, like Down syndrome, it is not an accident. It is the result of the karmās of पवर ू जन् (pūrva janma) - previous births. Our shāstrās very firmly emphasize the scientific fact that there can be no effect without a cause. So when a baby is born with such conditions, one has to logically trace the cause to the previous Janma only. And incidentally this conclusion also affirms the birthdeath-rebirth cycle. So pañca bhūtaḥ plus pūrva janma karmāḥ is equal to the cause of the body. Further, among the different type of bodies, being born in a human body itself is considered to be a great blessing. There are so many bodies like animals, plants, insects, and reptiles – even those not perceptible to our ordinary eyes. When we see the television channels like Animal Planet, we are amazed to know how many different types of bodies are there. We feel lucky that we are not one of them!
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The human body is the most sacred body because in that alone we are able to probe into life, the mysteries of life, and the goal of life. Not only that, but we can choose a goal and accomplish it. And, therefore, the author says that irrespective of whether it is a male body or female body, we have got the human body i.e. manuṣya śarīraṁ only due to the puṇyaṁ of the previous births. He uses the term sat karma, which means puṇya karma to qualify the word janyaṁ. The the general cause and the specific cause together form the cause of the body. We now turn our attention to the function of the body. And the author says the body’s function is that it serves a temporary residence for the individual or जीव (jīva), or jīvātmā, remaining in which it can interact with the world. For example, let us consider the case of a person transferred by his employer from one city to another. Before he starts any transaction in the new city, he will first search for a house to live in the new city from which he can carry out all his operations. So first he will fix a residence, occupy it and thereafter he may go and find out where the shops are, from where he will get cooking gas connection, where the schools are for his children etc. These are all later transactions. Before all these he will require an abode. Of couse, this will be a temporary rented abode because he knows that he will be transferred again to some other city after some time. In like manner, this body is also a temporary residence, in which the jīva resides, transacts and later shifts the residence from this
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body to another body. Then after some time it shifts to yet another body and this process goes on. We do not know since when this shifting business has been going on. It seems to have been doing this from beginningless times and it seems that it will continue to do this endlessly. And this present body has been only its temporary residence. So there is no reason why one should fall too much in love with this body. No doubt, even a temporary house has to be maintained and it must be livable. But we cannot hold on to that residence because it is only temporary and at the appropriate time we will have to vacate it. And if we don’t voluntarily vacate, the owner will force us to vacate it. In the Bhagavad Gītā, Bhagawān Kṛṣṇa explains this phenomenon, using the analogy of a dress. वासां�स जीणार्न यथ �वहाय नवा�न गह्णात नरोऽपराण ।ृ ह्णात नरोऽपराण । तथा शर�रा ण �वहाय जीणा - र न्यन्यान संयात नवान देह Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya navāni gṛhṇāti narō’parāṇi. Tathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇā - nyanyāni saṁyāti navāni dēhī. Lord Kṛṣṇa implies here that there is no reason to be carried away too much by the physical body. We need to give its due but never give it more importance than what it deserves or requires. The author continues his explanation. He says भोग आयतनं (bhōga āyatanaṁ). Bhōga here means experience. Āyatanaṁ means abode. In this context the body is the abode for the experiences, which could be pleasurable or painful or mixed. सख ु दःख ु �मश
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अनभ ु वात्(sukha duḥkha miśra anubhavāt) - miśra means mixed. anubhavāt means experiences. One may wonder how experiences can be a mixture of pleasure and pain at the same time. A numerous examples can be cited. For example, a person has two children and both of them take their annual examinations. One child passes with very good marks whereas the other child fails in the examination. What will be that person’s experience - pleasure or pain? That is called miśraṁ. The author uses the word ādi (sukha duḥkhaadi) to denote the mixture. So out of the four attributes of sthūla śarīraṁ, we have considered three viz condition, cause, and function. Then the fourth and final one is its nature. What is the nature of this body? The author says �वकारवत्एतत्स्थू शर�रं (vikāravat ētat sthūla śarīraṁ). Our body is subject to constant change or modification. Every second, thousands and millions cells are dying and thousands and millions of new cells are born. As we keep on cutting them, the hair keeps growing; the nails keep growing. The food gets exhausted by digestion and that is why after some time we again feel hungry. The author divides this modification of this body into six types – षड्वकारवत (Ṣaḍ vikāravad). The body undergoes six types of changes viz. अिस् (asti) – potential existence in the womb of the mother i.e. invisible existence as the fetus; जायते(jāyatē) – is born; comes out of the womb; वधर्त (vardhatē) –grows up (till about roughly 20 years). In this time it reaches full height. Every limb is
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fully developed. It is an adult body; �वप�रणमते (vipariṇamatē) - after 20 years and say upto the age of 50 or 55 years, the body does not undergo much of a change. It is neither growth nor decay but it is just maintaining the status quo i.e. travels in the same plane; And thereafter, अप�ीयते (apakṣīyatē) – decays or disintegrates. And finally �वनश्य (vinaśyatīti) –perishes or dies. Death is also a form of transformation in which the body again gets merged into the pañca bhūtani, just as a pot, on destruction gets converted into clay form. Matter is never destroyed but it just gets converted. Destruction is also a form of transformation only. Continuous transformation is the nature of the body and the author calls it Ṣaḍ vikāraḥ. These are the six modifications of the body - ētat sthūla śarīraṁ. This is called the physical body which is the anātmā no.1. Now let us study Anātmā No.2. Sūkṣmaśarīraṁ and saptadaśa kalābhiḥ - The subtle body and its instruments समशररं ू �कम ्? sūkṣmaśarīraṁ kiṁ? अपञ्ची कृतपञ्चमहाभत ूक ृतंसत्कमर्जन सखद ु ःख ु ा�दभोगसाधनंपञ्चानेि न्द्र पञ्चकमिन्द्र पञ्चप्राणा मनश्चैक ब�दु ्धश्च एवंसप्तदशकलाभ सह यित्तष्ठ तत्सू्समशररम I
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Apañcīkṛta pañcamahābhūtaiḥ kṛtaṁ satkarmajanyaṁ sukhaduḥkhādi bhōga sādhanaṁ pañcajñānēndriyāṇi pañcakarmēndriyāṇi pañcaprā ṇādayaḥ manaścaikaṁ buddhiścaikā ēvaṁ saptadaśakalābhiḥ saha yat tiṣṭhati tat sūkṣmaśarīram. So the student asks “what is sūkṣma śarīram”? - The subtle body. Some people call it the astral body also. The teacher gives an elaborate definition. Here also we have to understand the different aspects i.e. the condition of the body, the cause, the function, the nature and its constituents. The first is the condition of the body. It is called subtle body because, unlike the gross which is tangible and perceptible, the subtle body it is not visible to others. We can see each other’s physical bodies but we cannot see the subtle bodies of others. So the subtle bodies are इिन्द अगोचरं (indriya agōcaraṁ) – imperceptible to others. We will see later that one of the constituents of the subtle body is the mind. We cannot see each other’s minds. Just take the case of a teacher and students in a class room. The teacher can see physical bodies of the students but does not know if their minds are in the class room or not. He would have given an hour long lecture with the very optimistic hope that the minds of the students were also in the class room. If not all, at least a few of them! One can imagine what amount of optimism is required for a teacher because he cannot see the minds of the students and what all things are happening in the minds. Whether they are enjoying the class or getting bored or whether they are
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wondering how to get out and escape this misery of a lecture! All this is because, the mind is subtle; sūkṣmaṁ - imperceptible. But even though the mind is imperceptible to others, one can very well know one’s own mind and what is going on there. Is it calm or disturbed? Is it happy or unhappy? Whether it understands what is being taught or everything is bouncing off the head? So we can conclude that it is partially knowable to one self but not to others, unlike the physical body which is knowable to the owner as well as others. So this is the condition of the subtle body. Now what is the cause of this subtle body? The author says अपञ्ची कृतपञ ्चमहाभत ू क ृतं (apañcīkṛta pañca mahābhūtaiḥ kṛtaṁ). Like the physical or gross body, the subtle body is also created out of the same five great elements only - pañca mahābhūtaiḥ i.e. space, air, fire, water and earth. But unlike the gross body which is pañcīkṛta i.e. grossified, the subtle body is apañcīkṛta – not grossified; subtle. So if the gross body is created by the gross form of the elements, subtle body must be created out of subtle form of the same elements. Because the effect has to necessarily follow the cause. Physical body is born out of physical matter, visible matter. Subtle body must be made out of subtle matter. One may call it energy but it is a form of matter only. Because scientifically we know that energy is an invisible form of matter only and subtle body is born out of subtle matter. This is the general cause. Then there is a specific cause also and that is similar to the gross body sat karma janyaṁ. So the specific cause of the subtle body is
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also based on pūrva janma karmās. Thus the five great elements plus previous karmās are the cause of the subtle body. Let us now understand the function of the subtle body? The author says सखद ु ःख ु ा�दभोगसाधनं (sukha duḥkhādi bhōga sādhanaṁ). It is like an instrument or a tool box with which a person contacts the external world. In the context of an office, a person contacts other people by various methods eg. Postal letters, telephone, email, fax and a cell phone etc. We always need an instrument to contact the world. Life is mostly a series of experiences born out of interaction with the external world. In sleep, there is no interaction and so there is no experience. In waking state we have experiences only because of the interaction. Interaction needs instruments of contact. And sūkṣma śarīraṁ is a bundle of several such instruments of interaction. It is not one instrument. The author mentions seventeen instruments. He calls them भोगसाधनं (bhōga sādhanaṁ). Sādhanaṁ in this context means tool. Bhōga as we have already seen means experience of the world. Sukha and duḥkha experiences and a mixture of both, like in the case of the gross body. This is the function of the subtle body. Now coming to the nature of the subtle body, even though the author has stated it specifically, we need to understand that like the gross physical body, the subtle body is also subject to transformation and change. To put in Sanskrit, it is स�वकारं (savikāraṁ) – subject to modification. For example, mind is a constituent of the subtle body. Mind is the most violently
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changing instrument. All sense organs are also changing all the time. And all of them are also subject to destruction. But the only difference is that the subtle body has got a longer life as compared to the gross physical body. That means according to the scriptures, at the time of an individual’s death only the gross physical body of the person dies and the subtle body continues to survive. Also, the subtle body is said to travel in search of another physical body. It is like any instrument. If one perishes, we get another. But why should the sūkṣma śarīraṁ goes in search of another physical body? That is because physical body is the residence or the shell remaining in which only the subtle body can undertake all transactions. It cannot otherwise function. That is why the subtle body survives and travels to find a new physical body. But because it is imperceptible, we cannot see it travelling. But there could be an argument that since one cannot see the subtle body, it does not exist. At the outset it may look like a fair point but ability to see cannot be the only criterian for proving existence. One cannot see one’s own eyes directly, but they exist. If someone argues he can see his eye in the mirror, the answer would be that he can see only the reflected image of his eyes and that too he has to trust the mirror. If it is a concave or a convex mirror, even that image will be distorted. There is an interesting anecdote. One a person said to another that he does not believe in the existence of things that he cannot see. So to teach him a lesson, the latter person slapped him strongly in the back. Naturally the first one screamed compaining that he was in
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pain. The latter said that it cannot be so because neither of them can see the pain. So what one cannot see cannot exist!!! So, therefore, non-perception is not a proof for non-existence. We don’t see other people’s mind or emotions. But that does not mean they don’t have a mind or emotions. The shāstrās, therefore, say that the subtle body survives the death of the physical body and takes another body. And at the loss of that body it goes on to acquire any physical body. This process continues for several births. And the subtle body dies only at the time of प्रल (pralayaṁ) - the cosmic dissolution. So compared to the physical body, the subtle body has a relatively very long life and continues until the destruction of this world. This is the nature of the subtle body. The next aspect we need to know is the constituents of this subtle body. This is a long list. The author says there are seventeen components. सप्तदशकलाभ (saptadaśa kalābhiḥ). Kalā means ingredients, parts or instruments. He goes on to enumerate them. पञ्चानेिन्द्र (pañca jñānēndriyāṇi) - The five instruments of knowledge; jñānēndriyaṁ means instrument or organ of knowledge. We must remember that the reference here is to the subtle body and so these are not the organs of the physical body. They belong to the subtle body. So we need to understand that by organs the author is referring to the faculties. For example, our
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eyes are only physical organs. They can see only if there are connected to the sight faculty in the brain. If that faculty is damaged, the eyes cannot see even if they are physically present. Next is पञ्चकमिन्द्र (pañca karmēndriyāṇi) – The five organs or instruments of action. One set of five relating to the organs of knowledge relates to the input mechanism i.e. gathering information from the external world. They are entrance gates. The second set of five karmēndriyās is instruments of action – the output mechanism which help in responding to the inputs. So we require entrance gates and we also require exit gates. Next is पञ्चप् राणा (pañca prāṇādayaḥ) - the five prāṇās or forms of energy. These are the power centres or energy centres because of which alone we are able to act. This is similar to any machine which can move or work only if it has energy. If we take the example of a car, we fill it with petrol and this petrol is converted into energy and with that energy alone the car moves. Our physical body moves, and for that movement it requires energy. So we require a fuel tank. And we do have a huge fuel tank which we constantly get replenished. Like the fuel in a car is converted into energy, the food in our body’s fuel tank called stomach or tummy is converted into energy. This internal energy is called प्र शिक्त (prāṇa śaktiḥ). These are five in number. Thus the five fold physiological functions which maintain the energy is the third set of the seventeen components. . These three sets add up to fifteen.
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Then, मनः (manaḥ) - the mind. And finally ब�दु ् (buddhiḥ) - the intellect is also present. Mind stands for the emotional faculty. And buddhiḥ stands for the rational or intellectual faculty. We all have emotions. We all have intelligence also. In some people emotions may be dominant and in some others intelligence may be dominant. In the rest it may be balanced. But we all have both these faculties. So in all, these are the seventeen constituents of the subtle body. यत्तष्ठ (yat tiṣṭhati) – that which abides in these seventeen constituents is called sūkṣma śarīraṁ which is anātmā No. 2. Before proceeding further to anātmā No. 3, the author feels the need to explain the composition of the five jñānēndriyās, the five karmēndriyās and the five prāṇās. The author now enumerates the seventeen organs. श्रो त्वक च�ुः रसना घ्राण ्राणइ त पञ्चानेि न्द्र I श्रोत �दग्देवत I त्वच वायः ु I च�ुषः सयर् ू यर् I रसनाया वरुण I घ्राण अिश्वन I इ त ानेिन्द्रय ताः I श्रोत �वषयः शब्दग्रह I्दग्रह त्वच �वषयः स्पशर ्ग् रI च�ुषो �वषयः रूपग्रह I रसनाया �वषयः रसग्रहण I घ्राण �वषयः गन् ग्रहण इ�त I Śrōtraṁ tvak cakṣuḥ rasanā ghrāṇam iti pañcajñānēndriyāṇi. Śrōtrasya digdēvatā. Tvacō vāyuḥ. Cakṣuṣaḥ sūryaḥ. Rasanāyā varuṇaḥ. Ghrāṇasya aśvinau. Iti jñānēndriyadēvatāḥ.
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Śrōtrasya viṣayaḥ śabdagrahaṇam. Tvacō viṣayaḥ sparśagrahaṇam. Cakṣuṣō viṣayaḥ rūpagrahaṇam. Rasanāyā viṣayaḥ rasagrahaṇam. Ghrāṇasya viṣayaḥ gandha grahaṇam iti. Pañca jñānēndriyāṇi – Five organs of knowledge Now the five jñānēndriyās are being explained. They are śrōtraṁ - the ears, the organs of hearing; tvak – the skin, the organ of touch; cakṣuḥ - the eyes, the organs of sight or perception; rasanā - the tongue, the organ of taste; and ghrāṇaṁ – the nose, the organ of smell. But here we need to note that when we are enumerating the eyes, ears etc. we do not refer to the anatomical parts because the physical part is there in a dead body also. The dead body also has skin but it cannot feel the touch, it has eyes but it cannot see etc. So the author does not refer to the anatomical part which belongs to sthūla śarīraṁ. What he refers to is the subtle power behind each organ; that invisible शिक् (śakti). श्र (śravaṇa) śakti is called śrōtra indriyaṁ; दशर् (darśana) śakti is called cakṣu indriyaṁ etc. indriyaṁ does not refer the physical part but to the subtle part. It belongs to sūkṣma śarīraṁ and not to the sthūla śarīraṁ. The anatomical name of these parts in the physical body is called गोळकं (gōḷakaṁ). Gōḷakaṁ is the physical part and it belongs to the physical body including the dead body, whereas indriyaṁ belongs to the subtle body. In a dead body gōḷakaṁs are present but indriyaṁs are not there. In a blind person also gōḷakaṁ is there but indriyaṁ is missing. These are the five sense organs.
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Then the author talks about the देव ताः (dēvatāḥ). ‘Dēvatās’ is a unique concept in our scriptures. Every sense organ has a faculty like seeing faculty, hearing faculty etc. Each faculty is a limited faculty. Eyes can see alright but it has got a limitation. Dogs can see more than us. An owl can see more than us. Dogs can hear sounds which we cannot. So every faculty that we enjoy is a finite faculty. And the shāstrās say that corresponding to every finite faculty, there must a corresponding total power. So individual finite power or faculty is always a part of the corresponding total cosmic power. And this power which exists in the cosmos is called a dēvatā. So dēvatā is any power at the macro level. And from that macro level power each of us gets a small portion. It is like a Chief Executive who has got power to govern the entire Company. But he picks up several General Managers for looking after each function like Finance, Sales, Marketing, Production, Human Relations etc. And he delegates part of his total power to each of these General Managers depending upon their respective function. Thus General Manager Finance will have power only with respect to the Finance function. He will not have any power relating to say the Marketing function and so on. Similarly there are so many powers in the creation. Each power has a corresponding total power. It is called a dēvatā and all the dēvatās put together is called Īśvaraḥ – God who, like the Chief Executive is a conglomeration of all the total seeing power, total smelling power, total hearing power, total thinking power, total touching power, total emotional power and so on.
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Out of that total power relating to sight, every pair of eyes has got a miniscule. And therefore, the eyes are functioning only with the blessings of that respective dēvatā, just as every General Manager functions only with the blessings of the Chief Executive. Each organ is capable of grasping one aspect individually viz. sound, form, touch, smell and taste. Thus the five fold organs gather the five fold stimuli. The five fold aspects of the creation are called viṣayaḥ and the organs are called indriyaṁ. So each indriyaṁ grasps each viṣayaṁ. And which organ will grasp which object is not based on our choice or will. If we want to hear a talk, we have no choice but to use our ears. We cannot say that it is boring to listen through the ears all the time.So we are now going to hear through the eyes! That will not be possible. It is fixed and determined by the Lord himself. Thus every organ can function only within its given field. One organ does not have an access into another field. Just as a ship can move only on water, car can move only on the road, aeroplane can fly only in the air; each sense organ can function only in its �ेत्(kṣētraṁ) - the field. Also each sense organ has got a finite capacity only. Ears can hear only within a range. But the range is not the same for all human beings as certain persons can hear certain sounds which others can’t. Thus the organs have a finite faculty and the scriptures say that any finite power is a portion of the infinite potential. Thus the five sense organs have finite powers but the corresponding dēvatās have got infinite potential. The use of this information is like knowing which Minister or Department is responsible for what in
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the Government. When we have a problem we can approach only the relevant Department and the relevant Minister. If we go to the Home Ministry with a college admiission issue, we will draw a blank. So the worship of the relevant dēvatās is useful for improving the relevant sensory faculties. The author mentions the names of the dēvatās i.e the corresponding macro or infinite power for each of the five jñānēndriyāṇi. For śrōtriya it is �दक् (dik) dēvatā. The total or macro hearing power is known by the name dik dēvatā; for tvacaḥ i.e. touch, it is वायः ु (vāyuḥ). Vāyu dēvatā is the name of the total power of touch; for cakṣuṣaḥ सयर् ू (sūryaḥ) dēvatā. For the eyes the corresponding dēvatā is sūrya dēvatā or the Sun; for rasanāyāḥ it is वरुण (varuṇaḥ) dēvatā. Varuṇaḥ is the name of the total power of taste; and for ghrāṇasya it is अिश्वन (aśvinau) dēvatās. For the total power of smell, there are twin dēvatās called aśvins or aśvini kumārās. Thus, these are the five dēvatās. After this the author also enumerates the objects of the knowledge of these jñānēndriyās. श्रोत �वषयः शब्दग्रह (śrōtrasya viṣayaḥ śabdagrahaṇaṁ) – in this context viṣayaḥ means function – the function of śrōtraṁ is śabda grahaṇaṁ – śabda means sound and grahaṇaṁ means grasping or experiencing. So the object of knowledge or function of the hearing faculty is to grasp sounds. त्वच �वषयः स्पशर ्ग् र
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(tvacō viṣayaḥ sparśa grahaṇaṁ); Sparśa means touch. So the function of skin is the perception of touch – soft, hard, hot, cold etc. च�ुषो �वषयः रूपग्रह (cakṣuṣō viṣayaḥ rūpa grahaṇaṁ) – the function of the sight faculty is the perception of the rūpaṁ which means colours. Form is also called rūpaṁ but the primary meaning of rūpaṁ is colours. रसनाया �वषयः रसग्रहण (rasanāyā viṣayaḥ rasa grahaṇaṁ) – rasana means the tongue. Rasa grahaṇaṁ means grasping the rasa i.e taste; and घ्राण �वषयः गन् ग्रहण (ghrāṇasya viṣayaḥ gandha grahaṇaṁ) – the function of nose is gandha grahaṇaṁ – the perception of smell. And that is why in the scriptures, the whole world is divided into five segments. Instead of enumerating the objects of the world, the scriptures divide the world into five segments i.e sound, smell, taste, form and touch. If we analyze carefully when we see an object what we see is the colour or shape. We never see an object. We always see the properties but never the substance. These are very interesting truths. Our sense organs never perceive the substance. They perceive only the properties called śabda, sparśa, rūpa, rasa and gandha. And we never know what the substance is! When we say you are sitting, we are only seeing your colour. If we say you are speaking, we are only hearing your sound. If you apply lot of perfumes, we only smell the perfumes.Thus we don’t know what your substance is.
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Pañca karmēndriyāṇi –Five organs of action The author next talks about the different aspects viz. the functions, their field of activity and the corresponding dēvatāḥ which represents the total potential of कमिनम ्द् (karmēndriyaḥ) - the sense organs of action or output. He explains: वाक्पाणपादपायूपस्थानी पञ्चकमिन्द्र I वाचो देवता विह्न I हस्तयोर न् I पादयो�वर्ष्ण I पायोमर्त्यृ र्त्य I उपस्थस प्रजाप I इ त कमिन्ददेवताः I वाचो �वषयः भाषणम् I पाण्योवर ्ष वस्तुग्रह I पादयो�वर्षय गमनम् I पायो �वर्षय मलत्याग I उपस्थस �वषयः आनन् इ त I Vāk pāṇi pāda pāyūpasthānīti pañca karmēndriyāṇi. Vācō dēvatā vahniḥ.Hastayōrindraḥ , Pādayōrviṣṇuḥ. Pāyōrmṛtyuḥ. Upasthasya prajāpatiḥ. Iti karmēndriyadēvatāḥ. Vācō viṣayaḥ bhāṣaṇam.Pāṇyōrviṣayaḥ vastugrahaṇam. Pādayōrviṣayaḥ gamanam. Pāyōrviṣayaḥ malatyāgaḥ. Upasthasya viṣayaḥ ānanda iti. First he enumerates the five organs – वाक्(vāk) - the organ of speech. It is useful to be reminded here that we are not talking about the the physical part which is the tongue. The physical part as we have seen is called gōḷakaṁ which may be there even in a person who is dumb. The reference here is to the invisible faculty because of which the tongue is able to express. This invisible part is called vāk śaktiḥ or vāk indriya – the organ of speech; पाण: (pāṇiḥ) means the two hands because of which we are able to hold
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handle the objects of the world. We always use our hands to do whatever we want to do i.e. the outputs we want to give. The reference here is to the faculty and not the physical part. In fact the very word handle must have come from hand. Handle means that we do with our hands; पादः (pādaḥ) - the foot or leg. The pair of legs we have is called pādau - feet. They are meant for movement. It is because of them that we have mobility. So, pādaḥ stands for locomotion or the power of movement; पायः ु(pāyuḥ) - that internal organ which removes the waste from the body. Our body is a very big factory which takes in a lot of raw material. And in this factory of the body, the food is converted into energy for activity. Any factory will need to discharge the waste. So the body factory also has wastes which have to be evacuated. Otherwise there will be a health hazard. That organ which does this is called pāyuḥ – waste removing organ – both solid waste as well as liquid waste; उपस्थ (upasthaḥ) - the organ of reproduction because of which every living being reproduces and perpetuates its paramparā or lineage. Here also we should remember all references to the organs are not to the gōḷakaṁ, the physical part but to the indriyaṁ, the invisible faculty. So indriyaṁs have been enumerated. The next aspect is the corresponding dēvatās. वाचो देवता विह्न (vācō dēvatā vahniḥ) – vahniḥ or agniḥ is the name of the dēvatā for the total power of communications, which is a very important faculty. Many times we do not communicate properly and at the same time we are unable to keep our mouth
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shut. At times we also fall victims to communication gap. In fact most of the problems in a family can be traced to communication gap. So the corresponding total potential that is called Vāk Dēvatā Agniḥ. It is also called Sarasvatī – Vāk Dēvī. Most of us only pray to Lakṣmī Dēvī for blessing us with wealth. But if we want to totally avoid the communication gap in the family; we have to pray more to Sarasvatī the Vāk Dēvī. Another name is Bṛhaspatiḥ. Bṛhaḥ means vāk. So Bṛhaspatiḥ means the dēvatā of vāk. Therefore, Agni dēvatā, Sarasvatī dēvatā, and Bṛhaspati dēvatā – all of them represent the total power of speech. Then हस्तयोर न् (hastayōḥ indraḥ) – Indra dēvatā represents our total power of handling. We have only limited power and are barely able to carry our own weight – what to talk of extra weight. That is why someone was asked what ‘middle age’ was and he said that it was that period in life when one can carry only one’s own weight. In old age, even that would not be possible. A third hand would be required even to get up if sitting on the floor. The next is पादयो�वर्ष्ण (pādayōḥ viṣṇuḥ). - Viṣṇu dēvatā or Lord Nārāyanā especially in his Trivikramā or Vāmanā form. Viṣṇu is considered to be the presiding deity for movement because only in his Trivikrama avatārā, he showed his power of movement. Please refer to the story of King Mahābali in the Bhāgavata Purānā to understand the connection between Lord Viṣṇu and the power of movement. The next is पायोमर्त्यृ र्त्य (pāyōrmṛtyuḥ) - The presiding deity of cleansing the residue or the remnant is mṛtyuḥ that is Yama
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Dharma Rājā. Yama is the presiding deity for removing the waste. In the context of our body, only when the waste is removed can we eat afresh. The duty of Lord Yama is to remove people from the world through death. For example, in old age what is there left in us? Only the old shell of the body which is a waste. When old people become a burden to the earth they have to be evacuated to make place for the new generation. So Lord Yama represents the power of evacuation, the power of removing the unwanted, paving way for the fresh creation. Any destruction in the universe is a stepping stone for the next construction. So destruction is always constructive destruction. We should never look down upon mrutyuḥ which literally means death. But in this context it refers to Lord Yama Dharma Rājā. That is why while taking the name, the word DHARMĀ is emphasized. He never does anything which is adhārmik. His activities are never unjust. He never takes to unfair activities. Our problem is that we don’t mind everybody else dying but we have an unfair attitude that we and a few others close to us should live eternally. This is an unfair expectation on our part and Lord Yama will never fulfill this unfair expectation! The fifth and last one is उपस्थस प्रजाप (upasthasya prajāpatiḥ) - The presiding deity of upastha, the organ of reproduction, generation or creation is Prajāpatiḥ i.e. Brahmā, the four headed dēvatā. Brahmā is worshipped as the creator and that Brahmā Ji’s total power of creation alone manifests in every living being. The only difference is that Brahmā Ji can create all the species whereas
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human beings can create only human species. So we have got a limited power of reproducing only our species. But Brahmā Ji has the unlimited power of reproducing all creation. He stands for the total potential of creation and that is why he has four heads. The four heads stand for the four Vēdās and the four Vēdās stand for the total knowledge, omniscience. Any creation is knowledge. Any creativity requires knowledge. इ त कमिनम ्द्रयादेव (iti karmēndriyā dēvatāḥ) – These are the dēvatās of organs of action. Now what remains in this topic is a discussion on the functions of each one of the karmēndriyās. वाचो �वषयः भाषणम् (vācō viṣayaḥ bhāṣaṇam) – viṣayaḥ as we have seen earlier means function. The function of the organ of speech is Bhāṣaṇam i.e speech; पाण्योवर ्ष वस्तुग्रह (pāṇyōḥ viṣayaḥ vastu grahaṇam) - The function of the two hands is the handling of the objects – vastu means objects or things and grahaṇam means handling; पादयो�वषर यः गमनम् (pādayōḥ viṣayaḥ gamanam) - The function of the feet is movement; पायो �वर्षय मलत्याग (pāyōḥ viṣayaḥ mala tyāgaḥ) - The function of pāyuḥ is the elimination or the discharge of malaṁ i.e. waste. The waste discharged through sweat or excretion of any form of waste would come under the function of mala tyāgaḥ; and उपस्थस �वषयः आनन्द (upasthasya viṣayaḥ ānandaḥ) - The function of the organ of reproduction is
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reproduction – begetting children. Becoming parents; raising the status of a person to parent hood. The scriptures point out that parent hood is ānandaḥ – whether one may agree or not – because one sees oneself in his or her child. Also when we die, we never look upon it as total disappearance but we perceive that we continue to survive in the form of our children. Children represent immortality. Therefore, ānandaḥ, otherwise called immortality, is the word used here for begetting children. So the perpetuation of the species is the function of the upasthaḥ. That completes the description of ten out of seventeen organs. Pañca prāṇaḥ - Five physiological systems However, we find in a similar description of the pañca prā ṇās i.e five praanas is missing in the original text. We do not know if these have been omitted inadvertently by the author. In the absence of their description by the author, we will still study them on the basis of the scriptures. The five fold prāṇik system can be called the five fold physiological system. They are somewhat similar to the physiological system that we find in modern Biology. These physiologic functions are divided into five. This is the Shāstrik approach. These are called प्रा (prāṇaḥ), अपानः (apānaḥ), व्यान (vyānaḥ), समानः (samānaḥ) and उदानः (udānaḥ). The order has been slightly changed for ease of understanding sequentially.
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Prāṇaḥ is the respiratory system. The external air is breathed in as the prāṇa vāyu, the energy is absorbed and thereafter the wastage is exhaled; the second one is apānaḥ which means the evacuatory or excretory system- that energy which gives the power for the removal of the waste from the body; next is vyānaḥ which is the circulatory system for the energy that is manufactured out of food. Food is first converted into energy and that energy is supplied or distributed to every cell of the body. This is done by vyānaḥ which is known as Circulatory system in biological terms; the fourth one is called samānaḥ which is digestive system, which alone converts the raw material called food into the invisible energy. We require energy for all our activities; and finally we have got udānaḥ - It is a unique system which functions only rarely. It is like an emergency exit. They are like the fire extinguishers which are not normally used but used only in an emergency. A similar concept can be observed in Vishnu temples. They have a door on the northern side of the deity which is called ‘Svarga Vāsal’ – entrance to heaven. This door will not be opened at all on normal days. It is opened only once a year and that too on the Vaikuṇaṭha ēkādasi day. Similarly Bhagavān – God, the omniscient Lord has kept an emergency power to protect and save our body and health. And that power gets activated whenever any poison or toxin, which is threat to our health, enters our body. This power manifests either in the form of vomiting or purging until the poison is thrown out. If some foreign particle enters through the nose, we keep on sneezing till that particle is thrown out. Similarly, if some dust particles enter the eyes, the tear glands begin to put in extra efforts
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till the dust particle is removed. Even when we are sorrowful or we experience certain unhealthy emotions, then also tears come down our eyes. According to the Scientists, those unhealthy toxins in the mind are removed through tears. But tears flow when we are extremely elated also. But the composition of these tears is different from the composition of the tears we shed due to a sorrowful and unhealthy emotion. All these are examples of the function of udānaḥ which we can call the reversing function or the emergency function which operates rarely. This function also operates at the time of death when all the organs have to withdraw their respective functions. Udānaḥ, therefore, is active at the time of death also. All things inside the body are thrown out. Food cannot be taken inside. All this happens because the sūkṣma śarīraṁ has to leave the sthūla śarīraṁ. These are the pañca prāṇās, the five fold physiological system. Antaḥkaraṇaṁ - Four inner equipments And finally we have two more - manaḥ and buddhiḥ , which are called Antaḥkaraṇaṁ. Manaḥ is defined as the संशय (saṁśaya) or doubting faculty. Saṁśaya or doubting is a faculty. In fact this faculty is very active in many people. They are called ‘Doubting Thomases’. In Sanskrit it is expressed as सकं ल्�वकल्पात्म मनः (sankalpa vikalpātmakaṁ manaḥ) – oscillating faculty. The famous opening phrase of the soliloquy "To be, or not to be" in William Shakespeare's
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play Hamlet comes to our mind. When in doubt, we keep on oscillating between two ideas like the pendulum of the clock – to be or not to be. The pendulum moving in one direction is called sankalpa. The pendulum moving in the opposite direction is called vikalpa. The sankalpa vikalpa oscillation or vacillation faculty is called manaḥ. It is also the emotional faculty. So mind stands for both faculties i.e. doubt as well as emotion. Whereas, ब�दु ् (buddhiḥ) is the faculty we call the intellect. It is the rational faculty. In Sanskrit it is expressed as नश्चयात्म (niścayātmakaṁ) that which puts an end to the vacillation; decisive. It is the buddhiḥ which puts an end to the vacillation of the mind by taking a decision. So this is the decisive or rational or intellectual faculty. These are thus the seventeen components of sūkṣma śarīraṁ. In some other texts, two more constituents are added to the seventeen to make them nineteen constituents. Those two additions are चत्त (cittaṁ) and अहङ्कार (ahaṅkāraḥ). Cittaṁ is the memory faculty. It is an extremely important faculty because without that we will have to keep learing everything again and again. Even for the study of this text, the basic assumption is that we remember what we have read and understood in the earlier chapters. But for that, we will for ever be struck on Page 1 only! The last faculty is ahaṅkāraḥ which refers to the Ego - the ‘I’ notion because of which we identify with the sthūla śarīraṁ and the
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sūkṣma śarīraṁ. Thus we can count these four also i.e. manaḥ, buddhiḥ, cittaṁ and ahaṅkāraḥ alongwith the fifteen to make it a total of nineteen components of sūkṣma śarīraṁ. Now to consider an interesting question before we proceed further. The scriptures say that after the death of the sthūla śarīraṁ, the sūkṣma śarīraṁ travels to take up another gross body. And they also says that all information, data, memory etc. stored in the sūkṣma śarīraṁ including the mind is transferred to this new gross body and this process goes on till pralayaṁ. This means that we carry the mind and memories from the previous births. Now a question is often asked as to why we don’t remember anything from our previous birth/s. This question is answered from two perspectives. It is not true that all of us do not remember anything from the previous births. The child prodigies we see are those persons who have memories of the previous births passed on to them which they can recall. Otherwise there can be no explanation how a small child is able to our render music or play musical instruments or solve mathematical problems. We call them genius. So a genius is that person who has been able to recall the memory of his previous births and work on it in the present birth to produce extraordinary results in his chosen field of action. This is the first perspective. Secondly, for most of us, when we cannot recall what happened a few days or a few weeks or a few years ago, how can we recall what happened in the last birth or a few births ago? As we are reading this book, if someone were to ask us what all was
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discussed in the third Chapter, most of us will not be able to recall unless we refer back to the third chapter. So, just because the mind continues to exist from birth to birth, there is no rule that we should remember the experiences of the previous birth. There are many things we remember, many things we forget because of long passage of time.
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Kāraṇaśarīraṁ - Causal body The next topic is the 3rd anātmā, viz kāraṇa śarīraṁ. As usual the student asks: कारणशर�रं �कम ्? (kāraṇaśarīraṁ kiṁ). And the author explains: अ�नवार्च्य ानाध्यवध्य शर�रद्वयस कारणमात्सत्स्वरूपा �न�वर् कल्पकर यदिस् तत्कारणशररम I्कारणशररम Anirvācyānādhyavidhyārūpaṁ śarīradvayasya kāraṇamātraṁ satsvarūpā jñānaṁ nirvikalpakarūpaṁ yadasti tat kāraṇaśarīram. Kāraṇa śarīraṁ can literally be translated as the causal body. Kāraṇaṁ means cause. Here also we will study the four factors viz. the condition, cause, function and nature. For the sake of convenience, we first take up the function. To understand the function of kāraṇa śarīraṁ, we need to know a very important law of the creation. It is very important from the point of view of the scriptures and also from the perspective of modern science. This law of creation states is that nothing is ever created. In fact the word creation itself is a misnomer. Really speaking, because of the law of conservation of matter and energy, matter can never be created and matter can never be destroyed. In short, nothing can be created or destroyed. It means when we talk about the creation of a desk, really speaking the carpenter does not create anything. The desk was already existent in the form of wood. Carpenter does not add even one ounce of matter or even one milligram of matter.
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By his effort he has only modified the wood into the desk form. That is only transformation of matter from one form to the other. This transformation alone we erroneously call creation. Similarly when an ornament is created, the goldsmith does not produce even a microgram of gold. Already matter was there in the form of gold and he has only given a particular shape to it. It is a sheer transformation from one form of matter to another form. Similarly when a tree is generated or produced, no tree is generated. It already existed in the form of a seed. And that seed is called the unmanifest form of the tree. The tree did exist very much in the seed in a potential form, in an unmanifest form. Production of the tree is not production, nor creation. It is only that the unmanifest tree comes to manifestation. Similarly all our bodies existed in the womb of the mother in potential form and the creation of our body is the unmanifest again coming to manifestation. So everything existed all the time. This whole universe, this whole creation existed all the time. Bhagawān or God did not create even an ounce of matter. A question may arise that, if that were be the case that the world existed all the time, why do we talk about the creation of the world called सि ृ ष्ट (sṛṣṭiḥ) and why do we talk about the dissolution of the world called प्र: (pralayaḥ). The scriptures point out that the creation of the world is not really the ‘creation’ of the world. The creation existed before also. But the only the difference is, just as the tree existed before in an unmanifest form, similarly the
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universe also existed in an unmanifest form. The scriptures call it the seed form of the universe. Just as there is a seed form for the tree, just as there is a seed form for the body, the whole universe also existed in an unmanifest, potential causal form. When the scientists study cosmology, they also talk about the big bang theory. And according to that theory, before the big bang, the whole universe existed in a very very condensed form. In science they call it singularity. In Vēdāntā we call it अव्यक प्रप (avyakta prapañca). So the creation is nothing but the avyaktaṁ, the unmanifest coming to vyaktaṁ i.e. manifestation. Just as the seed becomes sprout, the sprout becomes the plant and the plant becomes the tree, similarly the tree of the universe also evolves. And if creation is nothing but manifestation, what will be the dissolution of the universe? We have to extend the same principle. At the time of pralayaḥ, the world will not be destroyed. Due to the operation of the law of nature, matter can neither be created nor destroyed. Universe cannot be destroyed. At the time of pralayaḥ, the whole manifest universe again will go back to unmanifest condition. Thus we need to understand that going from manifestation to unmanifest condition is called pralayaḥ and going from unmanifest condition to manifestation is called sṛṣṭiḥ. This means the universe will always exist either in avyakta rūpaṁ or vyakta rūpaṁ.
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And this law applies to everything in the universe. When we destroy the desk, it will become pieces of wood. If we burn the pieces of wood, it will be reduced to ashes. If we mix the ashes with earth, it will reduce to mud form, from which again the wood will grow. We can only change the form. In fact the atom bomb explosion was based on this theory. When matter is converted into energy, it becomes an atomic explosion. Einstein’s theory E= MC² is based on this. When matter is destroyed, it will get converted into energy and when we recovert the energy, it will again become matter. If this is true, we can say that every object in the creation existed even before its creation, but in an unmanifest form. Whether it is a fan, mike or carpet or even our own body, everything must have existed even before its creation in its potential form. So our two bodies, i.e. sthūla śarīraṁ and sūkṣma śarīraṁ must have existed even before their ‘creation’. And they would have existed in unmanifest form, seed form or causal form. That causal form of these two śarīraṁs is called kāraṇa śarīraṁ. The causal form for this mike will be kāraṇa mike, the causal for the desk will be kāraṇa desk, and the causal form of the Earth will be kāraṇa earth! And so on. And the most important aspect to understand is that each manifest form contains the seed for the unmanifest form. Like the seed of a mango tree is contained in the seed which is inside the mango fruit. And therefore, the author says kāraṇa śarīraṁ serves as the seed for the sthūla and sūkṣma śarīraṁs to orginate.
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The next logical question would be, when the whole creation is destroyed, what will happen to the sthūla and sūkṣma śarīraṁs ? The answer is that they will not get destroyed, but will get converted back into kāraṇa śarīraṁ and when the next sṛṣṭiḥ comes, again the kāraṇa śarīraṁ will be transformed into sthūla and sūkṣma śarīraṁs and this process will go on eternally. Unmanifest becomes manifest. Manifest again goes back to unmanifest. Water becomes vapour and vapour again becomes water. In the Gītā, Bhagawān Kṛṣṇa says in verse 28, Chapter 2: अव्यक्ताद भता� ू न व्यक्तमध्यान भा | अव्यक्त नधनान्येव तत र का परद || Avyaktādīni bhūtāni vyaktamadhyāni bhārata. Avyaktanidhanānyēva tatra kā paridēvanā. Lord Kṛṣṇa says that everything was unmanifest. It became manifest and it will again go back to unmanifest. This expansion contraction process will eternally continue. Expansion is falsely called creation. Contraction is falsely called destruction. Therefore Lord Kṛṣṇa addresses Arjuna “Who is dying? There is no phenomenon called death at all. It is all change of shape only. So where is birth and where is death. Birth and death are there only in your perspective.” This is what the author explains in the text. Śarīradvayasya kāraṇamātraṁ. The kāraṇa śarīraṁ is merely the seed. It does not do any function. It serves only as a seed. Mātraṁ
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means only; so it is the only cause for śarīra dvayasya – the two bodies i.e sthūla śarīraṁ and sūkṣma śarīraṁ. Now what is the condition of this body? The author says nirvikalpaka rūpaṁ. When anything is in causal form or seed form, it will be in an undifferentiated form. It means that the various parts will not be clearly visible or recognizable. In the tree form we can clearly see the branch, the leaf, the trunk, the flower; the fruit etc. all are clearly recognizable. But in the seed form, even though everything is present, it is in an undifferentiated form. In the small lump of flesh after conception of a baby, all the ogans of the baby are present in the DNA of the baby, to use the language of genetics. If we do a DNA mapping we will find all the information coded in the genetic language. What type of baby will it be after
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years? Whether it will have congenital diseases, whether it will be healthy or sick, whether it will have hair on top of the head or not, whether psychological problems will be there or not, all this information is in the DNA but we are not able to detect because we have not yet mastered to decode this language. That is why as the child is born and it grows, the parents are always anxious because we cannot recognize whatever is there in a potential form. And certain diseases like hypertension, diabetes, kidney problems etc. manifest only after several years. But all these are present in potential form, all the while. And therefore, the condition of the Kāraṇa Śarīraṁ is such that we will not be able to differentiate or distinguish anything.
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And such undistinguishable state is called nirvikalpaka rūpaṁ. Vikalpa means differences. In sthūla śarīraṁ the differences are clear. We are clearly able to see and distinguish the head, the hands, legs etc. So the vikalpas are clear. In sūkṣma śarīraṁ the differences are less clear but we can still make out. We know what is mind, what is intellect, what is emotion, what is memory, what is jñānēndriyaṁ etc. These differences are evident. On the contrary, in kāraṇa śarīraṁ, the differences will not be detectable at all. This in Sanskrit is called nirvikalpaka rūpaṁ. Now let us study the nature of that kāraṇa śarīraṁ. The author says its nature is svarūpa ajñāna ṁ. We need to undersand this word ajñānaṁ very clearly. We have seen that with respect to the Universe, the kāraṇa śarīraṁ obtains before the creation or after the dissolution. And as per definition the differences will not be recognizable in the unmanifest form. This means that the subject-object duality will not be recognizable in kāraṇa avasthā. In our present manifest form, we are able to clearly differentiate that ‘I’ am the subject, the knower and all other things are the objects i.e the known. In kāraṇa avasthā even that duality will not be recognizable. Since the knower-known division itself is not recognizable, we cannot talk about any knowledge in kāraṇa avasthā. We cannot talk about any form of knowledge.
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We can talk about knowledge, only when there are divisions. Even in a class room, learning or knowing takes place because there is someone teaching and someone listening by using the mind and the ears. We can talk about knowledge when there are so many instruments. But when there is no division of subject, object, mind, sense organs, intellect etc. we cannot talk about knowledge. And therefore, the nature of that state of the kāraṇa śarīraṁ is ajñānaṁ i.e. total ignorance because the infrastructure for knowledge is absent. So the author says kāraṇa śarīraṁ is that which consists of ignorance of sat svarūpa - the real nature of everything. It is in the nature of total blanket ignorance. And that is why the cosmologists, through their research are trying to find out the condition before the ‘Big Bang’. According to the theory of general relativity, the initial state of the universe, at the beginning of the Big Bang was singularity. But both general relativity and quantum mechanics break down in describing the Big Bang. They found a state which they call ‘singularity’ but they are unable to understand what caused the Big Bang. They, therefore, define singularity as a state of no information. We call it kāraṇa śarīraṁ. They call it state of no information. We call it ajñānaṁ. It is widely believed that despite all research the Scientists will never be able to know the cause! Now what is the cause of kāraṇa śarīraṁ? The question itself seems absurd because by definition, kāraṇa śarīraṁ is the root cause of everything and being the root cause of everything it can never be an effect or a product. Everything is born out of kāraṇa śarīraṁ,
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but kāraṇa śarīraṁ itself is not born out of anything and that is why the author calls it anādi. Anādi means the beginningless. And this anādi kāraṇa śarīraṁ is given a technical name avidyā or mūla avidyā. The word avidyā is a technical word and is another word for kāraṇa śarīraṁ. And since it is the root cause, it is called mūla avidyā. It has several other names also. It is called māyā, prakṛtiḥ, avyaktaṁ, śaktiḥ etc. All these are synonyms. Of these, the author has chosen to use anādi avidyā rūpaṁ. Thus we can understand kāraṇa śarīraṁ as the causeless cause of the universe! We are now left with the word anirvācya. This is another technical word for mithyā. We have already learnt the meaning of this word when we discussed ātmā satyaṁ tadanyat sarvaṁ mithyā. We have learnt that satyaṁ has independent existence and mithyā has got only dependent existence. And we also considered the example of a desk and clay pot. In a clay pot, clay has got independent existence. Even if the pot is destroyed, clay will continue. But pot has got a dependent existence. If we remove the clay the pot cannot exist. So there we learnt that anātmā is mithyā. And here the author introduces another word anirvācya which means mithyā. The entire anātmā is mithyā. The author has used this word only while discussing kāraṇa śarīraṁ but it can be used in the context of all the śarīraṁs. So one can say anirvācya sthūla śarīraṁ, anirvācya sūkṣma śarīraṁ and of course, anirvācya kāraṇa śarīraṁ. All are mithyā. There is another interesting aspect. This kāraṇa śarīraṁ by its very definition will exist only before creation or after dissolution.
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Therefore, there is no way of seeing or experiencing the kāraṇa śarīraṁ now. But the shāstrās say that we can get a taste of the kāraṇa śarīraṁ, if we have a desire to know that. However, for that we cannot destroy the whole universe. We all know that before the construction of a large building complex, the architects build a miniature model. The shāstrās say we get a similar model of the kāraṇa śarīraṁ very easily and very regularly, whenever we go to sleep. During our sleep, the sthūla śarīraṁ is as though dissolved because we are unaware of it. Thus we can say that sleep is a miniature model of the dissolution of the sthūla śarīraṁ. Not that it is actually dissolved but it is as though or seemingly dissolved because we don’t experience the physical body. Similarly the sūkṣma śarīraṁ is also as though dissolved during sleep, as none of them function as that time. Eyes, ears, emotions, knowledge, ego, intellect, memory etc. are all as though dissolved. We can never say that we are asleep – in the present tense. This is because all our faculties are dissolved. But, if we can say that we are asleep, it would mean that we are not asleep! In sleep everything is as though or seemingly dissolved. So, this sleep is a miniature version of pralayaṁ and therefore, the shāstrās call it layaḥ. Layaḥ is the miniature version of pralayaḥ. We can remove the pra and make it a miniature! During sleep we don’t experience the world, we don’t experience our physical body, we don’t experience our subtle body, and we don’t experience our mind, our intellect. We experience nothing but the sleep. Therefore, subject-object duality
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is absent and even all the knowledge stored in our cittaṁ is dissolved. There is only total ignorance. There is only sat svarūpa ajñānaṁ. There is an interesting story which highlights this fact. An orthodox person, who used to practice untouchability, was travelling in a train. There was another person sitting next to him. This orthodox person warned the other person not to touch him since he was very orthodox. The train started moving and both of them fell asleep. In the process, the orthodox person still asleep fell on the lap of the other person. At that time there was no issue of untouchability! When he woke up, he once again warned the other person not to touch him! So the lesson is that all these practices of touchable, untouchable etc. i.e. all divisions are only in waking state but not in deep sleep state. That is why sleep is given as an example for recognizing kāraṇa śarīraṁ. But the actual kāraṇa śarīraṁ will be available only in pralayaḥ avasthā, when the whole universe will be dissolved. We need to understand this aspect very carefully. At the time of pralayaṁ i.e. dissolution of the universe, the subtle body also get dissolved. However, the causal body continues to exist even at the time of pralayaṁ, because that is going to be seed for the next creation of gross and subtle bodies, just as the farmers keep some seeds for the next crop. Similarly the Lord is an intelligent farmer and he keeps all the causal bodies with which he can create the physical and subtle bodies in the next round of creation. Causal bodies, therefore, have the longest life possible. The causal body
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gets dissolved only under one condition. The gross body goes at the time of death; the subtle body goes at the time of pralayaṁ. The causal body goes or gets dissolved only once in a person’s lifetime and that happens at the time of liberation or mōkṣaḥ. So the wise people or the jñānis at the time of their death become free from their sthūla, sūkṣma and kāraṇa śarīraṁs. And that is why, the scriptures point out, that after mōkṣaḥ there will be no rebirth, as the cause for the rebirth itself would get destroyed. So mōkṣaḥ is the final end. This completes the discussion on the three śarīrams – sthūla, sūkṣma and kāraṇa śarīraṁs.
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Avasthātrayaṁ - The three states of existence Seqentially, the next topic is kōśa pañcakaṁ. However, the author has done a slight modification. Instead of dealing with kōśa pañcakaṁ, he first discusses avasthā trayaṁ. The order is slightly changed and we will also follow the teacher. अवस्थात्�कम?् (avasthātrayaṁ kiṁ) जाग्रत्स्वप्नसुषुप्त I Jāgrat svapna suṣuptyavasthāḥ The student asks “What are the three fold states of experience?” The author enumerates them as जा गत्(jāgrat) - the waking state of experience; स्वप (svapna) - the dream state of experience; and सष ु िप ु ् (suṣupti) - the dreamless deep sleep state of experience. The author goes on to describe each of them more clearly. Jāgradavasthā – The waking state As per our shāstrās nothing should be taken for granted and there should be no doubt left in learning. So the author begins with jāgrat avasthāḥ. जाग्रदवस का ? (jāgradavasthā kā) श्रोत्रादानेिनशब्दा - �वषयैश् ाय तेइ त या सा जाग्रदवस I
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स्ू थ लश र राभमान आत्म �वश् इत्युच्य I Śrōtrādijñānēndriyaiḥ śabdādi - viṣayaiśca jñāyatē iti yā sā jāgradavasthā. Sthūla śarīrābhimānī Ātmā viśva ityucyatē The student asks “What is the waking state of experience”? The teacher explains sā jāgrat avasthā.- that is called as the waking state – yā jñāyatē – which is experienced or which is known with the help of the interaction between two factors viz. śrōtrādi jñānēndriyaiḥ - the sense organs of knowledge which are the sense faculty of hearing etc. i.e. eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin. But sense alone cannot generate experience. If sense organs should generate experience, they require the corresponding sense objects. And therefore, the author says śabdādi viṣayaiśca - viṣayaḥ means sense objects. And the sense objects are also divided into five - śabdādi i.e in the form of śabda, sparśa, rūpa, rasa and gandha We have discussed these earlier. Thus the indriyaṁ group and the viṣayaḥ group interact. During the deep sleep state, the indriyaṁ group i.e. the sense organs group is not functioning, they are withdrawn or resolved and that is why even when the world continues, we have no experience. We may be attending a music programme and if in between we doze off, the music programme will continue but the musical experience ends for us because one of the complementary pairs i.e. the sensory group has switched off or withdrawn. If we listen to some nice music it would give us happiness and if the music is terrible, it gives us sorrow. The entire waking state is a series of pleasures and pain. And pleasure leads
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to further reactions and pain leads to further reactions. Emotional problems like desire, anger, delusion, greed, lust, envy etc. i.e all forms of emotions are based on these interactions only. And if these interactions are absent, these emotional problems will also be absent. And even the worry about the future will be absent. Therefore, the interactions as well as the interaction based reactions; all of them come under jāgrat avasthā. Another important aspect is that if this interaction has to happen, we have to support the sense organs. We have to be behind the sense organs. Without our backing them up, the sense organs will not function. They cannot operate by their mere existence. Our cooperation is required. When we want to listen to something very carefully for example a feeble sound, we tend to encircle the back of our ears with our hand and we are all attention. This shows our backing up or supporting the ears to perform to their best. Taking another example, if in a class room we are not focussed on our ears but on our mind thinking about something outside the topic being discussed in the class, we will not be able to hear the talk properly because we would be failing to back up the sense organ i.e. ears, which is required for listening. Now the question could arise, by referring to ears are we talking about the physical ears or the hearing faculty i.e. the sthūla or sūkṣma? The answer is both. We have to identify with both i.e. the gōḷakaṁ as well as indriyaṁ. In this example, if we have to identify with the indriyaṁ, we have to identify with the gōḷakaṁ i.e physical ears and that is why we keep the hand near the ears as a gesture of identification.
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Therefore, the functioning of the indriya requires indriya indentification or abhimānaṁ – identification. Indriya abhimānaṁ requires gōḷaka abhimānaṁ. And gōḷakaṁ is a part of the physical body. Therefore gōḷaka abhimānaṁ requires śarīra or dēha abhimānaṁ. So we have to identify with our physical body. Without identifying with our physical body, we cannot operate the sense organs and if we cannot operate them, we cannot experience the external world. That is why in sleep or in dream, even though our body is there, even though our ears are open also but we don’t hear any sound. This is because in that state we don’t identify with our body. So even though mosquitoes may be there all over our body, we are like jīvan muktās, liberated persons!!! Since we dont’ identify with our body, there is no experience of the mosquito bite. Our nostrils are open but we don’t smell anything. A good example is somnambulism or sleep walking. These people have no śarīra or dēha abhimānaṁ i.e. no identification with the physical body. So waking state requires sthūla śarīra abhimānaṁ and when we are in the waking state we are called �वश्: (viśvaḥ) - the waker. इत्युच्य (iti ucyatē) – so it is said. Whereas in the dream state, we don’t identify with the body and naturally we don’t experience the external world. The body is nonoperational and so, the external world is also non-existent for us. This is what the teacher is going to explain in the next Q &A.
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Svapnāvasthā – The dream state स्वप्नावस के त चेत ?् (svapnāvasthā kēti cēt) जाग्रदवस ्थायद दृष्यत्श्रुतज्जन -वासनया नद्रासम यः प्रपञ प्रतीयसा स्वप्नावस I समशररा ू मशररा�भमानी आत्म तैजस इत्युच्यI Jāgradavasthāyāṁ yad dṛṣṭaṁ yat śrutaṁ tajjanita-vāsanayā nidrāsamayē yaḥ prapañcaḥ pratīyatē sā svapnāvasthā. Sūkṣma śarīrābhimānī ātmā taijasa ityucyatē. The author first talks about the mechanism or cause of the dream state. He says at the time of waking, we experience the external world and at this time, the mind records those experiences. The mind is the most sophisticated recording medium. In a tape recorder, we can record voices and in a video recorder, we can record both visuals and sound. But in the mind, we can not only the experiences of the world, in form and sound but it records all the five viṣayas i.e śabda, sparśa, rūpa, rasa and gandha at the same time. In addition to these five sensory stimuli, even the emotions like anger, happiness, jealousy, anxiety, worry, greed, lust, etc. i.e. what all we experience in the jāgrat avasthā, they are all registered. The more powerful the experience, the more deep is the recording. And this recording medium has no limit in terms of memory capacity, unlike audio or video recorders, in which we have to frequently change the recording medium. But Bhagavān has given us the most sophisticated recording device that we can go on recording without changing the recording medium i.e. brain. We
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can record any number of experiences and the medium lasts even for several births! These registered experiences are called vāsanās. Another word is ससं ्का र (saṁskārā). We are all born with innumerable vāsanās or saṁskārās gathered in the previous births and that is why we have musical genius, mathematical genius, spiritual genius etc. because they all are born with inherited ‘ balance of talent’ from the previous births. So the waking state serves as a sophisticated recorder. Now when we feel tired of the waking state and switch off the light and go to bed, then what does that mind do? No more live programmes are available. The ‘recorder’ part of the instrument is switched off. But the ‘player’ part of the instrument takes over and whatever is registered in the mind, is replayed; like the action replay in the cricket match! The vāsanās are projected and this projected vāsanās are called the dream universe. Every experience creates an imprint or etching in the mind which produces a vāsanā. This is what is explained by the author when he says jāgradavasthāyāṁ yad dṛṣṭaṁ yat śrutaṁ - what is heard and what is seen in the waking state; (we need to add other things also like what is smelt, touched, tasted etc.); tajjanita vāsanayā - tat janita means born out of that experience; During the waking state the vāsanās are not activated. We cannot do recording and playing simulataneously. So in the waking state only recording takes place. But nidrā samayē – at the time of sleep, yaḥ prapañcaḥ pratīyatē – the world which is recognized i.e.
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whatever inner world, private world, mentally projected world is experienced; sā svapnāvasthā - that is called the dream state. This world of dream is a purely private world for anyone. We cannot share the dreams with another person. For example, if we go to a temple, we can see the temple premises, the idol, the manner the idol is decorated etc. We can show this, share this experience with others. We can even take them to the temple and show them. We can take photos and videos of the temple and share them with others. But suppose we see the temple, idol etc. in a dream, can we wake up the neighbour and show him the dream? We cannot because it is आन्त प्रपञ (āntara prapañcaḥ) – an inner world. It is subjective. In jāgrat avasthā, it is an objective, external world and in svapna avasthā, it is a subjective, internal world. So in a dream we never gather any new experience. New experiences can be gathered only in waking state. In dream we can only relive whatever experiences we had before. However, some people may claim that they had new experiences in the dream! That is never possible. It is possible that the old experiences may be rearranged, all memories could be jumbled up and out of the jumbled memories one may have a seemingly new experience. But it cannot be anything new. It can only be a rearrangement of the old memories which may appear as new. Suppose one still says that he had an experience in the dream which he never had before. The shāstrās say that the person has
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had the experience before. It is only that he doesn’t remember that experience. For example, we come across some people whose face looks very familiar but we cannot recollect where we have seen them earlier. So it may look like a new experience. In a dream, the mind can project only what is stored there. If that person is adamant, he may still claim that he did have a new experience in the dream which he has never had in his life. In response, the shāstrās say that, in that case, he is bound to have had that experience in his previous birth/s. Those experiences also sometimes get projected in the dream. Carrying this line of thought further; suppose a person claims that he sees the future in the dreams. Our response would be that, that experience is based on his imagination, which could have been registered in the waking state. For example, suppose a person is harassed by some other person in the waking state. This person is unable to respond because the person who is harassing is either a parent or an elderly person. But in his mind he feels like punching the nose of the person who is harassing! And he also imagines or visualizes that he is punching the nose! In his dream that person can see that scene of his punching the nose! So the scriptures say that the dreams also serve as a method built by nature to exhaust our desires! Some visualization is fulfilled in dreams. But if one actually sees future events in dream, we don’t call it a dream. We call it ESP – the Extra Sensory Perception. Dreams can never give us the experience of the future because dream by definition is the replay of the experiences of the waking state and
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such an experience is called svapna avasthā. And the most interesting aspect is that when we are in a dream, we don’t know that it is a dream. It all looks so real!!! A dream is seen as a dream only in the waking state. That is why Vēdāntā says that experiences in the waking state are also another dream, which we are never able to believe. The scriptures say that the truth of this statement will be revealed to us when we attain mōkṣaḥ. It is a mind boggling statement. So a dream is not a dream in a dream state. A dream in a dream state is like waking because there also there are people, objects, places, experiences etc. Everything is like in the waking state. So for the dream we require vāsanā abhimānaṁ. Vāsanās belong to the mind. Mind belongs to the sūkṣma śarīraṁ. And therefore we identify with our subtle body in the dream. So in the waking state we are sthūla śarīra abhimānī and in the dream state we are sūkṣma śarīra abhimānī. And the author gives a special name for this ‘I’ the Ātmā – the conscious being. He calls it तैजस (taijasa) – a dreamer; इत्युच्य (iti ucyatē) – it is said. So viśva is a waker and taijasa is a dreamer. Suṣuptyavasthā – The deep sleep state Next we move to the sleep state, which is very easy to understand. अथ सष ु प ु्त्यवस का ? (atha suṣuptyavasthā kā) अहं�कम�प न जाना�म सखे ु न मया नद्sनभ ु य ू त इ त सष ु प ु्त्यवस I
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कारणशररा�भमा नी आत्म प्र इत्युच्य I Ahaṁ kimapi na jānāmi. Sukhēna mayā nidrāsnubhūyata iti Suṣuptyavasthā. Kāraṇaśarīrābhimānī ātmā prājña ityucyatē. The student asks atah– so hereafter; suṣupti avasthā kā - what is the sleep state of experience? The teacher answers. In the sleep state, there is neither the external world seen through the sense organs nor is there the inner world projected through the vāsanās. Neither the sense organs are operational nor are the vāsanās activated. We have these 2 in 1 musical players. They have a radio and also a cassette player and there is a selector switch. If we push the switch in one direction the radio will play. This represents the waking state. Then if we change the switch to the cassette player and it will play the recorded cassette which is already inserted in the player. This is like the dream state. And if we don’t want to listen to either the radio or the tape recorder, we can select another switch which indicates ‘sleep’. In this state it neither plays the live programme nor the recorded programme but the player is asleep – it is in suṣupti avasthā ! Similarly in our case also there is total non-expereince in deep sleep state. But this is also a form of experience. And how do we experience that state? Ahaṁ kimapi na jānāmi - “I do not know anything!” .We don’t experience anything, neither the external world nor the internal world of projection. And therefore, we do not have the reactions that we have in the two avasthās. We do not
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have worries. We do not have anxieties. They all belong to waking and dream states. In suṣupti all the emotions are resolved, worries are resolved, anxieties are resolved, even pain of the body is also resolved. The author describes this state as sukhēna –comfortably; with total relaxation; mayā nidrāsnubhūyatē – ‘sleep is experienced by me’. So we experience nothing except deep relaxation. This experience is called सख ु अ�ान अनभ ु वः (sukha ajñāna anubhavaḥ) – experience of total peace and ignorance of everything. But the interesting aspect is that we experience this not through an active mind – because in sleep the mind is also resolved; the vāsanās are not functioning; memories are not functioning; emotions are not functioning. Thus the mind is also in a resolved condition. Therefore this experience is registered in the dormant mind, the resolved mind, the passive mind. The passive mind or resolved mind is called kāraṇa śarīraṁ as we have seen before. Since the sense organs, the mind etc. are all resolved at the time of the sleep experience, we can never say we are experiencing sleep. If we are able to say that we are experiencing sleep it would mean that we are not in the sleep state. We need to be in a waking state to make this statement. Thus the experience cannot be claimed while undergoing the experience. We can claim the experience only after we return to the waking state. We can never use the present tense but can talk about this experience only in the past tense. We can say “I slept well”, “I knew nothing”, “I was very happy” etc.
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Thus in suṣupti avasthā, we are identified with neither the sthūla śarīraṁ nor the sūkṣma śarīraṁ but with the kāraṇa śarīraṁ in which everything is in a potential latent condition - seed form. Therefore, here the abhimānaṁ is with the causal body and in this state we are called kāraṇa śarīra abhimānī. The author gives a technical name prājña to a person in this suṣupti avasthā. To sum up, Sthūla śarīra abhimānī is called Viśva – the waker; Sūkṣma śarīra abhimānī is Taijasa - the dreamer; and Kāraṇa śarīra abhimānī is Prājña – the sleeper. This concludes the discussion on avasthā trayaṁ.
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Pañca kōśāḥ - The five sheaths or covers We now move on to the last set of five anātmās which are known as kōśa pañcakaṁ - the pañca kōśas the five sheaths; the five encasements or five layers of personality. The student asks: पञ् कोशा ः के ? (pañca kōśāḥ kē) अन्नमय प्राणम मनोमयः �वा नमयः आनन्दमयश्चे Annamayaḥ prāṇamayaḥ manōmayaḥ vijñānamayaḥ ānandamayaścēti. The question is “What are the five layers or covers of the personality?” A layer can be compared to a case, just as we have a case to cover the knife or a sword. In the scriptures such a case with reference to the self is called kōśaḥ. The teacher lists them starting with annamayaḥ. We have to add the word kōśaḥ. So annamaya kōśaḥ – food modified sheath – is a case or sheath or personality which is formed by the modification of the food that we consume; The second is prāṇamaya kōśaḥ – the prāṇik energy - the invisible energy sheath. This is talked about by the prāṇik healers also; The third is manōmaya kōśaḥ – the mental sheath or the psychological or emotional layer of personality; The fourth is vijñānamayaḥ kōśaḥ – the intellectual sheath which corresponds to the rational, intelligent layer of personality; and
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the last one is ānandamaya kōśaḥ - the deepest level of personality which is the source of ānandā; the source of relaxation; rejuvenation and re-vitalization. Cēti is only a conjuction – ca iti – which means ‘and’ as we have seen earlier. Having enumerated them, the author now goes on to define each of them. If we carefully follow, we will find that each subsequent one is subtler than the previous one with ānandamaya being the subtlest in this group. Annamaya is the grossest visible layer. In fact we can see only this layer. We cannot see the prāṇamaya layer of others. Only when a person tries to get up from sitting on the floor, we will know how his prāṇamaya is working. If getting up is a difficult proposition for him, it would mean that his prāṇik layer is feeble! Before we get into the detailed exposition of each of these layers, it is important to understand that these five kōśās are not five new anātmās but are only new names for the three śarīraṁs which we have already discussed. The same three śarīraṁs are divided into the pañca kōśās from another functional angle. This is similar to the structure of our country or a State. We have several divisions based on the different standpoints. They are called Zones. If we take the functioning of the Railways, the entire rail network is divided in to 8 or 9 zones. If we take the functioning of the Metereological department, they have also
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divided the country into 20 or 25 zones. The country is the same. But it is divided differently from different functional standpoints. Likewise, the three śarīraṁs are divided into five kōśās from another functional angle. According to this classification, the physical body or the sthūla śarīraṁ is called annamaya kōśaḥ. Similarly the kāraṇa śarīraṁ corresponds to ānandamaya kōśaḥ. There is no difference between kāraṇa śarīraṁ and ānandamaya kōśaḥ. They are but two names given from different stand points. Just as the husband at home becomes the Managing Director at the Office. Sūkṣma śarīraṁ, the subtle body is divided into three functional divisions which are the other three kōśas viz. prāṇamayaḥ, manōmayaḥ and vijñānamayaḥ. Now let us look at the text to understand each of the five kōśas better. Annamayaḥ - The food sheath अन्नमय कः? (annamayaḥ kā ?) – What is annamayaḥ? अन्रसेन्नै भत ू ्व अन्रसेन्नै व�दृ ्प्रा अन्नरूप प ्नरूप ृथव् यद्वलयत तदन्नमय कोशः स्ू थ लशररम I Annarasēnnaiva bhūtvā annarasēnnaiva vṛddhiṁ prāpya annarūpapṛthivyāṁ yadvilīyatē tadannamayaḥ kōśaḥ sthūlaśarīram. The author explains why it is called annamaya kōśaḥ?
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Before we see the answer, let us ask ourselves as to why the physical body is called sthūla śarīraṁ? Since it is gross body perceptible to our own sense organs and also to other’s sense organs, and because it is solid, tangible, concrete and really a heavy body, it is called sthūla śarīram. Similarly, annamaya kōśaḥ is so called because it is a product of annaṁ – food. The whole gross physical body is manufactured out of the raw material called annaṁ or the food that we consume. Let us consider how a human body is formed in the womb of the mother. The parents have consumed food. There can be no doubt about it since they are alive! The food that is consumed by the father will get converted into the seed in the body of the father, which we call sperm and which is the main cause for the production of the physical body. But father alone is not enough. Similarly, the mother should have consumed food. That food consumed will get converted in the mother’s body into an egg or ovum. That is, sperm or seed in the male body and ovum or egg in the female body. These two are called anna rasaḥ. Since the body is formed only by the joining together of these two, the authors says anna rasēnnaiva bhūtvā – come into being only due to anna rasaṁ. In Sanskrit it is expressed as शकु शो णत रप अन्नरसे न्न भत ू ्व (śukra śōṇita rūpa annarasēnnaiva bhūtvā) - śukra means the seed, śōṇita means egg. So, anna rasa is the sṛṣṭi kāraṇaṁ - the cause of the creation of the body. After the body has been conceived, and the fetus has been formed in the mother’s womb, how does it grow? The growth of
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the body; the survival of the body also requires the same annaṁ. So the mother has to consume healthy food and also extra food for the baby. If there is malnutrition in the mother, it will affect the baby indicating the baby is also sustained by the mother’s food only through the special cord called the umbilical cord. In the scriptures, there is an Upaniṣad dealing exclusively with maternity. It is called Garbhōpaniṣad. It deals with in detail, how the child is is formed, how the child grows, etc. But we don’t need to study that Upaniṣad now because here we are interested in mōkṣaḥ and not begetting children!!! The author continues annarasēnnaiva vṛddhiṁ prāpya. The physical body grows because of annaṁ and therefore, annaṁ becomes not only sṛṣṭi kāraṇaṁ but also the sthithi kāraṇaṁ, the cause of the survival of the body. Then after 9 months of conceivement the baby is born. Till then the body survives by the food eaten by the mother. But once the baby comes out and thereafter, if the body has to grow, the baby has to consume the food. So, once again annaṁ gets converted into carbohydrates, proteins, salt, minerals, calcium, potassium, sodium, iron etc. which are collectively called anna rasaṁ. After this the body grows upto a particular time and then starts to decline after 50 or 60 years. At this time, the intake of annaṁ also becomes lesser and lesser. On death, the body gets mingled with the earth and become fertilizers for the plants grown on the earth for the production of food. Thus the body becomes the source of
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food for the next generation. The author says anna rūpa pṛthivyāṁ yat vilīyatē - vilīyatē - means merges; anna rūpa means the source of food. Thus anna rasaṁ is not only sṛṣṭi kāraṇaṁ; not only sthithi kāraṇaṁ, but also laya kāraṇaṁ. From food we come and to food we go back! Since annaṁ is sṛṣṭi, sthithi and laya kāraṇaṁ of the body, it is called annamaya kōśaḥ. Mayaṁ means product; i.e. product of annaṁ and it is another name of sthūla śarīram. Prāṇamayaḥ - The vital air sheath Next the student asks: प्राणम कः? (prāṇamayaḥ kaḥ?) – What is prāṇamayaḥ? What is meant by the energy sheath? – The energy personality; the prāṇik personality which the prāṇik healers are supposed to read, rectify and correct the health problems. They talk about an invisible aura around our body. The author explains: प्रा णाध् पञ्चवायव वागाद िन्द्रयपञ प्राणम कोशः I Prāṇādhyāḥ pañcavāyavaḥ vāgādīndriyapañcakaṁ prāṇamayaḥ kōśaḥ. The author says prāṇādhyāḥ pañca vāy avaḥ – the prāṇik layer consists of the five fold physiological system. These are prāṇaḥ- the respiratory system; apānaḥ - the excretory system; vyānaḥ - the circulatory system; samānaḥ- the digestive system and udānaḥ - the reversing system. These are called pañca vāyavaḥ. They alone are responsible for the generation of energy.
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When this energy gets exhausted we feel hungry. This stored energy is expressed in the form of kriyā śaktiḥ – power of action – which expresses in the pañca karmēndriyāṇi. Every karmēndriyaṁ is an outlet through which the kriyā śaktiḥ expresses itself – through our walking or talking or even undertaking physical exercises. Thus the pañca karmēndriyā ṇi also comes within prāṇamayaḥ kōśaḥ. Therefore the author says, prāṇādhyāḥ pañcavāyavaḥ the five fold physiological system – vāk ādi indriya pañcakaṁ – vāk, we know means the organ of speech – ādi means ‘etc.’ i.e the other four organs of action viz. pāṇi, pāda pāyuḥ and upasthaḥ. In a dead body, annamayaḥ is present, but prāṇamayaḥ has left. Manōmayaḥ - The mental sheath मनोमयः कोश ः कः ? (manōmayaḥ kōśaḥ kaḥ) – मनश् ानेिन्द्रयपञ �म�लत्व यो भव त स मनोमयः कोशः I Manaśca jñānēndriya pañcaka ṁ militvā yō bhavati sa manōmayaḥ kōśaḥ The main part of the psychological or emotional sheath is our mind. Mind is the seat of all emotions and also the seat of all desires. So manōmayaḥ represents icchā śaktiḥ. We have already seen that prāṇamayaḥ represents kriyā śaktiḥ. Manōmaya’s job is generating the desire and prāṇamaya’s job is to fulfill those desires. So desire comes first and then fulfilment. In keeping with our want to learn Tattva bōdhaḥ, manōmayaḥ desires
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and prāṇamayaḥ brings us to the class room and helps us to sit through the lectures! That is the job of prāṇamayaḥ. Manaḥ – is the emotional mind, the desiring mind, fancying mind, the mind which ‘builds castles in the air’ – that mind which goes on wishing and wishing irrespective of whether the body has any energy or not. Now we can have a desire only for something which we know. We cannot desire an unknown thing. This is the principle people use in the advertisements. They repeatedly show their products on the television and other media so that we know all information about their product and the desire to buy is born in our mind. So desire requires collecting data with the help of jñānēndriyaṁ. And so the author says manaśca jñānēndriya pañcakaṁ militvā – by combining the mind with the five sense organs of knowledge – eyes, ears, nose, tongue and the skin; militvā means combining; yō bhavati sa manōmayaḥ kōśaḥ – that which is born or that which results is manōmayaḥ kōśaḥ – the psychological or emotional sheath. Thus prāṇamayaḥ is a combination of ten organs and manōmayaḥ is a combination of six organs - mind plus the five sense organs. Vijñānamayaḥ - The intellectual sheath �वानमयः कः ? (vijñānamayaḥ kaḥ) – What is vijñānamayaḥ - the intellectual, rational or the knowledge layer of personality?
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ब�दु ्धानेिन्द्रय �म�लत्व यो भव त स �वा नमयः कोशः I Buddhijñānēndriyapañcakaṁ militvā yō bhavati sa vij ñānamaya ḥ kōśaḥ The authors answers that it is the expression of jñāna śaktiḥ. Kriyā śaktiḥ requires icchā – desire and desire requires jñānaṁ – knowledge; without knowledge we can never desire! A hundred years ago people would never have had a desire for a computer or computer games because they did not know that such a thing as a computer was possible. Action presupposes desire, desire presupposes knowledge and vijñānamaya kōśaḥ represents the knowledge. That is why the author says buddhi jñānēndriyapañcakaṁ militvā - by combining the intellectual faculty with the five sense organs of knowledge – eyes, ears, nose, tongue and the skin; militvā means combining; thus after knowing and discriminating, judging, weighing the pros and cons, the buddhiḥ decides; yō bhavati sa vijñānamayaḥ kōśaḥ – that which is born or that which results is vijñānamayaḥ. Whatever we desire we know but whatever we know we don’t necessarily desire. We know many things but we use our discriminative power to decide whether we should desire or not. There are many desires in our mind which we happily drop for various reasons. A bald headed person comes to know about a particular brand of shampoo which is supposed to be very good for smooth hair. But what can he do with this knowledge? It is
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irrelevant for him. What will an advertisement for some hard to bite savouries mean for a toothless person? He might read about all such things. If teeth are not there, the new knowledge will not produce any desire. Taking another example, a new car might have been advertised costing say Rupees 50 lacs. Now, this person who sees the advertisement may like it but has no money to buy. So we have to remember that wherever there is desire, there is knowledge; but wherever there is knowledge, the desire need not arise. So jñānēndriyaṁ are common to manōmaya kōśaḥ and vijñānamaya kōśaḥ. All these are components of the sūkṣma śarīraṁ i.e. prāṇamaya kōśaḥ, manōmaya kōśaḥ and vijñānamaya kōśaḥ. Just to recap, prāṇamayaḥ represents kriyā śaktiḥ, manōmayaḥ represents icchā śaktiḥ and vijñānamayaḥ represents jñāna śaktiḥ. Ānandamayaḥ- The bliss sheath Now what is left is ānandamaya kōśaḥ. आनन्दमय कः ? ( ānandamayaḥ kaḥ) – What is ānandamayaḥ ? एवमेव कारणशररभ तू ा�वध्यासम�लनसत्त् �प्रयादवृित्तस सत्आनन्दमय कोशः I एतत्कोशपन्चकम I Ēvamēva kāraṇa śarīra bhūtāvidhyāstha malinasattvaṁ Priyādi vṛtti sahitaṁ sat ānandamayaḥ kōśaḥ. Ētat kōśapancakam.
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Ānandamayaḥ is the same as kāraṇa śarīraṁ. And we have already defined kāraṇa śarīraṁ as the state when everything resolves into seed form at the time of pralayaṁ. The seed condition of everything is called kāraṇa śarīraṁ and at the time of deep sleep state we get a condition which is very nearly similar to pralayaṁ. It is not that the world is resolved but at the time of deep sleep the world is as though resolved for us. For others the world continues but for us it is seemingly disappeared. We don’t experience the external world, we don’t experience the dream world, we don’t experience our own physical body, we don’t experience any emotion, we don’t experience any knowledge and we don’t even experience our very individuality. Our ego is also totally resolved. At the time of deep sleep state, we are in seed state. This state we have already seen is called kāraṇa śarīraṁ. So the author says that this ānandamaya kōśaḥ is kāraṇa śarīra bhūtakāraṇa śarīra bhūtaṁ; bhūtaṁ means born out of; of the nature of. We should remember that kāraṇa śarīraṁ was given another technical name avidyā. It is not a regular Sanskrit word. Normally avidyā means ignorance. But here it is used in a technical sense called mūla avidyā or as the author prefers to call it avidhyāstha. When we are in the kāraṇa śarīraṁ i.e. in the deep sleep state, we have got two fold experiences. One experience is total ignorance. We are unaware of anything. In fact we don’t even know that we are sleeping. Sleep does not have a present tense. We can say ‘he sleeps’ but we can never say ‘I sleep’. So in sleep or kāraṇa śarīraṁ,
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we experience ajñānaṁ or ignorance. And here ajñānaṁ is called malinasattvaṁ – this is again a technical word which means obstructed knowledge. Lord Kṛṣṇa discusses this in detail in the Bhagavad Gītā. We will learn this when we study the Gītā. Here it is sufficient to note that malinasattvaṁ is a technical word for ignorance. The second experience is total relief from stress, tension and worries. This is what is called ānandaḥ. Who does not love to sleep? Everybody loves sleep because of the ānandaḥ which the sleep gives not only to the sleeper but also to others who may feel happy because they enjoy some peace because of this person’s sleep! For example, a baby and that too a naughty baby sleeping is the greatest relaxation for the mother. All young mothers know that. So the second aspect is happiness which is indicated by priyādi vṛtti sahitaṁ which is associated with different states of happiness – priyādi vṛtti refers to degrees of happiness. The shāstrās grade happiness into three layers. Just as in English we have three degrees of comparison – happy, happier and happiest; in the shāstrās too, happiness is graded into three layers. When we see a desirable object, we get a feeling of happiness by merely seeing it. Suppose in a shop we see an object we like, the very sight gives us happiness. Then we buy that object. When we posses that object we are happier. And later on when we actually use the object we experience the highest happiness. This is called दशर् सखं ु (darśana sukhaṁ), ग्र सखं ु (grahaṇa sukhaṁ) and अनभ ु व सखं ु (anubhava
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sukhaṁ) – seeing pleasure, owning pleasure and enjoying pleasure – in Sanskrit, the corresponding words are �प्र (priyaḥ), मोदः (mōdaḥ) and प्रमो (pramōdaḥ). These three degrees of happiness are experienced in sleep also depending upon the depth of the sleep. We experience deep sleep, deeper sleep and deepest sleep. In deep sleep we wake up by ourselves. In deeper sleep we do not wake up by ourselves by somebody has to wake us up. In deepest sleep we neither wake up on our own nor even if somebody tries to wake us up! Thus depending upon the depth of the sleep our experience of joy varies. Thus ānandamayaḥ consists of malinasattvaṁ and priyādi vṛttiḥ. Such a kāraṇa śarīraṁ obtaining in sleep is called ānandamayaḥ kōśaḥ. Priyādi i.e priya ādi means priyaḥ ‘etc.’i.e. mōdaḥ and pramōdaḥ. Finally the auhor says ētat kōśapancakam. These five put together is called pañca kōśā ḥ. But essentially they represent the three śarīrams only. So really speaking there are only six anātmās but if we separately count the pañca kōśās it will become eleven anātmās. Now we go on to the topic of ātmā.
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Ātmā – Atma Having enumerated the anātmās, the author now goes on to discuss the crucial subject matter of ātmā. We have previously roughly defined ātmā as the invisible, immortal, inner essence of every individual. Earlier the author has stated that ātmā is the only real one and all others are anātmās. Then he went into a detailed discussion of the anātmās. But, he has still not defined what the ātmā is, except stating the ātmā alone represents our real self and the anātmās do not represent our real self. They are only our superficial personalities. Here he wants to reiterate this statement first and then go on to defining the ātmā. मदयंशररंमदया ः प्राण मदयं मनश् मदया ब�दु ्धमर्द द अा न�मत स्वेनै ाय तेतध्यथ मदयत्वे ातं कटकक ु ण्ड-गृहा�दकं स्वस्म ाद् भतथा पञ्चकोशादक स्वस्म ाद् मदयत्वे ातमात्म न भव त I Madīyaṁ śarīraṁ madīyāḥ prāṇāḥ madīyaṁ manaśca madīyā buddhirmadīyam ajñānamiti svēnaiva j ñāyatē tadhyathā madīyatvēna jñāta ṁ kaṭakakuṇḍala-gṛhādikaṁ svasmādbhinnam tathā pañcakōśādika ṁ svasmādbhinnaṁ madīyatvēna jñātamātmā na bhavati. The author points out here that all the three śarīrams, otherwise known as the pañca kōśāḥ, are not the real self. They are only a
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temporary medium through which ‘I’ the ātmā interacts with the world. They are all media meant for our transaction. To demonstrate this, the author uses a line of thought or a particular logic. He says that whatever, we possess or use, we refer to them as ‘my’ or ‘mine’. And whatever we claim as ‘mine’ only belongs to us. So whatever belongs to ‘me’ is not ‘myself’ but different from ‘myself’. For example, a car, a pen, a book etc. which we possess and use, we refer to them as ‘my car’, ‘my pen’, ‘my book’ etc. They belong to ‘me’ but are not ‘myself’. Thus if a house belongs to us, we are not the house. We use the house, we possess the house, we claim the house but we are not the house. So the author says whenever we claim something as ‘mine’, we are not that. We are different from that. Now if we analyse how we refer to the pañca kōśāḥ, we will find we claim them as our own possession, we claim them as ‘mine’; we say ‘my body’, ‘my mind’, ‘my intellect’ etc. The author uses some other examples, kaṭakabangle, kuṇḍala – ear ring, gṛhādikaṁ – house etc. We claim all these as ‘mine’ and so therefore they are not ‘me’. They are different from ‘me’. The author mentions in the first line madīyaṁ śarīraṁ. Often we say ‘I am tired’, ‘I am hungry’ or ‘I am heavy’ or ‘I am out of shape’, what we mean is that ‘my body is tired, ‘my body is hungry, ‘my body is heavy’, ‘my body is out of shape’ etc. In all these cases we refer to ‘my body’. We don’t say ‘I’ the body. We only say ‘my body’. From this it is clear that we claim that the ‘body is mine’ and therefore it cannot be me. We have seen that the
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body represents annamaya kōśāḥ. This is what the author means by madīyaṁ śarīraṁ. The same is the case with madīyāḥ prāṇāḥ. In this also we say ‘my digestion is weak’, ‘my circulation is weak’, ‘and my breathing is heavy’ etc. In all these also we refer to them as ‘my’ and so they should be different from ‘me’. The word prāṇāḥ refers to prāṇamaya kōśāḥ. Taking madīyaṁ manaśca – we refer to our mind as ‘my mind’. We say ‘my mind is disturbed today’, ‘my mind is calm after doing the prayer’ – so we refer to the mind also as an instrument possessed by us. It is an object of possessed by ‘me’ and therefore it cannot be ‘me’. The word manaḥ represents manōmaya kōśāḥ. The same is the case with madīyā buddhiḥ – intellect. This also also we refer to ‘my intellect’, ‘my intelligence’, ‘my rational faculty’ – so here also we recognize the intellect as an instrument possessed by ‘me’ and therefore intellect is also a possessed one and not ‘I’ the possessor. The law is that the possessor is always different from the possessed. Here the word buddhiḥ refers to vijñānamaya kōśāḥ. Also, madīyam ajñānam – we refer to ignorance as something belonging to ‘me’ i.e. ‘my ignorance’. So the ignorance is also not ‘me’ but which is something in ‘me’ and which is possessed by ‘me’. I am, therefore, different from ignorance also. ajñānaṁ represents ānandamaya kōśāḥ.
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Svēnaiva jñāyatē– all these are known as ‘mine’; the author quotes the examples like kaṭaka kuṇḍala gṛhādikaṁ – the bangle, the ear ring, the house etc.; madīyatvēna jñātaṁ - they are all claimed as mine; svasmādbhinnam – different from me. Extending this logic, the author says tathā - likewise; pañca kōśādi – the five sheaths or layers etc. i.e. all the three śarīrams, all the three avasthās - all the eleven items; svasmādbhinnaṁ madīyatvēna jñātam– are known to be or claimed to be mine and therefore they are not ‘me’. We have seen that all these are all called anātmā. So the author says that all these anātmās, we claim as mine and logically, therefore, they can be ‘me’. They have to be different from ‘me’. Ātmā na bhavati– they are not the self, the ‘I’. Now the question arises ‘whom am I?’ The author will deal with this question later. Before that, let us review this long sentence. Every word is clear. Madīyaṁ śarīraṁ, madīyāḥ prāṇāḥ, madīyaṁ manaḥ, madīyā buddhiḥ, madīyam ajñānam – all these represent the five kōśās – all these are svēnaiva jñāyatē– they are all known as mine and never as ‘I’. Like in the example Madīyatvēna j ñāta ṁ kaṭaka kuṇḍala gṛhādikaṁ pañcakōśādikaṁ like any other worldly possessions, our body, mind etc., are also only our possessions but not ‘us’ the possessor. And therefore, svasmādbhinnaṁ madīyatvēna jñātam ātmā na bhavati – they are different from ‘I’ and therefore, they cannot be ‘I’ the ātmā. So the logical question would be:
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आत्म त�हर कः? (ātmā tarhi kaḥ?) – Then or in that case, what is ātmā? The author gives a crypic answer. सिच्चदा नन्दस्व (saccidānanda svarūpaḥ) This is the crucial portion. All the previous portions are only preparations for this postion. Now we will try to understand this subtle topic. So the student asks the teacher: tarhi – then; if I am not the body, I am not my mind, I am not my intellect, I am not my physiological system, I am not the waker, I am not the dreamer, I am not the sleeper, if I am not any of them, if ātmā is none of them then what is this wonderful thing called ātmā? The teacher says ātmā is saccidānanda svarūpaḥ. Saccidānanda is a compound word made up of three words viz sat, cit and ānanda svarūpaḥ means of the nature of. So the teacher says ātmā is of the nature of the nature of sat, cit and ānandā. The student is no wiser. So he goes on: सत्�कम्? म् चत्�कम्? म् आनन्द कः ? - Sat kiṁ? Cit kiṁ? Ānandaḥ kaḥ ? What is sat, what is cit and what is ānandaḥ? The answers he gets for these questions are: सत्�कं? (sat kiṁ?)
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कालत्रयेऽ तष्ठती सत्I Kālatrayē'pi tiṣṭhatīti sat. चत्�कं? (cit kiṁ?) ानस्वरू I Jñānasvarūpaḥ. आनन्द कः ? (ānandaḥ kaḥ?) सखस ु ्वरू I Sukhasvarūpaḥ We will now try to understand these three words independently. Then we will apply them in the text. Of the three crucial words, we will first take up the word cit for our understanding. Cit – Consciousness The word cit means consciousness; caitanyaṁ, jñānaṁ, vijñānaṁ – all these words convey the same meaning i.e. consciousness. So according to Tattva bōdhaḥ, the Vedāntik text, ātmā or the real ‘I’ is of the nature of consciousness, which makes the body sentient. Ātmā is that consciousness principle because of which the body is alive. This bundle of matter called the body is sentient. Sentient means capable of feeling the surrounding which makes the body different from an inert desk or an inert chair. The body is also made of chemicals. But this bundle of chemicals is different from the desk which is also made of chemicals only. We call it biochemistry because this bundle of body is alive and sentient.
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Whatever makes this body alive and sentient, is called consciousness. The next logical question would be ‘what is this consciousness which makes the body sentient?’ Vēdāntā analyzes the nature of this consciousness and we have to understand the fundamental principles regarding the nature of this consciousness. The first lesson we have to remember is consciousness is not a property of the body. According to Vēdāntā unlike the height, weight, complexion etc. which are the properties of the body, sentiency or consciousness is not the property of the body. Similarly Vēdāntā says consciousness is not even a part of the body. Like the hair, nail, skin etc. are all parts of the body, we cannot conclude that consciousness is a part of the body. Having understood that, can we say that life or consciousness is generated in the body or the brain, just as enzymes are produced in the body, blood is manufactured in the body and cells are created in the body? The answer of Vēdāntā is that consciousness is not even a product generated by the material brain. Brain cannot generate consciousness. Body cannot generate life by itself. In short life is not a product of matter. So the first important lesson is that consciousness is not a part, nor a property nor a product of the body. The second lesson is that, on the other hand, consciousness is an invisible independent entity which pervades the body and makes the body alive. This converts the chemistry into bio-chemistry. The
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nearest example we can think of the electricity which makes the fan active. There is invisible electricity behind the visible fan and if the visible fan is moving it is because of the invisible electricity which drives the visible fan. And this invisible electricity is not a property of the fan; it is not a part of the fan. It is not even a product of the fan. It is a separate principle which exists independent of the fan. Even before the manufacture of the fan, the electricity existed. And it is this independent, invisible electricity which makes the fan active. All our bodies are like fans. Just as the invisible electricity makes the the fan rotate, just as the invisible electricity makes the bulb brilliant, similarly this inert bundle of matter called our body is alive and kicking because of the invisible principle called consciousness. So the second lesson is consciousness is an invisible and independent entity which pervades the body and makes it alive. Now lesson No. 3. This invisible independent consciousness is not limited or circumscribed by or confined to the boundaries of the body. It extends beyond the body also, just as the electricity is not confined to the boundaries of the fan. And therefore, according to Vēdāntā, consciousness is boundless, limitless, dimension less – which means it has no height, no width, no length – it is beyond all these. All these belong to the body – just as the length belong to the blades of the fan and not to the electricity. So the third lesson is that consciousness has no boundaries. It is all pervading or limitless. So it is not limited by space.
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The fourth lesson is that this invisible, independent consciousness will continue to survive even after the body medium dies, perishes or is destroyed. Like, even after the destruction of the bulb and the light, even after the destruction the fan and its rotation, the electricity continues to be present in the circuit, similarly even after the body dies, the consciousness continues to exist. It is, therefore, a permanent principle; an eternal principle. The fourth lesson is that the invisible consciousness is not limited by time. So it is not space wise limited is the third lesson. It is not time wise limited is the fourth lesson. Lord Kṛṣṇa explains this in the Bhagavad Gītā : न जायते�म्रय वा कदा च- न्नाय भत ू ्व भ�वता वा न भयः ू । अजो �नत्य शाश्वतोऽय परा ु णो न हन्यत हन्यमान शर�रे।। Na jāyatē mriyatē vā kadāci- nnāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ. Ajō nityaḥ śāśvatō'yaṁ purāṇō na hanyatē hanyamānē śarīrē. He says that the soul is never born, nor it ever dies; nor does it become a soul after being born. For, it is unborn, eternal, everlasting and primeval; even though the body is slain, the soul is not. And the fifth and final lesson is that after death the surviving consciousness cannot be contacted by us or recognized by us, not because it is not present but because the medium of the body no longer exists. The surving consciousness after the fall of the body is unrecognizable. The principle is similar to the examples of bulb
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and fan given earlier. We recognize the electricity only though the gadgets like bulb, fan etc. If they break down, we cannot recognize the electricity even though it is always present. For argument’s sake if one says that we can recognize it by putting our fingers in the socket, the answer would be that one has to put on the switch for that also. Here we are able to recognize it only through the medium of the switch. We all know that electricity is always present in the atmosphere but are we in a state of shock continuously? We can recognize the electricity only when it flows through some medium and not otherwise. That is why at home, whenever we want to know if there is electricity or not, we check by putting on the light or fan. So in the absence of the body, the consciousness is unrecognizable but not non existent. So even after death the ātmā survives. That is why it is called cit rūpaḥ, which means ‘of the nature of consciousness.’ And by naming the consciousness as ātmā, the author wants us to claim the consciousness as ‘I’ the self. By using the word ātmā, which means self, the author wants that we should train ourselves to claim this consciousness as I AM. All along we have wrongly learnt to claim this body as ‘I’. We have wrongly learnt to claim the prāṇaḥ the mind, the intellect etc. as ‘I’. We have all along been the victims of wrong conditioning. The author says that we should no longer claim the body as ‘I’. Instead we should learn to claim the inner, immortal, invisible essence i.e the consciousness as ‘I’. So ‘I’ am the consciousness temporarily possessing the body. The body will come and go but
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‘I’ will survive for ever. The physiological system, my intellect may all disappear but ‘I’ the consciousness will continue to survive. During sleep the mind may dissolve but ‘I’ survive. My intellect may diasappear in a coma and it may stop thinking – already it might have stopped but that is a different matter! – But ‘I’ survive. Everything may go, but ‘I’ the ātmā will survive. ‘I’ the consciousness is ever present and ‘I’ know that as a fact. Therefore I am jñāna svarūpaḥ. And to claim this consciousness as ‘I’ Lord Kṛṣṇa gives us a technique. This method is called दृक दृश �ववेकववे ः (dṛk dṛśya vivēkaḥ). This is a technique to be used to claim the invisible consciousness as oneself. This is a very useful technique to remember. According to this technique, we are different from whatever we experience. For example we experience an object say a pen. The pen is the object of our experience. The ‘I’ in us is the subject the experience. This ‘I’ is different from the experienced pen. Similarly, this ‘I’ is different from the wall that we experience. So we can conclude that we are not that which we experience. Now if we apply this principle and start negating whatever we experience we will be left only with ‘I’ which is the subject of the experience and not the object. ‘I’ is the experiencer and not the experienced. And how do we negate? For each experience, we question. Is this an object or subject of experience? If the answer is that this is an
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object, we conclude that ‘I’ am not this. This is called the न�ेत न�ेत (nēti nēti) method also. ‘I am not this’, ‘I am not this’ – we have to negate everything that we experience. First the entire world will be negated. Why because, ‘I’ am experiencing the world and so ‘I’ am not the world. The world is an object of experience but ‘I’ am the subject. Thereafter, we come to the body and the body also is an object of our experience. We intimately experience the body in the waking state, we experience another body in the dream state and we experience no body in the sleep state. The body is something that we experience in all the states and therefore ‘I” is not the body. We need to go on applying the same logic to everything in the Universe including our prānik conditions, the physiological conditions, emotions etc. All these are the objects of experience. We clearly say ‘I am restless now’, ‘I am happy now’, ‘I am jealous’, ‘I am compassionate’ ‘etc. We intimately experience our emotions and mind and therefore, we can say ‘I am not the mind’. Similarly we experience knowledge. We know what we know. We experience ignorance also. We don’t know what we don’t know. Knowledge is also experienced by us and ignorance is also experienced by us. Therefore, we can say ‘I am not the intellect’; ‘I am not ignorant’. Thus we can go on negating anything that we experience. When everything is negated, nothing will be left out. And therefore when we negate everything and come to blank state, we ask the question “Is this blankness experienced or not”?
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The answer is self evident. We are able to talk of the blankness only because we are able to experience it! And that is the consciousness principle, because of which even the blankness is known - सवर अभाव सा�ी (sarva abhāva sākṣī). Sākṣī means witness; the experiencer; of sarva, everything including the absence of even thought, total blankness. That consciousness principle I AM - अहं आत्म अिस् (ahaṁ ātmā asmi); चत्रूप (cit rūpaḥ); this is the �ान स्वरू आत्म (jñāna svarūpaḥ ātmā). Cit is equated to �ानं(jñānaṁ). Now let us understand the other two words viz. sat and ānandaḥ. Sat - Existence We have seen that this consciousness does not die when the body dies. It is eternally present. It was present in the past; it is present now; and it will be present in the future. The body arrives and departs but not this consciousness. In Sanskrit whatever is eternal is called sat or satyaṁ. Consciousness being eternal it is called sat. This is the meaning of kālatrayē'pi tiṣṭhatīti iti sat or to put it differently, trikālē api tiṣṭhatīti iti sat. Trikālaṁ means all the three periods of time i.e. past, present and future. In all these three periods of time; tiṣṭhatīti - what continues to remain - it is not the body, nor the mind; but it is iti sat - the invisible, independent consciousness. So ātmā is not only cit rūpaḥ but is also sat rūpaḥ.
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Ānandaḥ - Limitless happiness or bliss As regads ātmā, we have already studied earlier, while discussing the five lessons, that the consciousness is not limited by the boundaries of the body. It is boundless and all pervading. In Sanskrit the all pervading principle is called anantaḥ. Anantaḥ or anantaṁ, means boundless, limitless or to use another Vedāntik expression pūrṇaḥ. Pūrṇaḥ means full and complete. This pūrṇatvaṁ or limitlessness is always experienced in the form of ānandā. Ananthā is always experienced as ānandā. Whenever our mind is full, whenever we don’t lack anything, we have a sense of completeness. Conversely, whenever we lack something in life it is expressed as sorrow. Sorrow, therefore, is defined as limitation and happiness is defined as limitlessness. So anantā means ānandaḥ. “I don’t miss anything in life. I don’t lack anything in life” so says - not the body; not the mind; not the intellect (these have got infinite limits) – but ‘’ the ātmā. The ātmā does not lack anything because everything in the creation exists in the ātmā only and therefore it is anantaḥ; pūrṇaḥ; ānandaḥ. That is why the author says ānandaḥ is sukha svarūpaḥ – of the nature of happiness. In this state if some were to ask us ‘what do you want’, our answer will be ‘I don’t want anything’ because ‘I am pūrṇaḥ, complete in myself. Lord Kṛṣṇa tells in the Gītā - प्रजहा यदा कामा न्सवार्न ्पमनोगतान।् आत्मन्येवात् तु ष्ट िस्थतप्रस्तदोच्
Vyaṣṭi vicāraḥ - Analysis of individual - Microcosm
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Prajahāti yadā kāmānsarvānpārtha manōgatān. Ātmanyēvātmanā tuṣṭaḥ sthitaprajñastadōcyatē. The Bhagawan says to Arjuna – when one thoroughly casts off all cravings of the mind and is satisfied in the self through the joy of the self, he is said to be a ‘sthitaprajña’ – of a stable mind of an equanimous mind. A sense of incompleteness always expresses itself as a desire in our mind. “We don’t have a house of our own; we don’t have children; we don’t have grand children etc.” All these are feelings are due to the sense of limitation. And this gives us sense of incompleteness; this sense of want gives rise to sorrow. Freedom from this limitation is called pūrṇatvaṁ - when we have a feeling of complete contentment; when we want nothing more; when we miss nothing and that state is the state of ānandaḥ– superlative happiness. Thus ātmā is sat, cit ānandaḥ svarūpaḥ. The author concludes एवंसिच्चदानन्दस्व स्वात्मा �वजानीयात्I Ēvaṁ saccidānandasvarūpaṁ svātmānaṁ vijānīyāt. Ēvaṁ – in this manner – svātmānaṁ vijānīyāt – may you recognize the ātmā as yourself which is saccidānanda svarūpaṁ – the eternal all pervading invisible inner essence ‘I’. To assimilate this reality, one needs to contemplate a lot. With this Ātmā has also been defined by the author.
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This completes the second major topic of Tattva bōdhaḥ which deals with jīva vicāraḥ. Vicāraḥ means analysis, study or enquiry. jīva vicāraḥ means the study of the individual; the study of the microcosm.
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Caturviṁśati tattvōtpatti prakāraṁ - The process of evolution of 24 elements and elementals The third major topic in this text is the study of the creation – sṛṣṭiḥ vicāraḥ i.e. the study of cosmology; the study of the macrocosm study of the totality – in Sanskrit it is called samaṣṭi vicāraḥ. The study of the microcosm is called vyaṣṭi vicāraḥ. Vyaṣṭi means microcosm and samaṣṭi means the macrocosm. Vyaṣṭi means the individual, samaṣṭi means the total. While analysing the individual, we saw that the individual i.e the microcosm is a mixture of ātmā and anātmā - ātmā being satyaṁ and anātmā being mithyā. In this chapter we are going to discover what the macrocosm or the total is made up of. What is the compostion of the creation? This is the samaṣṭi vicāraḥ or sṛṣṭiḥ vicāraḥ. अथ चतु �व�श�ततत्त्वोत्प प्रका व�यामः I Atha caturviṁśati tattvōtpattiprakāraṁ vakṣyāmaḥ. Atha – means hereafter – ie after the completion of the two major topics, the teacher takes up a discussion on utpatti prakāraṁ – the method of creation. Utpatti means creation or origination. Prakāraḥ or prakāraṁ means the mechanism; the method or the mode. In modern science, we call it cosmology. In Vedic teaching it is called sṛṣṭiḥ vicāraḥ. So utpatti prakāraḥ refers to cosmology of - caturviṁśati tattvaṁ. The entire cosmos is technically called
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caturviṁśati tattvaṁ because the scriptures divide the whole universe into 24 basic principles. Just as the scientists, who have their own methods, divide the world into elements like Aluminium, Barium, and Carbon etc., Vēdāntā divides the whole universe into 24 basic principles. What these 24 principles are will be examined later. At this stage it is sufficient to understand that caturviṁśati tattvaṁ is equal to prapañcaḥ or jagat or the whole universe. And therefore, caturviṁśati tattvōtpattiḥ means prapañca utpattiḥ, jagat utpattiḥ; vakṣyāmaḥ means ‘we shall teach’. We need to note an interesting aspect. The author uses the word ‘we’ and not ‘I’, in this sentence. This is because he wants to claim that this is not his own personal teaching but is based on what he has learnt from his guru and which his guru in turn has learnt from his guru and so on. So the author wants to convey that he has the backing of the entire guru paramparā while teaching. In order to identify with the entire paramparā he uses the word ‘we’. a. Brahman māyā trigu ṇāḥ - Brahman, Maya and the three cosmic qualities or aspects ब्रह्मा सत्त्वरजस्त ोगुणाित म ोगुणाित माया अिस् I Brahmāśrayā sattvarajastamōguṇātmikā māyā asti. He starts by explaining the status at the time of the origination of the Universe i.e before the ‘Big Bang’ as the scientists prefer to call it now.
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Before the origination of this universe, there were two primal factors as the very cause of this universe. Like in a family, there are two factors, i.e. father and mother, as the very cause of the children, before the orgination of the children. Just as the children have the parents, the whole universe has parents in the form of two basic principles. The first one is called Brahman. Brahman is another name of the ātmā itself – the invisible, immortal, inner essence of every individual. Therefore, the nature of this Brahman is also sat cit ānandaḥ. It is the eternal and immortal principle that existed even before creation. A revision of the discussion on the topic of ātmā will be helpful at this state to understand the nature of this Brahman. Now one may ask ‘why are we using two different terms for the one and same consciousness?’ The answer is that when the consciousness is seen from the individual angle as the consciousness obtaining within the body, the microcosm, it is called ātmā. But the very same consciousness seen from the standpoint of the totality, the macrocosm, it is called Brahman. For example a person as the head of a particular family will be called the father, but the same person when he is the head of the Indian Government; he is called the Prime Minister! The person remaining the same, we give one name from the standpoint of the family but a different name from the standpoint of the totality. Similarly consciousness infused in the body is called ātmā and consciousness pervading everywhere in the universe is called Brahman.
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Another example to understand this aspect is, the space obtained within the four walls of a room is called inner space. But when the walls are pulled down, the space remains the same but we no longer call it ‘inner space’ because the word ‘inner’ is relevant only when the walls are present. If we remove the walls, it will be called ‘total space’. Similarly consciousness when enclosed within the walls of the body is called ātmā. The same consciousness not limited by the body i.e. unenclosed is called Brahman. And this Brahman was in existence before the creation. This is the first of the two factors. For convenience sake, let us call it ‘Father Brahman’. Naturally a mother is required. Brahman has to be married! Bachelor Brahman cannot do anything alone! So the author points out that there was another factor. Like Brahman, this whole material universe was also existent before creation but in a seed form or potential form, just as every plant exists under the ground in a seed form before sprouting. Even though we cannot see the seed, we can infer the presence of the seed because without a seed there can be neither a plant nor any tree. We can sometimes see in some corners of buildings or temples or old structures etc. some plants coming out from the walls made of brick and cement. But can cement and bricks produce the plants? We don’t believe in the origination of the plants from bricks and cement but we infer that in the intermediary gap, some bird must have deposited a seed, because without a seed a plant cannot appear.
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The law of conservation of matter and energy states that matter cannot be created out of nothing. It therefore follows that the universe, which is nothing but matter, cannot come out of nothing. The logical conclusion, therefore, is that universe must have existed in a potential form. And this potential form of the universe is called māyā, which is material and inert in nature. So, Brahman is the non-material conscious principle and māyā is the inert principle; material principle. Māyā is also known as प्रकृ (prakṛti), प्रधा (pradhānaṁ), शिक्: (śaktiḥ), अव्यक् (avyaktaṁ), अव्याकृत (avyākṛtaṁ) etc. This māyā did not originate from some where. This māyā also existed from beginningless times. We can never know the orgination of māyā. It is similar to a chicken and egg situation. No one can prove which came first! So Brahman is beginningless and māyā is also beginningless. Consciousness is also beginningless. Matter is also beginningless. Both are anādi. And it is this māyā alone which is symbolically presented as the universal mother. Brahman represents the universal father as it were. Māyā represents the universal mother as it were. Both principles were always there. Here the word Brahma or Brahman has to be carefully understood. In the scriptures there are two words, one is Brahman (short ‘a’) and another is Brahmā (long ‘aa’). When we say Brahmā, we refer to one of the Trinities, Brahmā, Viṣṇuḥ and Śiva. Here
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Brahmā is the name of a personal God with a body with four heads etc. But the word Brahma or Brahman does not refer to four headed Brahmā. This word represents the formless consciousness principle. So we should be careful not to mix up the words Brahma (short –‘a’) and Brahmā (long –‘aa’). And generally to avoid confusion, we refer to Brahma (short) as Brahman. We add one ‘n’ to avoid confusion. So Brahman means formless, eternal consciousness. And to avoid any residual confusion, we add a Ji to the name of the four headed Brahmā and call him Brahmā Ji. Now coming back to Brahman and māyā, let us understand the relationship between these two. Brahman, the consciousness has independent existence and therefore, it is called satyaṁ. We have discussed this aspect while discussing ātmā. And what attributes we applied to anātmā, has to be applied here for māyā. So, māyā, the matter principle, does not have an independent existence. It has to depend upon Brahman. And for this reason māyā is called mithyā. Ātmā or Brahman is satyaṁ – the sentient consciousness principle. Anātmā or māyā is mithyā – the inert principle. And so the author says Brahma āśrayā māyā – āśrayā means dependent; Brahma āśrayā māyā means māyā is dependent on Brahman for its very existence. The assumption of Brahman as the father and māyā as the mother was made only for the better understanding of the principles behind these concepts. One should not misunderstand that Brahman stands for male and māyā for female. We cannot treat Brahman as a male because the formless conscious principle cannot
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be treated as male or female. Similarly māyā is also not female because formless energy cannot be male or female. It is only symbolic. We should not take it literally. The author further describes the attributes of māyā. He says sattva, rajastamō guṇātmikā māyā. Māyā has got three faculties, three powers, three attributes called guṇāḥ. Here guṇāḥ means śaktiḥ - faculty, power, aspect. Sattva represents the faculty of knowledge; jñāna śaktiḥ; rajō guṇaḥ represents kriyā śaktiḥ – power of action or the faculty relating to activity; tamō guṇaḥ is called dravya śaktiḥ – the power of inertia that means that power which will suppress the other two powers – the suppressing power. When the power of inertia is dominant, it will suppress jñāna śaktiḥ and also kriyā śaktiḥ. For example an object like a pen is dominated by inertia as it does not have jñāna śaktiḥ in the sense it cannot know anything by itself and it does not have kriyā śaktiḥ – it cannot do any activity by itself – because it is overpowered by dravya śaktiḥ. The car parked outside does not have jñāna śaktiḥ or kriyā śaktiḥ. This is good because if it had kriyā śaktiḥ it would go away on its own and if it had jñāna śaktiḥ, it would go and hide in some place where we cannot find it! So the world requires dravya śaktiḥ, whereas our body requires jñāna śaktiḥ, kriyā śaktiḥ etc. These three faculties are present in māyā. That is why māyā is called triguṇa māyā. And what śaktiḥ does Brahman have? Poor Brahman has no śaktiḥ of its own and so it is called nirguṇam – attribute less, power less.
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If we recall the opening verse of the famous work Saundarya Laharī of Ādi Śaṅkarācārya: �शव: शक्त्या युक तो भव�त शक्: प्रभवतु न चदे ेव ं देव : न खल ु क ु शल: स्पिन्दतुमप Śivaḥ śaktyā yuktō yadi bhavati śaktaḥ prabhavituma. na cēdēvaṁ dēvaḥ na khalu kuśalaḥ spanditumapi The literal meaning of this verse is that Lord Śiva acquires the ability to create this world only alongwith Śaktiḥ. Without her, he cannot move even an inch. Śivaḥ here refers to Brahman and as Brahman he cannot do anything on his own unless he comes in to contact with māyā, the śaktiḥ tattvaṁ. Nothing is possible for Brahman. Before creation nirguṇaṁ Brahman and triguṇa māyā were present. Cētanaṁ or sentient Brahman and acētanam or insentient māyā was there. We know that consciousness is eternal and so it cannot undergo any change. It is nirvikāraṁ – changeless. On the contrary māyā is savikāraṁ – subject to change. Matter and energy can change and evolve. It is out of this mixture of the changeless Brahman and the changeful māyā that the creation has evolved. The author next explains the process of this evolution.
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b. Pañca bhūtaḥ sṛṣṭiḥ - Evolution of five fundamental elements ततः आकाशः संभतः ू I आकाशाद वायः ु I वायोस्तेज I तेजस आपः I अद्भ् पृथवी I Tataḥ ākāśaḥ sambhūtaḥ. Ākāśād vāyuḥ. Vāyōstējaḥ, Tējasa āpaḥ. Aadbhyaḥ pṛthivī . The author after pointing out in the previous sentence that the triguṇātmikā māyā was dependent on Brahman, goes on to explain the sequence of events of creation. But before we examine the sentence, it will be useful to understand the import of the sentence. We have seen earlier that the creation was born out of a mixture of the cētana, nirguṇa, nirvikāraṁ Brahman and acētana, triguṇa, savikāraṁ māyā. The creation cannot evolve out of the consciousness principle because of evolution is a form of modification or change and consciousness is changeless. So it has to necessarily evolve out of this mixture only. This role is attributed to māyā. Brahman’s role is to exist and to bless māyā. It cannot do anything other than blessing. Like the light in a room. It does not do any action. It only blesses all the activities because of which we are able to see and do them. Light is required for the action but it itself does not do any activity. It cannot play the role of a teacher nor can it play the role of a student. But in its presence alone, the teacher and student can act and interact. So like the light which
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blesses by its very presence, Brahman does not do or evolve anything but in the presence of Brahman alone māyā evolves; matter evolves. This evolution is called creation. The author presents this creation in four stages. The first stage of evolution is the pañca bhūta sṛṣṭiḥ – the evolution of the five fundamental elements called the pañca bhūtāni. These are invisible - the subtle five elements – sūkṣma pañca bhūtāni. The next stage is that these five subtle elements produce varieties of subtle bodies. All the subtle bodies consisting of the mind, the sense organs or the prānās, all are the products of the subtle elements and therefore these subtle bodies are called sūkṣma bhautikāni. The difference between bhūtaṁ and bhautikaṁ is that bhūtaṁ refers to the elements and bhautikaṁs refer to the elementals which are the combination of the elements. Just as matter modified becomes material, bhūtaṁ modified produces bhautikaṁ. All the different invisible lōkās or worlds mentioned in the scriptures like swarga lōka, mahar lōka, jana lōka, tapō lōka, etc. are also products of the invisible five elements. This is called sūkṣma bhautika sṛṣṭiḥ. This is the second stage. The third stage is called sthūla bhūta sṛṣṭiḥ - the evolution of the physical, gross elements, the visible, concrete, tangible pañca bhūtaṁ. In Sanskrit these are called sthūla bhootani. In the fourth and final stage, through varieties of combination of these five gross elements, the gross bodies are created. This is called sthūla bhautika srishti which means creation of the gross
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bodies, the tangible physical bodies. So our physical bodies come under the classification of bhautikaṁ and not bhūtaṁ. The body is a mixture of all the five elements. The body has got the earth part i.e. the pṛthivī tattvaṁ; it has water, the jala tattvaṁ giving it the shape; the body has got agni tattvaṁ because of which we have temperature of 98.4º F, the warmth of life; the body has got vāyu tattvaṁ, air in the lungs and we call it prāna tattvaṁ. And finally the body occupies space wich is the ākāsha tattvaṁ. Since the body is a combination of the elements, it is called bhautikaṁ. It is sthūla bhautikaṁ because it is tangible. Thus the entire creation, the entire cosmos evolved in these four stages viz. sūkṣma bhūta, sūkṣma bhautika, sthūla bhūta, sthūla bhautika. Now the author deals with each of these in detail. Tataḥ, says the author – that is from that beginningless māyā, blessed by Brahman, ākāśaḥ sambhūtaḥ – space, the first of the five elements evolved; it being in subtle form – it was sūkṣma ākāśaḥ; sambhūtaḥ means evolved. This is a very interesting aspect and needs a bit of examination. According to the shāstrās, space is also a created element. It is not eternal. And this fact is now being accepted by Scientists also. Earlier under Plutonian physics, space was thought to be eternally present and it was thought that the planets and stars were created in the eternal space. But now after the Einstenian physics, it is accepted that we cannot talk of space before creation i.e before the ‘big bang’. The Scientists say that one can talk of space only after the ‘big bang’. So space is also created like all other elements. This
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is a very important aspect to understand. Not only that space is a created entity, it is not nothingness or vaccum. It is a positive material. It is very very subtle but still it is a positive material. These days the scientists also are talking about an elastic space, a bending space, a curving space etc. If the space is emptiness, how can it be elastic, bending, curving etc.? Science now accepts that space is a very very subtle elastic matter. This fact has been recognized in our scriptures thousands or even millions of years ago! Space is a created element and it is the subtlest form of matter. According to our scriptures, the property of sound belongs to the space śabdaḥ i.e. sound is the property of ākāśaḥ. And this is the only property space has. It does not have the property of touch i.e. sparśaṁ; it does not have rūpaṁ i.e. colour and form; there is no smell, gandhaṁ, and it does not have rasaṁ i.e. taste. So it has no other property except one i.e śabdaḥ. Another interesting aspect pointed out in the scriptures is that this property of sound is ever present in the space. We can hear it only if we have a very fine and subtle hearing faculty. Due to the limitation of our ears, we are unable to hear this sound. It is similar to the seven colours present in the light. In the pure white light like sunlight, there are seven colours which we are unable to see because of the limitations of our eyes. But when the light passes through a prism, our eyes can recognize these colours. This phenomenon can be seen in the rainbows as well. Similarly, when other elements come into the picture, we will able to recognize the
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sound. In fact it is said that yogis in the deep meditative state can recognize the subtle sound of space. It is called Ōnkāra Nādaḥ the sound of ‘OM’. In the scriptures it is called anāhata śabdaḥ or avyakta śabdaḥ – the unmanifest sound in space, which our ordinary ears cannot hear. Thus the ēka guṇa ākāśaḥ is born. Then, ākāśād vāyuḥ; from the ākāśa bhūtaṁ, the second element vāyuḥ i.e air is born. We should remember that the reference here is to the subtle or sūkṣma vāyuḥ. This subtle air has two properties viz. śabda and sparśa – sound and touch. Vāyuḥ has got the quality of touch also. It can be felt by our skin. That is in a hot climate why we try to sit under the fan. We don’t see the air but we can feel it – sparśa guṇaḥ. Then, vāyōstējaḥ; from the subtle vāyuḥ bhūtaṁ the third element evolves which is tējaḥ –fire; the agni tattvaṁ. The sūkṣma agniḥ bhūtaṁ is born which has got three properties viz. śabda, sparśa and rūpa. Vayu cannot be seen but agniḥ can be seen also. Agni also has the other two properties i.e. sound and touch. We can feel it. So it is known as triguṇakaḥ agniḥ. Thereafter, we get tējasa āpaḥ – water; the subtle jala tattvaṁ. The sūkṣma jala bhūtaṁ is born. It has four properties – śabda, sparśa, rūpa and rasaḥ. The additional one is rasaḥ – taste. Water has got a unique taste with the help of which we can separate it from all other liquids. It is a unique tasteless taste, differentiating taste. So jalaṁ is chaturguṇakaṁ.
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Then finally adbhyaḥ pṛthivī. From the water principle, pṛthivī the subtle earth principle is born. This is also known as bhūmiḥ which has got five properties i.e. pañca guṇāḥ – śabda, sparśa, rūpa, rasa and gandhaḥ. The additional property is gandhaḥ - smell. We can experience this when the first rains come in the monsoon. We get a unique smell which belongs to earth. None of the other elements have this property of smell. Thus five elements are evolved. Another interesting aspect to note is that the first element can be recognized by one sense organ because it has got only one property; the second element can be recognized by two sense organs, because it has two properties; third one by three; the fourth by four and the fifth by five sense organs. Whatever can be recognized by more number of sense organs is called gross. Whatever can be recognized by lesser number of sense organs is called subtle. ākāśaḥ is sūkṣmaṁ, very subtle, whereas pṛthivī, the earth is sthūlaṁ, gross. Thus in a graded manner, the five elements are born. This is the first stage of creation pañca sūkṣma bhūta sṛṣṭiḥ. We will now consider the second stage of creation i.e. sūkṣma bhautika sṛṣṭiḥ. एतषा े ंपञ्चतत्त्वा मध्यआकाशस् साित्त्वकांशा श्रोत्रेि संभतू म ्I वायोः साित्त्वकांशा त्वगिन्द संभतू म ्I अग्ने साित्त्वकांशा च��ुरिन्द्संभतू म ्I जलस् साित्त्वकांशा रसनेिन्द्संभतू म ्I प ृ थव्या साित्त्वकांशा घ्राणेिन् संभतू म ्I
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Ētēṣāṁ pañcatattvānāṁ madhyē ākāśasya sāttvikāṁṣāt śrōtrēndriyaṁ saṁbhūtaṁ. Vāyōḥ sāttvikāṁṣāt tvagindriyaṁ saṁbhūtaṁ. Agnēḥ sāttvikāṁṣāt cakṣurindriyaṁ saṁbhūtaṁ. Jalasya sāttvikāṁṣāt rasanēndriyaṁ saṁbhūtaṁ. Pṛthivyāḥ sāttvikāṁṣāt ghrāṇēndriyaṁ saṁbhūtaṁ. c. Sāttvik guṇaḥ- Evolution of the Sattvik aspect We have studied the five subtle elements and also learnt that each one of them has three guṇās or properties viz. sāttvik, rājasik and tāmasik. Now the author explains that from the five subtle elements, the five sense organs of knowledge are born. We have already seen in the previous chapters that the five sense organs of knowledge i.e. jñānēndriyaṁs belong to the sūkṣma śarīram, the subtle body. It is useful to remind ourselves that when we say sense organs, we are not referring to the physical part but to the subtle faculties. So the five indriyaṁs are born out of the five elements. However, since each element has got three guṇās, a question will arise as to which element and which guṇāḥ of that element is responsible for the birth of the jñānēndriyaṁs. The author says ētēṣāṁ pañca tattvānāṁ madhyē – amongst these five elements; here tattvaṁ refers the five sūkṣma bhūtaṁs; madhyē - amongst; ākāśasya - of the space element; sāttvika aṁṣāt – the sāttvika part; śrōtrēndriyaṁ saṁbhūtaṁ - the indriyaṁ or organ of ears is born. Thus the sāttvik property of the space element
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produces the ears. And why do we say the space produces the ears and not the eyes or nose etc.? The answer is obvious. We have seen that the unique property of space is śabda or sound, and no other part of the body expect ears is capable of recognizing sounds. So यत् इिन्द् यस्मात भता ू त्जायते (yat indriyaṁ yasmāt bhūtāt jāyatē) - whichever organ is born out of whichever element; तत् इिन्द् तस् भतसू ् �वशषे ग ु णं जाना�त (tat indriyaṁ tasya bhūtasya viśēṣa guṇaṁ jānāti) – that organ perceives the special property of those particular elements, because they owe their very existence to these elements. Then vāyōḥ sāttvikāṁṣāt - from the sāttvik part of vāyuḥ; tvagindriyaṁ saṁbhūtaṁ – the organ of touch i.e. skin is born; this organ recognizes the property of vāyuḥ which is touch which is the special additional property of vāyuḥ. Similarly Agnēḥ sāttvikāṁṣāt – from the sāttvik part of agni, cakṣurindriyaṁ saṁbhūtaṁ – cakṣuḥ means eyes – the eyes are born. We have seen that agniḥ has three properties, sound, touch and form. Of these two i.e. sound and touch are properties of ākāśaḥ and vāyuḥ and so the special property of agniḥ is form and colour and this additional property is perceived by agni’s child i.e. the eyes. Next is jalasya sāttvikāṁṣāt rasanēndriyaṁ saṁbhūtaṁ - rasanaṁ means tongue. It is also known as the jihvēndriyaṁ – jihvā, the tongue is born out of the sāttvik part of jalaṁ – water and its viśēṣa guṇaḥ i.e. taste is recognized by the tongue; pṛthivyāḥ sāttvikāṁṣāt ghrāṇēndriyaṁ saṁbhūtaṁ. Ghrāṇēndriyaṁ as we have learnt earlier refers to the
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smelling faculty. Thus the organ of smell is born out of the sāttvik
part of pṛthivī and it recognizes the pṛthivī’s viśēṣa guṇaḥ which is
gandaḥ– smell.
The chart at the end of this chapter gives a pictorial depiction of
the entire process of caturviṁśati tattva utpatti prakāraṁ - the
evolution of the 24 basic elements.
एतषा े ंपञ्चतत्त्वा समिष्टसाि त्वकांश मनोबदु
्ध्यहंक -
चत्तान्तःकरणा संभता�न ू
I
संकल्पवकल्पात् मनः I �नश्चयाित्म ब�दु
् I अहंकतारअहंकारः I
चन्तनकतृ चत्तम I
मनसो देव ता चन्द्र I बदु
्ध ब्रह I अहंकारस् रुद I चत्तस वासदु
ेवः I
Ētēṣāṁ pañcatattvānā ṁ samaṣṭisātvikāṁ śāt manōbuddhyahankāra
-cittāntaḥkaraṇāni sambhūtāni.
Sankalpavikalpātmakaṁ manaḥ. Niścayātmikā buddhiḥ. Ahankartā
ahankāraḥ. Cintanakartṛ cittam.
Manasō dēvatā candramāḥ.Bbuddhēḥ brahmā.Ahankārasya
rudraḥ.Cittasya vāsudēvaḥ.
Now referring to the chart, we can see in left side bottom that
mind is created from the sattva guṇāḥ of the all the five elements
put together, which is called samaṣṭi sattva guṇāḥ. This is because,
the mind which is the inner organ called antaḥkaraṇaṁ requires all
the five sattva guṇāḥ for it to co-ordinate with all the sense organs.
Since mind has to function behind all sense organs and collect all
the stimuli and co-ordinate, it has to evolve out of the sattva of all
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the five elements. Otherwise it will lead to a bizarre situation where what the eyes see, the ears will not know. The mind has to co-ordinate with all the five sense organs and it has to possess the property of sattva guṇās of all organs. The author, therefore, says, ētēṣāṁ pañcatattvānāṁ samaṣṭi sātvikāṁśāt – from the total sattva taken from all the five elements; the inner organ containing manaḥ;buddhiḥ; ahankārḥ and cittḥ, collectively known as antaḥkaraṇāni; sambhūtāni.– is born. This inner organ has got four different functions. It is four-in-one. Depending upon the four functions, it is known by four different functional names. The organ is one but known by four different functional names like a person could be a Manager in a particular company, a Secretary in a religious organization, a father at home and a student studying this text. Thus, just as the same person discharges four different functions, the organ is one, but it has four different functions. Antaḥkaraṇaṁ is the common name for the organ consisting of these functions. The author goes to explain the nature of these four functions. He says sankalpa vikalpātmakaṁ manaḥ. We have already learnt that sankalpa vikalpa means doubting or vacillating or wavering function. Whenever we talk of vacillation or oscillation, it involves two directions - like a pendulum of a clock which keeps swinging between right and left. “Should I work or should I remain at home; should I attend the class or should go for a movie; should I study the scriptures or not study; should I get married or not; should I beget children or not” – so many such questions–“to do or not to
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do” called pros and cons in English – sankalpa is ‘pros’ thinking; vikalpa is ‘cons’ thinking – so sankalpa vikalpa is vacillation called doubting faculty which includes emotions also since emotions also belong to the mind. The second is niścayātmikā buddhiḥ – After lot of vaccilation finally a decision is made. This deciding faculty is called buddhiḥ; niścaya means to decide. The third is ahankartā ahankāraḥ – ahaṁ kartā means the sense of individuality – the notion of “I am the doer” – the ego which is called ahankāraḥ. It is because of this ego faculty that we treat the body as ourselves; we claim the sūkṣma śarīraṁ as ourselves. When the mind thinks, we don’t say the mind thinks but we say “I think”. When the mind is upset, we don’t say the mind is upset, we say “I am upset”. So, that faculty with which we identify with various factors, that identifying faculty is called ahankāraḥ – the ‘I’ notion. The last is cintanakartṛ cittaṁ. Cittaṁ is the faculty of remembering, the faculty of memory. Another word for cintanaṁ is anusandhānaṁ which means recollection. So this memory faculty is called cittaṁ. And each organ has a presiding deity also which corresponds to the total power. When we discussed jñānēndriyaṁ and karmēndriyāṁ we named the corresponding total power as the presiding deity - devatā. The corresponding devatās are:
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Manasō dēvatā candramāḥ– Moon is the presiding deity of the mind and therefore, if any body has mental problem, they are supposed to worship the moon. That is why, when the moon’s blessing is missing, we call that person a lunatic. Lunar as we know means connected with moon. Buddhēḥ brahmā – Brahmā, the four headed devatā, who is married to Saraswati the Goddess of knowledge. Brahmā according to the scriptures is the embodiment of the four Vēdās represented by the four heads. Brahmā presides over the knowing faculty or the thinking faculty known as the buddhiḥ. Ahankārasya Rudraḥ – ahankāraḥ, the ego; the individuality – the presiding deity is Rudraḥ or Śiva – because ahankāraḥ is the cause of destruction. Ego alone is responsible for all our problems. In sleep we don’t have an ego and so we are paragons of all virtues, wonderful people. The moment we wake up, the ‘I’ rises; the ego gets resurrected and then follow all the problems, which mostly leads to the destruction of relationships, destruction of businesses, destruction of projects and in the extreme, destruction of life itself. It is this ahankāraḥ which leads people to commit suicide. That is why the presiding deity for ahankāraḥ is Rudraḥ – the dēvatā known for his destructive powers. Cittasya vāsudēvaḥ – cittaṁ or memory preserves what all we have experienced before. This faculty is represented by Vāsudēvaḥ, the Lord Viṣṇuḥ who is known as the protector; the sthiti kartā, rakṣaṇa kartā.
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Thus, in all nine organs are born out of the sattva guṇāḥ; the four functions of the organ of antaḥkaraṇaṁ out of the samaṣṭi sattva guṇāḥ and the five jñānēndriyaṁs i.e. the five sense organs out of vyaṣṭi sattva guṇāḥ. d. Rājasik guṇaḥ- Evolution of Rajasik aspect Next we take up rajō guṇaḥ. एतषा े ंपञ्चतत्त्व मध्यआकाशस् राजसांशात्वा गिन्द्संभतू म ्I वायोः राजसांशात्पाणीिन्द्संभतू म ्I वह्ने राजसांशात्पादेिन्द्संभतू म ्I जलस् राजसांशात्उपस्थेिन्द संभतू म ् I प ृ थव्य राजसांशात्ग ु देिन्द्संभतू म I ् एतषा े ंसमिष्टराजसांशात पञ्चप्रा संभतू ाः I Ētēṣāṁ pañcatattvanāṁ madhyē ākāśasya rājasāṁśāt vāgindriyaṁ sambhūtam. Vāyōḥ rājasāṁśāt pāṇīndriyaṁ sambhūtam. Vahnēḥ rājasāṁśāt pādēndriyaṁ sambhūtam. Jalasya rājasāṁśāt upasthēndriyaṁ sambhūtam. Pṛthivyā rājasāṁśāt gudēndriyaṁ sambhūtam. Ētēṣāṁ samaṣṭirājasāṁśāt pañcaprāṇāḥ sambhūtāḥ. From the rājasik part of the five elements, the five karmēndriyās are born. The rājasik aspect of space produces the organ of speech; from the rājasik air – the hands; from the rājasik fire – the legs; from the rājasik water – the anus and according to another version, the genitals and from the rājasik earth - the genitals according to one version or anus according to another. The last two can be
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reversed. In short, the five karmēndriyās are born out of rajō guṇaḥ which stands for activity. The author further explains that out of the total or samaṣṭi rajō guṇaḥ, prāṇaḥ is born – i.e. the prāṇa śaktiḥ. The energy for all types of activities must be born out of samaṣṭi rajō guṇaḥ, because the energy must bless all the five organs of action. For example, prāṇa śaktiḥ is required to support vāk – the speech faculty. That is why when we don’t eat for a few days or we purge for a few times, the voice becomes feeble. The prāṇa śaktiḥ is very weak. Thus this power is required to support each karmēndriyaḥ in performing its action and that is why it evolves out of the samaṣṭi rajō guṇaḥ. As we have seen earlier, prāṇaḥ has five fold functions. There is only one prāṇaḥ, there is only one power, one śaktiḥ – but it has five different functions based on which we give five different names. The names are five but the organ is only one. Just to recall, the five functions are prāṇaḥ – the respiratory function; apānaḥ – the excretory function; vyānaḥ – the circulatory function; Udānaḥ - the reversing function; and samānaḥ – the digestive function. We have already discussed this pañca prāṇāḥ, during the analysis of the sūkṣma śarīram. This is what the author says samaṣṭi rājasāṁśāt pañca prāṇāḥ – from the rajō guṇaḥ of the macrocosm, the five organs of action are born. So we now have the five organs of knowledge plus the four organs of antaḥkaraṇaṁ plus five organs of action plus five prāṇās – in all nineteen organs are born out of the five elements i.e. pañca bhūtāḥ. And these nineteen items constitute the sūkṣma śarīram.
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Earlier we had mentioned seventeen items only leaving aside
memory and ego. Here we have included them to reach nineteen.
Thus the number of tattvaṁs born out of māyā is twenty four i.e.
five subtle elements plus the nineteen elementals. And that is why
while introducing this topic, the author had said caturviṁśati
tattvōtpatti prakāraṁ. Caturviṁśati means twenty four.
e. Tāmasik guṇaḥ- Evolution of Tamasik aspect
If we refer to the chart now we will find that the tāmasik portion
has not been discussed so far. And this portion will be utilized for
the creation of the five gross elements. What we have discussed till
now are the subtle elements creating only the subtle organs. Now
the author will explain how tamō guṇaḥ is used for creating the
gross elements which produces the gross body. The next
discussion is, therefore, on the gross body.
एतेषां पञ्चतत्त्वानां त ामशात्पञ्चीकृतपञ्च तत्त्वा न भव I
पञ्चीकरणं कथम इ�त चते ्I एतषा े ं पञ्चमहाभूतानां तामसांशस्वरूप
एकमेकं भतू
ं द्वधा व भज य एकमेकमध पृथक् तूष्णीं व्यवस
अपरमपरमध� चतु
धार �वभज्य स्वाधर्मन्येषु अधषु स्वभागचतुष्टयसंय
कायर्म I तदा पञ्च करणं भव�त I
एतभे ्यः पञ्चीकृतपञ्चमहाभूतेभ्यः स्थूलशररं I
एवं �पण्ड ब्रह्माण्डयोरैक्यं सं I
Ētēṣāṁ pañcatattvānāṁ tāmasāṁśāt pañcīkṛta pañcatattvāni
bhavanti.
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Pañcīkaraṇaṁ katham iti cēt. Ētēṣāṁ pañca mahābhūtānāṁ tāmasāṁśa svarūpam ēkamēkaṁ bhūtaṁ dvidhā vibhajya ēkamēkamardhaṁ pṛthak tūṣṇīṁ vyavasthāpya aparamaparamardhaṁ caturdhā vibhajya svārdhamanyēṣu ardhēṣu svabhāga catuṣṭayasaṁ yōjanam kāryaṁ. Tadā pañcīkaraṇaṁ bhavati. Ētēbhyaḥ pañcīkṛta pañcamahābhūtēbhyaḥ sthūlaśarīraṁ bhavati. Ēvaṁ piṇḍa brahmāṇḍayōraikyaṁ sambhūtam. Pañcatattvānāṁ tāmasāṁśāt pañcīkṛtapañcatattvāni bhavanti. f. Pañcīkṛta pañcatattvaṁ - Evolution of five Grossified elements Having discussed the creation of subtle elements and the subtle elementals, the author now talks about the creation of gross elements. The gross elements are created out of the tāmasik part of the subtle elements. So ētēṣāṁ pañcatattvānāṁ tāmasāṁśāt – from the tāmasik part of the five elements; pañcīkṛta pañcatattvāni bhavanti– the grossified five elements are born. The author anticipates the question in the student’s mind. “How do they become grossified? How does the invisible element become visible? How does this pañcīkaraṇaṁ take place? Pañcīkaraṇaṁ katham iti cēt. What is this pañcīkaraṇaṁ? The teacher explains the process. Ētēṣāṁ pañcamahābhūtānāṁ tāmasāṁśa svarūpam – first the tāmasik part of the five elements are taken. Then ēkamēkaṁ
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bhūtaṁ dvidhā vibhajya –each of these five elements get divided
into two.
Then ēkamēkamardhaṁ pṛthak tūṣṇīṁ vyavasthāpya - one half of
the divided element is kept as it is, in tact; pṛthak tūṣṇīṁ
vyavasthāpya means remais in tact.
Aparamaparam ardhaṁ caturdhā vibhajya –The other half is
divided into four parts. Now each of this part will be one-eigth
part of the element.
Svārdhamanyēṣu ardhēṣu svabhāga catuṣṭayasaṁ yōjanam kāryaṁ –
then each of the four parts of each element is distributed to the
other four elements. Thus 1/8 ākāśaḥ will go to 1/2 of vāyuḥ,
another 1/8 will go to 1/2 of agniḥ another 1/8 will go to 1/2 of
āpaḥ and another 1/8 will go to 1/2 of pṛthivī.
Similarly, each 1/8th part of vāyuḥ is distributed to the 1/2 part of
other four elements and so on. This process is illustrated in the
chart at the end of this chapter for easy understanding.
Therefore, at the time of grossification, we find that each element
becomes an alloy. Before grossification every element is pure,
called tanmātrā, in Sanskrit. After grossification, every element is
an alloy i.e. a combination of the five elements.
Now the challenge is that if each element has all the five elements
in it, what name do we give to each of them? The solution is to
name them based on the dominant element. For example, in the
composition of the gross ākāśaḥ 1/2 will be space, 1/8 each of
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vāyuḥ, agniḥ, āpaḥ and pṛthivī. And formula will be similar for the other four gross elements. The author concludes tadā pañcīkaraṇaṁ bhavati – Upon the creation of such compounds, the subtle elements become gross elements. And after that - Ētēbhyaḥ pañcīkṛta pañcamahābhūtēbhyaḥ sthūlaśarīraṁ bhavati – from the five gross elements so formed, the gross body is born. Without the sthūla śarīraṁ each one of us will be a ghost. So this process creates our beautiful śarīram, a gross tangible cabinet, hardware for our functioning is created. The software cannot function unless there is hardware to install it. What a great creator of computer Bhagavān is! Not only our sthūla śarīraṁ but the entire sthūla prapañcaṁ or the gross universe is also a mixture of the five gross elements. So pañca sthūla b hūtāni and also sthūla bhautikāni – all are created through this process. The author has explained all the four stages of creation viz. sūkṣma bhūtaṁ, sūkṣma bhautikaṁ, sthūla bhūtaṁ and sthūla bhautikaṁ.. Lastly the author says Ēvaṁ piṇḍa brahmāṇḍayōraikyaṁ sambhūtam - thus the piṇḍa – individual who has five elements; brahmāṇḍayōḥ - the cosmos also has five elements. And this is how the individual fits into the cosmological order. And that is the cosmos is called prapañcaṁ which means made up of these five elements.
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This concludes the discussion on Sṛṣṭiḥ Vicāraḥ or the creation of the universe.
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Pañcīkaraṇaṁ Grossification Stages Ākāśaḥ Space Top
Page 1
Vāyuḥ Air Top
Page 2
Agniḥ Fire Top
Page 3
Āpaḥ Water Top
Page 4
Pṛthvī Earth Top
Page 5
Process description
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Aikya vicāraḥ - Oneness of microcosm and macrocosm
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Aikya vicāraḥ- Oneness of microcosm and macrocosm
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The fourth main topic will deal with reveleation of the fact that the truth of the microcosm, the individual and the truth of the macrocosm, the total, is one and the same. The essence or core is one and same. Like the essence of the wave is water, the essence of the ocean is also water. Wave is microcosm. Ocean is macrocosm. But the truth of both is water – a single entity. Similarly, the individual is like a wave and the total is like the ocean. The essence is one. This is called the jīvātmā paramātmā aikyaṁ which means identity or oneness or the essential oneness of the microcosm and macrocosm. The recognition of the oneness of this identity of the microcosm and the macrocosm is the central theme of Tattva bōdhaḥ, all other prakaraṇa granthās, the Bhagavad Gītā, all the Upaniṣads, the Brahma sutras, the Itihāsa Purāṇās – essentially all scriptural literature which deal with the Advaita philosophy. The author commences the discussion of this topic with the following sentence. स्ू थ लश र राभमा जीवनामकं ब्रप्र�तबमभव त I स एव जीवः प्रकृत स्वस्मा ईश्वर �भन्नत्व जानात I अ�वध्योपाध सन्आत्म जीव इत्युच्य I मायोपाधः सन्ईश्व इत्युच्य I Sthūlaśarīrābhimāni jīvanāmakaṁ brahmapratibimbaṁ bhavati. Sa ēva jīvaḥ prakṛtyā svasmāt īśvaraṁ bhinnatvēna jānāti. Avidhyōpādhiḥ san ātmā jīva ityucyatē. Māyōpādhiḥ san īśvara ityucyatē .
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Jīvaḥ Īśvara – The individual and the total Before we analyze the text, we need to thoroughly understand the concept discussed under this topic. We have already learnt that we have the macrocosm consisting of three layers of universe viz. causal, subtle and gross which are all made up of inert matter and the three corresponding layers in the microcosm, which are also inert. We have also seen that when all these processes were going on, when this evolution was taking place, nothing happens to Brahman. It is in the presence of Brahman only that all these happen but Brahman itself does not undergo any change or modification. Brahman is like the Sun. The Sun does not do any transaction. Whereas, on the Earth, blessed by the Sun, in the presence of sunlight, lot of transactions take place. However, sunlight is itself not a participant in these transactions. Thus Brahma caitanyaṁ or ātma caitanyaṁ, being changeless, formless, attributeless etc. and without having any property like sound, taste, touch etc., does not participate in these activities of creation. So then what is the role of this Brahman? Once the three prapañcās and three bodies viz. gross universe and gross body; subtle universe and subtle body; causal universe and causal body have evolved, these material universes and bodies serve as means for the manifestation of the consciousness principle Brahman or for reflecting the ātma caitanyaṁ; like a mirror capable
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of reflecting the sunlight. The mirror does not have any light of its own. But when kept under the Sun, it has a special capacity to reflect the light of the Sun. Once the reflection is formed i.e once the reflected Sunlight is available on the mirror, the mirror itself becomes a bright luminous object even though on its own, it is not bright or luminous. Only when the sūrya pratibimbaṁ or reflection is formed, the non-bright becomes bright. It becomes so bright that with the reflected light we can even illumine a dark room. The mirror is able to illumine the dark room not with the original Sunlight but with its borrowed light. Similarly when the consciousness pervades the three universes and the three bodies, we get the reflected consciousness or manifested consciousness in these six media. Causal body, subtle body, gross body become a medium to reflect the consciousness and this matter, which is inert and naturally insentient, starts to behave as if it is sentient. The inert body becomes a live body. The life in the body, the sentiency of the body is not natural consciousness but it is a borrowed consciousness – borrowed from ātmā the original consciousness. Since there are three bodies, there are three reflections. Let us try to understand this concept better with an illustration. Let us first consider the reflection in the causal body and label it Reflecting Medium No. 1 or RM1. Then let us label the reflection in the subtle body as RM 2 i.e. – Reflecting Medium No. 2. Similarly lable the gross body as RM 3.
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At the macro level, let us label the causal universe as RM4, the subtle universe as RM5 and the gross universe as RM6. So these are RM 1, RM2, RM3 at the micro level and RM4, RM5 and RM6 at the macro level. Since there are six reflecting media, there will be six reflections but the orginal source will be only one. For example, if we keep six mirrors under the Sun, there will be six reflections of the Sun; one in each mirror, but the main source i.e. the Sun will be only one. Because of the plurarity of the reflecting media, there is plurality in the reflected consciousness also. Let us similarly label the reflecting consciousnesses also. RC1 will be the label for the reflected consciousness in RM
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(causal body). Similarly we will label the others as RC2, RC3, RC4, RC5 and RC6 corresponding to each RM. RC 4 is the reflected consciousness manifest at the causal universe, the cosmic intelligence which unifies the cosmos. The shāstrās accord a special name for each of this reflected consciousness. RC1 – Prājña RC2 – Taijasa RC3 – Viśva RC4 – Antaryāmi RC5- Hiraṇyagarbha RC6 – Virāṭ
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Of these, the first three at the micro level and the last three are at the macro level. And they all represent but one ātmā alone. The reflections are many but the original is one. Further, the micro reflections at the micro level consisting of prājña, taijasa, and viśva, all the three put together is called jīvātmā. Thus jīvātmā is the name for the micro reflection group. Whereas, the macro reflection group comprising of antaryāmi, hiraṇyagarbha and virāṭ is called paramātmā or Īśvaraḥ. So jīvātmā is also a reflection and paramātmā is also a reflection. The original is neither jīvātmā nor paramātmā. The orginal is only ātmā. In the micro medium it is called jīvātmā and in the macro medium, it is called paramātmā. Now let us consider the nature and size of these reflections. It goes without saying that the nature and size of the reflection will depend upon the reflecting medium. Even if the orginal Sun is big and bright, if the mirror is very small and that too dirty, naturally the reflection will be small and because of the dullness of the medium, the reflection will also be dull. So the reflection in the jīvātmā is characterised by its smallness in size and also dullness due the variety of problems that the body experiences. And therefore, the jīvātmā has got limited qualities or negative attributes like अल्प त्व (alpajñatvaṁ) – limited knowledge; अल्पैश्वरत ्(alpaiśvaratvaṁ) – limited power etc.
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Whereas the very same consciousness is manifest or reflected in the macro medium, the cosmic intelligence and it harmonizes the universe and maintains the planetary movements amongst other things. As a jīvātmā we are unable to control our own movement or even the movement of traffic on the roads. Imagine the cosmic intelligence which maintains the cosmic movements of the planet, the solar system, the galaxy etc. which are are all constantly moving. Imagine if two planets were to collide! We cannot even imagine. But they are all following the cosmic law very very intelligently and accurately. This intelligent cosmic order not only organizes the physical laws of the universe by even the moral laws of dharma and adharma, including the jīvā’s birth and death. It determines what should be enjoyed by which jīvā and when and what should be suffered by which jīvā and when. They are not accidental. Even a mosquito bite is not accidental. It is puṇyaṁ for the mosquito and it is a small pāpaṁ for us! Such moral laws, cosmic laws are all very well maintained by a cosmic intelligence which is called paramātmā, which is the reflected consciousness at the macro medium level. And therefore paramātmā’s qualities are all superior qualities. Paramātmā has got superior qualities or virtues because of the superior medium, which is the macro medium. Ātmā by itself has no quality at all. The reflected ones alone get the attributes of size and quality based on their own properties. From this we can surmise that both the jīvātmā and paramātmā are distorted versions. The distortion is that the ātmā which does not
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have any quality appears to have superior quality at the macro level on the one hand and the very same ātmā appears to have an inferior quality at the micro level. Both are but distortions. Another example will make this very clear. Let us say you keep two mirrors in front of you. One is a convex mirror and another is a concave mirror. When you look into the two mirrors you get reflections of your face. Will the reflections will be like the original or distorted? These reflections will not be the true reflections of the original face but will be distorted. In the concave mirror it will be a flat face and in the convex mirror it will be an elongated face. The type of distortion will depend upon the type of the medium i.e the mirror - covex or concave. But the original face has no distortions at all. Thus, the jīvātmā has got नक ृष् ग ु णः (nikṛṣṭa guṇaḥ), paramātmā has got उत् क ृष ग ु णः (utkṛṣṭa guṇaḥ) and ātmā has no guṇaḥ – it is नग ु र्ण (nirguṇaḥ). Thus if we take the jīvātmā and remove the distorting medium and also take paramātmā and remove the distorting medium, what will be left will only be ātmā. And a wise person is one who calls God and says “Oh God, You and I are one and same, even though now I look miserable. The misery is not because of me. It is because of the distorting medium. Minus the medium, I am the nirguṇa ātmā. And if I remove the distorting medium from you, you will also be the nirguṇa ātmā.
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Therefore, both of us are in essence nirguṇa ātmā only. I am the
same as you - Aham Brahma Asmi. I am not worried because I have
a distorted look. If I see my face in the convex mirror or the
concave mirror, my face will look ugly. But I never worry about
that because I know that even though the image looks distorted,
the distortion does not belong to my original face which is
undistorted. The distortion is only incidental and caused only by
the medium”.
Thus the wise person realizes this reality and assimilates this as a
fact when he says Aham Brahma Asmi and it is this knowledge of
the self, the Tattva bōdhaḥ which is called jīvātmā paramātmā
aikyaṁ.
The chart on next page pictorially depicts the Jīva-Ishwara Aikyaṁ.
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Fig.4 Jīva-Ishwara Aikyaṁ MICROCOSM MACROCOSM Brahman/Ātmā Original Consciousness OC RM1 RC
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RM2 RC
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RM3 RC 3 RM6 RC
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RM5 RC
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RM4 RC
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Sthūla śarīrāṁ Gross Body Sūkṣma prapañcaḥ Subtle Universe Sūkṣma śarīrāṁ Subtle Body Kāraṇa prapañcaḥ Causal Universe Kāraṇa śarīrāṁ Causal Body Sthūla prapañcaḥ Gross Universe = Paramātmā Prājña Taijasa Viśva Antaryāmi Hiraṇyagarbha Virāṭ Jīvātmā
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Now if we look at the chart Jīva-Īśvaraḥ Aikyaṁ, Brahman the original consciousness is labeled as OC. So ātmā is OC. Then on the left side, we have the kāraṇa śarīrāṁ or the causal body labeled as RM1 and the reflected consciousness is called RC1. The shāstrās have named it prājña. Again on the left side, in the middle portion, the sūkṣma śarīrāṁ or the subtle body is RM2 and the reflected consciousness is RC2. This is called taijasa. At the bottom portion of this side, the sthūla śarīrāṁ i.e. the gross body is RM3 and the reflected consciousness is RC3 and it is called viśva. The reflected media are also depicted as grey in colour implying the impurities, the distortions. And prājña, taijasa and viśva together are called jīvaḥ. Therefore, when we are a jīva, we mean the distorted consciousness which is manifesting through our causal, subtle and gross bodies. Now let us look at the right side. First we have the kāraṇa prapañcaḥ or the causal universe which is also known as māyā or avidyā. That is labeled RM4 and the reflected consciousness is RC
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and it is called antaryāmi. Then thesūkṣma prapañcaḥ i.e the subtle world is RM 5 with the corresponding RC5 and it is called hiraṇyagarbhaḥ. The Sthūla prapañcaḥ or the gross world is RM6, the reflected consciousness is RC6 and it is called virāṭ. All the RMs are pure white depicting that there are no distortions in these media. So, antaryāmi+ hiraṇyagarbhaḥ + virāṭ put together are called Īśvaraḥ or Paramātmā. .
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After the analysis, what do we find? Are these two i.e. jīvātmā and paramātmā, the same or different? If we look at each of them through the distorting medium, they will be different, because the medium is bound to distort, because of it own qualities. The paramātmā may have superior qualities and the jīvātmā may have inferior qualities. Therefore, the difference between the two is caused by the distortions caused by the medium like the reflection of the face in the convex and concave mirrors. But in actual fact, there is no distortion in the original face. Similarly the orginal essence of both jīvātmā and paramātmā is ātmā only and it is only one and the same ātmā. Now let us understand the text. Sthūlaśarīrābhimāni jīvanāmakaṁ brahmapratibimbhaṁ bhavati – jīvanāmakaṁ means the ātmā which is named as jīvā; brahma pratibimbhaṁ bhavati – is only the reflection of the original Brahman or ātmā; sthūla śarīrābhimāni – obtaining in the sthūla śarīram. We have to include the other two also i.e. sūkṣma and kāraṇa śarīrābhimāni. And not only is the jīvātmā dull, it does not even know that it is the original consciousness reflected in this medium of the body. Even this truth, the jīvātmā is ignorant of. It mistakes the distorted version as its original nature. This ignorance is the cause of saṁsārā, and it suffers because of this problem. Sa eva jīvaḥ–This confused jīvātmā looks at the paramātmā which is also a distorted reflection and confuses that reflection of paramātmā as its orginal nature. He does not realize that paramātmā is also a distorted version.
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Thus as long as we are absorbed in the distorted versions, we will always see different images. We will swear that they are different. We need to assimilate the fact that the original is the undistorted ātmā and that both the distorted images are incidental attributes and they don’t belong to the ātmā. The author continues - svasmāt prakṛtyā – by his own natural ignorance; Īśvaraṁ bhinnatvēna jānāti - he looks at paramātmā as different from his own self i.e. jīvātmā. This is called jīvātmā – paramātmā bhēdaḥ. This ignorance is at the root of the Dvaita philosophy. It is called dualistic philosophy which proclaims that we, the jīvātmās are all ordinary mortals, and he the Great Lord is the Mahā Paramātmā. He is the creator and we are all his creations. He is the master and we are all his servants. All these confusions arise because; we compare our distorted inferior quality and then look at paramātmā’s distorted superior qualities. That is why this perceived difference exists. According to the advaita (non-dualist) philosophy, the paramātmā is neither a master, nor are we servants. They appear to be so only from the standpoint of the medium. The author then goes on to define jīvātmā. He says – avidhyōpādhiḥ san ātmā jīva ityucyatē. Avidhyā refers to kāraṇa śarīraṁ, which includes the sthūla and sūkṣma śarīrams also. We can therefore, consider avidhyā here as the śarīra trayaṁ; upādi means medium. So avidhyōpādhiḥ san ātmā means the ātmā appearing or reflecting in the micro medium; jīva ityucyatē – is called jīvaḥ.
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Similarly for paramātmā, he says māyōpādhiḥ san īśvara ityucyatē - reflected in māyā i.e. the kāraṇa prapañca, in which we should include sūkṣma prapañca and sthūla prapañca also. We can, therefore, consider māyōpādhiḥ as prapañca trayaṁ – the macro medium. So māyōpādhiḥ san means appearing in the macro medium; Īśvara ityucyatē - is called Īśvaraḥ or paramātmā. So Īśvaraḥ is omniscient, omnipotent, all love, all compassion, all beauty etc. - everything is supremely beautiful. We poor souls have diametrically opposite qualities. But the author wants to point out that even though we seem to be different; the differences are only superficial and incidental. Essentially and intrinsically, the jīvātmā and paramātmā are one. This knowledge is called jīvātmā paramātmā aikya jñānaṁ. This is the foundation principle of advaita philosophy. At this stage, it is quite natural for questions like “What will I get if I gain this knowledge? Will it solve any of my day to day problems, family problems, national problems, religious problems – what will I get out of this knowledge?”etc. are bound to arise. Before the author deals with these questions, he wants to explain what one could lose by not gaining this knowledge. एवंउपा धभदे ात्जीवेश्वरभे ददृिष यावत्पयर्न् �तष्ठ तावत्पयर्न्जन्ममरणादरूप संसा न �नवतर्त I र्त तस्मात्कारणा न जीवेश्वरयोभदबुद स्वकाया I र
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Ēvaṁ upādhibhēdāt jīvēśvarabhēdadṛṣṭiḥ yāvat paryantaṁ tiṣṭhati tāvat paryantaṁ janmamaraṇādirūpa saṁsārō na nivartatē. Tasmātkāraṇāt na jīvēśvarayōrbhēda buddhiḥ svīkāryā. Why do the human beings suffer in life? Suffering is not caused by the events in life; sufferings are not caused by the planetary position in life. But sufferings are caused by wrong perceptions, misconceptions based on the ignorance and misunderstanding of the distorted versions of jīvātmā and paramātmā. So he says ēvaṁ – in this manner; upādhibhēdāt – because of the differences in the medium; jīvēśvarabhēdadṛṣṭiḥ – the wrong perception that jīvātmā and Īśvaraḥ are different; dṛṣṭiḥ, in this context means wrong vision, misunderstanding, misconception; yāvat paryantaṁ tiṣṭhati – as long as this misconception continues in life; tāvat paryantaṁ – till such time; janma maraṇādi rūpa saṁsārō – this saṁsārā which is characterised by repeated births and deaths. The author uses the word ādi which means ‘and the like’ and which includes all kinds of problems like old age, disease, separation from near and dear ones etc. - all these problems put together is called saṁsāraḥ. Na nivartatē – will never go away. Tasmātkāraṇāt - because of that reason; jīvēśvarayōrbhēda buddhiḥ - the misconception of the difference between jīvātmā and paramātmā ; this divisive vision – na svīkāryā – never accept; never entertain. Let us ask ourselves if all our problems are internal or external? A person having cataract in his eyes said that the light in the room was very dull and that the brightness should be increased! Will any amount of increase in the brightness improve his sight? Then
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there was a case of a deaf person who accused people of not eating properly because of which their voices were very feeble! This is what we tend to do for all our problems. We do not realize that the problem actually lies within us. We go on attributing the cause for all our problems to some external person or reason. There is no point in attacking the world; we have to change our misconceptions. This is what Vēdāntā says. We are the problem and so the solution also has also to be in us only. Changing, the people, the family, the society are all struggles in the wrong direction. Solutions attempted in the wrong direction will never succeed. That is why all human beings are unhappy throughout their life because they are always, as the idiomatic expression goes, “barking up the wrong tree”. We should never see a distance between us and God. The greater the perception of distance, the deeper will be the problems of saṁsārā. Lesser the distance, the lesser will be the problems of the saṁsārā. No distance, the saṁsārā will disappear. This state of ‘No distance’ is called aikyaṁ. But, how does one do that? How to change the misconception? How can we remove our distorted misconception? The author provides the answers in the next chapter.
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Mahā Vākyaṁ - The Great equation नन ु साहंकारस् �कं चज्स जीवस् �नरहंकारस् सवर्स ईश्वरस तत्त्वमसी महावाक्यात कथमभदे ब�दु ् स्यादुभयो �वरु धमार्क्रान् त I त Nanu sāhankārasya kiñcijjñasya jīvasya nirahankārasya sarvajñasya īśvarasya tattvamasīti mahāvākyāt kathamabhēdabuddhiḥ syādubhayōḥ viruddha dharmākrāntatvāt. This misconception in the form of the bhēda i.e. difference between the jīvātmā and paramātmā; the division between the individual and God, is attacked by the Vēdik scriptures. Any misconception can go away by right knowledge. That is why even in our day to day life, if there is any doubt regarding anything, an enquiry commission is instituted. For example, if a space vehicle explodes, we set up an enquiry commission to find out. Different versions as to the cause could exist. Whenever there are several doubts, versions and misconceptions, they can be removed only by enquiry and confirmed knowledge. Such misconceptions will not go automatically. They cannot go by any other exercises. It requires the intellectual exercise of enquiry because misconception is an intellectual problem. For an intellectual problem, the solution also has to be intellectual. And therefore, the Vēdik scriptures attempt to give the right knowledge regarding the relationship between jīvātmā and paramātmā. This teaching is given at the end part of the Vēdā and that is why it is called Vedāntik i.e Vēdā anta teaching. Amongst the vast body of Vēdik literature, it is in Vēdāntā alone that the
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jīvātmā - paramātmā relationship is enquired into. It is an elaborate and systematic teaching and the culmination of the teaching is that jīvātmā and paramātmā are one and the same original consciousness only. The differences are seeming, superficial; they are only apparent differences. We don’t deny the superficial differences, like the two images in the two mirrors. We only say that the visible differences are superficial and non-factual. And that culminating statement, which reveals the non-difference or the oneness, is called a Mahā Vākyaṁ. Mahā vākyaṁ is a Vedāntik statement, which reveals the fact that jīvātmā and paramātmā are really one ātmā one. So bhēda is negated, abhēda is revealed. Like any equation in mathematics, Mahā vākyaṁ can be called the great equation. For example, when do we choose an equation in mathematics? We don’t say 8 = 8 because it is very evident and because every body knows that 8 = 8. We cannot say 8 = 9, because we know that 8 is not equal to 9, they are evidently different. Thus when two things are evidently different, equation is not possible and when two things are evidently equal, the equation is not required! Whereas, when two things are seemingly different but are really equal, we require an equation. Like 5+3 = 9-1. When we look at this equation superficially, we can see only the differences. On the left side we have the number 5 and 3 added together. On the right hand side the number 1 is reduced from the number 9. On the face of it, we see the differences only and so we could question the ‘equal to’ sign in the equation. How can they be equal? The eyes
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report the differences in numbers and also the arithematical signs. What we fail to appreciate is that they report a superficial difference. We require a mathematical teacher to tell us that the differences are superficial and results of both sides are 8 only. Similarly if jīvātmā and paramātmā are evidently identical, equation is not required. If jīvātmā and paramātmā are evidently different, equation is not possible. But when the jīvātmā and paramātmā are seemingly different because of the incidental distortion caused by the reflecting medium but really speaking, both are one and same all pervading consciousness, then the Vedāntik teacher gives the solution for the equation Jīvātmā = Paramātmā. And this great equation is called Mahā vākyaṁ. This oneness is revealed by several scriptural statements and all those statements are called Mahā vākyaṁ, the great spiritual equation. For an English translation for Mahā vākyaṁ, we should not take the dictionary meaning. In the dictionary the meaning of ‘Mahā’ would be given as big or long and ‘vākyaṁ’ would be a sentence. So if we take the dictionary meaning, Mahā Vākyaṁ would mean a big or a long sentence. But Tattvamasi is small statement. So Mahā vākyaṁ should be understood to mean as the great spiritual equation which equates the jīvātmā with paramātmā. There are innumerable Mahā vākyaṁs occurring in all scriptures, all over the Vēdās and in all the Upaniṣads and the most popular Mahā vākyaṁ is Tat Twaṁ Asi. And this is generally called upadēśa vākyaṁ because this Mahā vākyaṁ is normally used by a guru while teaching the student. This Mahā vākyaṁ occurs in the
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Sāma Vēdā in an Upaniṣad called Chāndōgyō Upaniṣad, in a very significant section called Sat vdyā. In the Vēdāntik literature the most popular Mahā vākyaṁ is Tat twaṁ asi. The equation states: Tat, which means that paramātmā - the cosmic intelligence which is organizing the whole creation, maintaining the cosmic order, making the solar system move perfectly, helping the Sun rise and set accurately; this intelligence which maintains and unifies the cosmic order. Twaṁ refers to each one of us, the individual jīvātmā, struggling to organize this small little family and that too often failing miserably. Asi means ‘are’. So the equation says that “Tat - the paramātmā; Twam you, the jīvātmā; asi – are. The popular Latin equivalent is “That thou art”. So this vākyaṁ is called abhēda bōdhaka vākyaṁ – the sentence which reveals or informs or gives knowledge of the non-difference or aikya bōdhaka vākyaṁ – the sentence which gives the knowledge of or enlightens or reveals the oneness of the jīvātmā and paramātmā. When a student listens to a Mahā vākyaṁ for the first time in his life, proclaiming that “You are God – you, the jīvātmā, are the paramātmā”, what will be his reaction? He is bound to laugh and say this is the joke of the century. Or he may think that because of too much knowledge the teacher has lost it! But he may not say it!
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For all of us steeped in a world of plurality and whose religious beliefs have been conditioned by a dualistic approach right through our live, this would sound as blasphemy! The moment we think of us and God, what comes to our mind is not oneness, but infinite differences. God is the creator and we are the created. God is all pervading. We are very small. God is omnipotent. We are powerless. God is the embodiment of positive virtues like love, compassion etc. We are the embodiment of ……….better not said! So how can this impure jīvā and the pure Īśvarā be ever identical? We have to worship God; we should never claim equality with God. Claiming equality with God is a sacrilege, it is a sin. This will be the first thought of every Vedāntik student. The author realizes this fact very well and thefore raises a question on behalf of the student. And he says Nanu means indeed or not at all – this indicates the student’s protest. He is raising a red flag. He says jīvasya i.e. ‘I’ the jīva; kiñcijjñasya - am of limited knowledge. He means to say that “I know very few things in the world and there also half of it is wrong knowledge and another half doubtful knowledge. This is my condition.” Therefore, �कं च�ः (kiñcijjñaḥ) means a person with limited knowledge. Another popular word is अल्प (alpajñaḥ) to denote limited knowledge as opposed to सवर् (sarvajñaḥ) which means all knowing.
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Sāhankārasya – sāhankāraḥ means endowed with a strong individuality. Here the student is referring to his own peculiar attribute which limits him and which makes him different from all others. So sāhankāraḥ can be understood as a limitation imposed by his individuality or ego. And about God he says” Īśvarasya – the paramātmā; sarvajñasya – is omniscient. So the differences beween me and God are so clear; katham abhēda buddhiḥ syāt – how can there be this vision of equality; tattvamasi iti mahāvākyāt – by listening to this great equation tattvamasi? The student implies that while he will be able to listen to this theory, he will not be able to swallow it. He can never accept this because, he says – ubhayōḥ –both of them i.e. jīvātmā and paramātmā; have got viruddha dharma ākrāntatvāt - ākrāntaṁ means endowed with; dharmā means attributes; viruddha means opposite or contradictory. So he says, both jīvātmā and paramātmā are endowed with opposite attributes, paramātmā having superior attributes, jīvātmā having inferior attributes. These are not even closer attributes. On the contrary, they are diagonally opposite. So how can this Mahā vākyaṁ be accepted? The teacher is compassionate. He appreciates the student’s point. He is not at all angry. In fact he is happy to note the keenness of the student to learn, which is what has prompted the question in the first place. He explains what is meant by Mahā vākyaṁ and what his intention was when he said that Tattvamasi was a Mahā vākyaṁ. This is another unique feature of our scriptures. The scriptures always encourage the students to raise all questions, all
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doubts and get them clarified before proceeding further. Our scriptures are not ‘faith driven’ but ‘knowledge driven’. The goal is to gain knowledge and not to perfunctorily perform some rituals. The teacher continues: इ�त चने ् I स्थूलसूमशरराभमा त्वंपदवाच्याथ I उपा ध�व�नम ुर्क् समा धदशासंपन्नशदु ्चैतन्य त्वंपदलयाथर I एवंसवर्त्वा�द�वश ईश्वर तत्पदवाच्याथ I उपा धशन ू ्यशदु ्धचैतन तत्पदलयाथर I एवंच जीवेश्वरयो चैतन्यरूपे ऽभदे ेबाधकाभावः I Iti cēnna. Sthūlasūkṣmaśarīrābhimāni tvampada vācyārthaḥ. Upādhivinirmuktaṁ samādhi daśāsampannaṁ śuddhaṁ caitanyaṁ tvampada lakṣyārthaḥ. Ēvaṁ sarvajñatvādiviśiṣṭa īśvaraḥ tatpadavācyārthaḥ. Upādhiśūnyaṁ śuddhacaitanyaṁ tatpada lakṣyārthaḥ. Ēvaṁ ca jīvēśvarayōḥ caitanyarūpēṇā'bhēdē bādhakābhāvaḥ The teacher now goes into the technical aspect of the Mahā vākyaṁ equation between Jīvātmā and paramātmā i.e Tattvamasi, where tat refers to paramātmā, twaṁ refers to the jīvātmā and asi means equal. The teacher explains that whenever we use a word, it is used to communicate a meaning to the listener. That is the purpose of speaking. So when a word is uttered, it reveals an object in the mind of the listener. Every padaṁ or word reveals a padārthaḥ
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meaning of the word. And which word reveals which padārthaḥ, we learn by the study of language. That is literature. For example, when the word ‘Table’ is uttered, the object of a table occurs in our mind. What we hear is the sound but what we understand is not the sound. If I say “bring the Table” you bring the object table. Thus every word conveys a particular object. This object which is referred to by a word is called its vācyārthaḥ – its primary meaning; the official meaning; the original meaning or the dictionary meaning. But often we use the very same word not to convey the meaning of the total object but a part of the object which is also referred to by the same word. For example when one says ‘I’ it refers to that person. But the question is which part of that person does it refer to - the head or the trunk or the limbs? One inference would that it includes the entire body with entire sūkṣma śarīram, all sense organs, mind, intellect, the entire kāraṇa śarīraṁ and the consciousness. So in this sense the word ‘I’ would refer to the three bodies plus consciousness, which is available in a distorted form. Now suppose one says ‘I am writing’. What does that mean? Does it mean that he is writing with the whole body i.e sthūla śarīram+sūkṣma śarīram+kāraṇa śarīraṁ etc.? The writing is done by just one limb i.e. the hand and that too only one hand, which is one of the karmēndriyaṁs, with a portion of the mind involved in the process. But we don’t say hand is writing or hand backed by mind is writing. On the contrary we say “I am writing”. And the listener also does not get confused. He understands that the word
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‘I’ refers to the hand. Similarly when we say ‘I am overweight’, it refers only to one part of i.e. that the physical body. Another example is, suppose one refers to a great mathematician and says “He is a giant in mathematics”. The listener will understand that the use of the word ‘giant’ should not be understood literally but only in an implied manner i.e. to show his prowess in the subject. One can think of such numerous examples. So a word can convey either the total object or it can refer to a part also. Similarly the meaning of a word could be literal or figurative depending upon the context. When it refers to the total object or literal meaning it is called primary meaning. When it conveys any other meaning other than the primary meaning, according to the context, is called secondary meaning, filtered meaning. Similarly when one is asked to bring a banana, the banana includes the skin. When one is asked to eat the banana, it is understood that one should eat it without the skin. Thus most of the time when we speak, we use only the secondary meaning. And the intellect automatically filters and understands this very well because of which we don’t see any contradiction. Thus, when a word reveals the total object or the literal meaning, it is called vācyārthaḥ which is the direct meaning or primary meaning. But when the word reveals a part of the total object or a figurative meaning it is called lakṣyārthaḥ i.e. indirect meaning or implied meaning or secondary meaning. So a word can have either vācyārthaḥ or lakṣyārthaḥ. An intelligent listener should take the appropriate meaning according to the context.
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Let us consider another example. As we have seen earlier normally the word I’’ refers to an individual – the direct meaning of which includes the body, the mind, the intellect, the consciousness. But when a person says ‘I am fat’, the meaning of the word ‘I’ contextually can be connected to only one part of the individual. Why? Because we know that mind cannot be fat; the intellect cannot be fat; the consciousness cannot be fat. So when he says ‘I am fat’, the word should refer to only the relevant part of ‘I’ and that is the physical body. When the word ‘I’ is used to refer to only the physical body, it is lakṣyārthaḥ only. Similarly when a person says ‘I am an emotional person’, the word ‘I’ has to be connected with the word emotional, and we know that the body cannot be emotional; the consciousness cannot be emotional; the sense organs cannot be emotional; and so the word ‘I’can refer to only that part which is relevant in this context. We don’t even need tell all these things because the listener is intelligent and he does this filtering job. Thus we use the word ‘I’ with different meanings in different context and the speaker doesn’t even need explain but given the context the listener understands, by taking the appropriate lakṣyārthaḥ without taking the vācyārthaḥ. The teacher says that the same principle has to be applied to understand the equation of the Mahā vākyaṁ. When it is said that the jīvātmā is one and the same as the paramātmā, the question arises as to which part is being referred to here. The author says that the three śarīraṁs cannot be taken here because from the standpoint of the śarīraṁ, jīvātmā and
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paramātmā are totally different. Jīvātmā is a micro medium consisting of śarīra trayaṁ. Whereas, paramātmā is a macro medium consisting of prapañca trayaṁ. So if we take the medium aspect of the two, the equation will not work. Thus in defining tvaṁ i.e you, what is left is the consciousness principle, which pervades the śarīra trayaṁ and which makes the śarīra trayaṁ sentient and that is ātmā, the caitanyaṁ. This is the lakṣyārthaḥ of the word ‘tvaṁ’. Similarly, what is ‘tat’ the paramātmā? Here also we don’t take the paramātmā as the macro medium. We disregard the prapañca trayaṁ. So once again we take the consciousness principle which is manifesting through the prapañca trayaṁ. Here again we should take the lakṣyārthaḥ instead of the vācyārthaḥ. So jīvātmā is the consciousness principle; paramātmā is also the consciousness principle. The consciousness ātmā is common to both even though there is no commonality between the medium of both. Therefore when it is said that ‘you are God’, it means that you and God are one original consciousness, manifesting through two different reflecting media, as explained earlier through the examples of concave and convex mirrors. And therefore, the author says that if we take the meaning of tat and tvaṁ as consciousness, the Mahā vākyaṁ will be meaningful. On the contrary, if we take the meaning of tvaṁ as the body or the mind, the Mahā vākyaṁ will make no sense.
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So in the Mahā vākyaṁ, sthūla, sūkṣma and kāraṇa śarīraṁs won’t fit. Similarly, sthūla, sūkṣma, and kāraṇa prapañca will not fit. The only entity which will fit is the all-pervading, undivided original consciousness. This is what the author clarifies in the sentence. He says Iti cēt– if asked thus; na - no; tvampada vācyārthaḥ – the direct meaning of the word tvaṁ i.e the individual includes – sthūla , sūkṣma śarīraṁs; we have to include kāraṇa śarīraṁ also even though the author does not mention it. So the definition of ‘I’ refers to the total object or the total individual which includes the gross body, the subtle body, the causal body and the consciousness. All these four factors are included in tvampada i.e. in the word tvaṁ which is the vācyārthaḥ i.e.the primary or the direct meaning of the word. From this standpoint, this meaning of the Mahā vākyaṁ will not work because the bodies are different between individual and God. Then what should we do? We should not take the primary meaning but should take the contextual meaning only. What should we do for that? The author says upādhi vinirmuktaṁ – upādhi means the reflecting matter or medium i.e the śarīra trayaṁ; vinirmuktaṁ means segregate or set aside. So we need to segregate or set aside or filter the reflecting medium which is śarīra trayaṁ; but how do we do that? By samādhi daśāsampannaṁ – samādhi means discrimination which is vivekaḥ, which we have already learnt; daśā means at the time of. The discrimination the author is talking about is the separation of the consciousness from the reflecting medium. We
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must remember that we are not talking about physical separation but only figurative separation i.e. only in our understanding. So by the process of discrimination, when we arrive at; śuddhaṁ caitanyaṁ – unmixed consciousness; filtered consciousness; it is called lakṣyārthaḥ. And after filtering we should know which part to retain and which part to throw away. If not, we would be acting like Vidura. As the Mahābhāratā story goes, when Lord Kṛṣṇa came to Vidura’s house, he was so thrilled, nervous and confused that he peeled a banana to offer to the Lord and threw the banana in the waste basket and gave the peel to poor Kṛṣṇa !. Thus, after figuratively separating the body and consciousness, the pure consciousness - the śuddhaṁ caitanyaṁ is denoted by tvaṁ or ahaṁ the ‘I’. So when a person says ‘I’ am God, the word ‘I’ refers only to the consciousness part. This is the tvampada lakṣyārthaḥ. Similarly the author analyses the vācyārthaḥ and lakṣyārthaḥ of the word tat. He says ēvaṁ – applying the same principle; Īśvaraḥ – the Lord or the paramātmā; sarvajñatvādiviśiṣṭaḥ – the one endowed with omniscience and who includes the four entities viz. sthūla prapañcaḥ, the total gross universe; sūkṣma prapañcaḥ, the total subtle universe; kāraṇa prapañcaḥ, the total causal universe; and Brahman, the universal or cosmic consciousness; is the direct meaning or vācyārthaḥ of the word Īśvaraḥ or God. God has total body, total mind, and total intellect at the cosmic level. Therefore, he possesses total knowledge, sarvajñatvādi viśiṣṭaḥ – omniscient. This is the vācyārthaḥ.
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But in the context of the Mahā vākyaṁ, we should not take the vācyārthaḥ of the word Īśvaraḥ. Like in the case of the twampada, we should figuratively segregate or filter or set aside the three reflecting matter media viz. sthūla prapañca, sūkṣma prapañca and kāraṇa prapañca. The Īśvaraḥ will then become upādhi śūnyaṁ – bereft of three matter media; and what would be left would be śuddha caitanyaṁ – the pure filtered cosmic consciousness separated from the three reflecting media. And this is tatpada lakṣyārthaḥ – the implied meaning of the word Īśvaraḥ or paramātmā ortat. So in the presence of the reflecting media we get only a distorted image of the reflected consciousness both at the individual level and the cosmic level. But if the reflecting media are removed, albeit only figuratively, what will remain is the undistorted original consciousness. But the tragedy is that we can never see the original consciousness like we can never see our own face. It is not an object of perception. This original consciousness is not the object but it is the subject ‘I’. For that reason, one cannot also argue that the original consciousness does not exist because it cannot be seen or perceived. This argument will be specious because it will be like stating that the face does not exist because it cannot be seen or the mind does not exist because it cannot be seen or for that matter, the brain of the arguer does not exist because it cannot be seen!!!
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Non-perception of the orginal consciousness or face does not prove their non-existence. We can never see our original face. If we want to see the face, we will get only a reflected version in the mirror and this reflection will necessarily suffer from distortions either positive or negative. Jīvātmā is negative distortion, paramātmā is positive distortion and ātmā is without any distortion. Therefore author says ēvaṁ ca – in this manner; caitanya rūpēṇā – in the form of original, undistorted consciousness; jīvēśvarayōḥ abhēdē – jīvātmā and paramātmā have no difference; they are one and the same abhēdē means no difference at all; We should remember that the distorted version is also temporary and also that the distortion is not a real distortion. When our face is distorted in the mirror, it is only an apparent distortion. The original face is not really distorted at all. Similarly the distortions of jīvātmā and paramātmā are incidental, temporary and apparent. The orginal real consciousness is ever the same. And that consciousness ‘I am’. This is the Tattva bōdhaḥ – self knowledge. Bādhakābhāvaḥ – bādhaka means contradiction; abhāvaḥ means non-exisent or absent. So the author asserts that there is no contradiction in saying “I am God”. Every jñāni claims, “I am God”. And this is called Mahā vākya janya aikya jñānaṁ – the knowledge of oneness born out of the study of Mahā vākyaṁ.
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This completes the discussion of the topic Jīva – Īśvara Aikyam. This is the central topic of Tattva bōdhaḥ. What is given here is only a summary. This is the subject matter of all Upaniṣads, the Bhagavad Gītā and for that matter all Vedāntik granthā in which this topic is dealt with in full detail.
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Jīvanmuktāḥ - Liberated individual We now move on to the fifth and final topic of Tattva bōdhaḥ which deals with the aikya jñāna phalaṁ. In this section, the author addresses the question “What will I get out of this knowledge?” The author continues. एवंच वेदान्तवाक्य सद्गुरुपद शे च सवष्व भतेषू ु येषांब्रह्मब रुत्पन ते जीवन्मुक्त इत्यथर I Ēvaṁ ca vēdāntavākyaiḥ sadgurupadēśēna ca sarvēṣvapi bhūtēṣu yēṣāṁ brahmabuddhirutpannā tē jīvanmuktāḥ ityarthaḥ. The author says that this knowledge is highly beneficial. It is highly practical. It can bring about a revolutionary change in our approach to life. In everything that we do, there will be a change of perspective and this benefit is called mōkṣaḥ or muktiḥ. So the result of this knowledge born out of the study is mōkṣaḥ. The author also, in an implied manner, prescribes the mode of undertaking this study. He advises us to never undertake an independent self study. Self study will not work in Vēdāntā. Not only it may not work, it may prove to be counter productive also. Therefore, this knowledge has to be gained with the help of shāstrās and guru, scriptures and a scriptural master to guide you. This is what he means when he says Vēdāntavākyaiḥ– with the help of the Vedāntik statements - especially Vēdānta Mahā vākyaiḥ – tattvamasi is one example. There are others like ahaṁ brahmāsmi, prajñānaṁ brahma, ayaṁ ātma brahma, sa yaścāyaṁ puruṣē, yascāvādityē, sa ēkaḥ - hundreds and thousands of Mahā vākyaṁs
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are there. So the author says that making use of those scriptural statements and sadgurupadēśēna ca – with the help of the systematic teaching of a sadguru. The author himself has developed this topic systematically starting from śarīra trayaṁ etc. This is a systematic Vedāntik study. The systematic study is here called upadēśaḥ. It is not like a mantra initiation. That is also called upadēśaḥ. It is a one time and two minutes job. That is initiation into a mantra for regular repetition for the purification of the mind. But here the word upadēśaḥ has a different connotation. It means systematic study imparted by sadguru –the one who has an effective method of communication the one who is a master in communicating in an appropriate way. In the scriptures and tradition the method of teaching is discussed very elaborately. Imparting this knowledge is like feeding the baby which a mother knows. She does not put a huge ball of food in the baby’s mouth. She starts with small portions only and then slowly increases the quantity. There is a prescribed method to feed the child. This methodology is called sampradāyaḥ. That is why in the scriptures, the sadguru is defined also as sampradāya vit – the one who has the skill of communication; the methodology of transferring this difficult knowledge. So with the help of guru and shāstrās; sarvēṣvapi bhūtēṣu brahmabuddhirutpannā – buddiḥ in this context means jñānaṁ i.e.knowledge; utpannaḥ means has arisen or has come; so knowledge comes through guru shāstrā upadēśaḥ and the knowledge referred to here is the Brahma buddiḥ – the knowledge of Brahman or ātmā which means the original
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consciousness. We can find this original consciousness in sarvēṣu api bhūtēṣu - in every medium; in my body, in your body, in an ant’s body; in a plant; in an animal etc. Of course, the distorted versions will be different depending upon the respective upādhis but we know that the distortions are only incidental caused by the medium. If we set aside the medium, the orginal is the same. The author says that the one who has understood this truth, this reality; in whom this Brahma jñānaṁ has emerged; the one who has managed to assimilate and actualise this truth is called jīvan muktāḥ–liberated person. He will be liberated even while living in this very world. Muktāḥ means liberated and jīvan means while living. We need to understand as to what is the liberation that is being talked about. “Liberated from what?” We know that at present the ‘I’ in us is the original consciousness but temporarily manifesting in this reflecting medium in a distorted form. After a few years, the reflecting medium will perish and alongwith it the distorted reflection will perish. But even when these reflected consciousness (RC) and reflected medium (RM) perish; ‘I’ the original consciousness (OC) will continue to exist eternally. It is like sleep. During sleep, we do not transact through the body medium but we very much exist. Similarly in death also the RC may end, the transaction may end, but we are immortal and so we will continue to exist.
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The greatest fear of a human being is the fear of mortality and therefore, the greatest freedom is the freedom from the fear of mortality; freedom from the sense of insecurity. All of us suffer from a high sense of instinctive insecurity. Even as children we were instinctly clinging to our mothers or atleast their saris! When we grow old we try to cling to our children. When we are sick and immobile, we don’t want them to go out even for a day. We say to them “I don’t know when I will die and so be always by my side”. It is this sense of insecurity which expresses itself in the form of all emotional problems. This insecurity is the seed for raga, dvēśa, kāma, krōdha, mōha, lōbha, mada, mātsarya, asūyā - all these are different versions of one fundamental problem which is insecurity. We struggle to earn money. We cling to money and wealth because we think that money and wealth will give us security. And why do we need security from money? Because we feel that we by ourselves are insecure and therefore we need money. We hold on to power, position, house, relationship – all for the same reason. Bhayaṁ or fear is driving the humanity. Therefore, freedom is muktiḥ which means freedom from the sense of insecurity and the consequent ramifications - all put together in a single word called samsāraḥ. So muktiḥ or mōkṣaḥ means samsāra nivṛttiḥ. The interesting aspect is that instinctively nobody wants to die; nobody wants to be erased from the earth. This is called survival instinct. There is always the desire for immortality which is instinctive. Once we understand and assimilate the fact that the
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death of the reflecting medium, that is our body and that of the reflecting consciousness does not mean that we cease to exist, we will be fully liberated from this sense of insecutity which endlessly keeps haunting us. So when we gain this jñānaṁ, this knowledge of the self, jīvan muktiḥ is the result. This liberation can be gained in this very life itself. It is not something that we get after death. And since this liberation can be enjoyed even while living, it is called jīvan muktiḥ. The one who enjoys jīvan muktiḥ is called a jīvan muktaḥ – a liberated person. Having heard the teacher define jīvan muktiḥ and jīvan muktaḥ, the student wants to know more about this Jīvan Muktaḥ and the type of life of such a person. This is important for us also to know because only then we can decide whether to become Jīvan Muktaḥ or not! We want to find out whether it is a worthwhile proposition! So the student asks this question on our behalf. नन ु जीवन्ुक्म ुक् कः? (Nanu jīvan muktaḥ kah?) – But, who is a jīvan muktaḥ or a liberated person? The teacher defines: यथा देहोऽहंपर ु ुषऽहं ब्राह् ऽहं शद् ू ऽहमस्मी दृढनश्चयस् नाहं ब्राह् न शद् ू न पर ु ुष �कन्त असंगः सिच्चदा नन्दस्व प्रशरूप सवार्न्तयार चदाकाश-रूप ऽस्मी दृढनश्चयर ऽपरो��ानवान् जीवन्ुक् म I
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Yathā dēhō'haṁ puruṣō'haṁ brāhmaṇō'haṁ śūdrō'hamasmīti dṛḍhaniścayastathā nāhaṁ brāhmaṇaḥ na śūdraḥ na puruṣaḥ kintu asangaḥ saccidānandasvarūpaḥ prakāśarūpaḥ sarvāntaryāmi cidākāśa-rūpō'smīti dṛḍhaniścayarūpō'parōkṣa jñānavān jīvanmuktaḥ. The guru’s detailed answer is summed up in three words at the end of the sentence - aparōkṣa jñānavān jīvanmuktaḥ – a person who has gained self knowledge is a liberated person – jīvan muktaḥ. The main characteristic of a liberated person is self-knowledge and self knowledge is here is called aparōkṣa jñānaṁ. This is a technical word used only for defining self-knowledge. In the shāstrās knowledge is normally divided into three types. First is the knowledge of an object which is far away from us and which is not available for direct experience. This is beyond the range of our experience. For example, we have knowledge of existence of different galaxies in the universe, but we cannot experience them directly. This knowledge is called indirect knowledge. In Sanskrit, the term used is parōkṣa jñānaṁ. The second type of knowledge is the knowledge of an object which is available right in front of us and we can have a direct experience of that object. This knowledge is called pratyakṣa jñānaṁ. Both pratyakṣa jñānaṁ and parōkṣa jñānaṁ refer to the knowledge of an object only. The difference is only in the proximity or remoteness of the object of experience.
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Self knowledge does not fall under either of the above categories because ‘I’ the self, am not an object at all! It is neither a proximate object nor a remote object. ‘I’ am not the object but the very the subject, the knower. Self knowledge is, therefore, called aparōkṣa jñānaṁ. So we should never say direct experience of the self. Direct experience can be only of an object nearby. So a jīvan muktaḥ is one who has got aparōkṣa jñānaṁ. – Self-knowledge. And this knowledge he has is dṛḍha niścaya rūpaḥ– free from all forms of doubt; in the form of a firm conviction. dṛḍha means firm; niścayaḥ means conviction. So this knowledge refers to a firm conviction about oneself. And what is the firm conviction? Totally convinced that ahaṁ saccidānanda svarūpaḥ – ‘I’ am of the nature of sat, cit and ānandaḥ. We have already discussed this topic in a previous chapter. So this knowledge which is held with firm conviction is that ‘I’ am of the nature of limitless existence, consciousness and superlative happiness. The nature of this saccidānanda is asangaḥ – though it pervades the body mind complex, it is not attached to it. We need to remind ourselves that if the all pervading consciousness is connected with body mind complex, when the body perishes, the consciousness will also perish. But since it is not attached and is independent of the body mind complex, even at the death of the body, the ātmā continues to exist. And this unconnected or unattached nature is called asanga svarūpaḥ. The author continues, ‘I’ the ātmā, am sarva antaryāmi –the consciousness present in every body – just as the electricity is
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normally present in every electrical gadget. Similarly every body is blessed by the ātma caitanyaṁ. The bodies are many but ātmā is one and therefore it is called sarva antaryāmi. Antaryāmi means inherent like a thread which is behind every beed of a garland. The beads of the garland are visible but the thread which holds all the beads together is invisible. Ātmā is like the invisible thread and every one of us is like a beed. The thread is inside each beed but is not attached to the beed. The thread is one but the beeds are many. So the properties of the thread are somewhat similar to ātmā. It is (1) invisible; (2) inside every beed; (3) holds all the beeds together and (4) though it pervades all the beeds it is unattached to the beeds. This is a good example to understand this concept. There are two more examples to understand this concept of ātmā. One example is ākāśaḥ. Some of you might have heard about Cidambara rahasyaṁ. A famous temple of Lord Siva is situated in Cidambaraṁ town in South India. This temple is supposed to hold a secret. And the secret is that the temple does not have a deity. In place of the deity there is empty space. The significance is that Lord Siva is worshipped there as the space principle. So, first example is ākāśaḥ. The second example is prakāśaḥ - the light principle, like the sūrya prakāśaḥ, the Sunlight which envelops or pervades the entire earth. Here the reference is not to the solar disc which is far away.
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The reference here is to the Sunlight which not only spreads or pervades over the earth but every nook and corner of the solar system. The ātmā can, therefore, be compared to the ākāśaḥ and prakāśaḥ because of certain common attributes. Both ākāśaḥ and prakāśaḥ are formless. Space is formless, light is formless, ātmā is also formless consciousness. The second common feature is that space is division less – space cannot be cut with a knife or otherwise divided. Similarly light also cannot be divided. And in the same way, ātmā, the consciousness, also cannot be divided. Thirdly, the ākāśaḥ – space cannot be polluted by any dirty object. Air can be polluted but not the ākāśaḥ. So it is blotless, blemishless. In the same way, even though the light or prakāśaḥ spreads over every object, the dirt of the object cannot contaminate the light. So prakāśaḥ is also blemishless. Similarly ātmā the consciousness is also blemishness. Next ākāśaḥ does not have a boundary. Every object has a boundary, dimesion. But ākāśaḥ is boundless or limitless. Likewise, sūrya prakāśaḥ, the light also is not bounded or limited by any object. It goes beyond every object. It even goes beyond this earth. In the same way the ātmā also is boundless or limitless. And finally, ākāśaḥ, even though, is associated with every object; it is not connected to any object. It is associated with all but not
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connected to any one. Similarly, light also is associated with every object – light is on our body but is not connected to our body. If it were so, wherever we go, the light will go with us. We will never be in a dark place! And not only that, when we walk off a place with the light with us, that place will become dark till someone else walks in that place with the light! So because of its unconnected nature, the light remains in the place even when we go way. The nature of the ātmā is also the same. Even when our body perishes, the ātmā continues to remain and exist. Thus, formless – nirākāraḥ; divisionless – nirvikalpaḥ; blemishless – nirmalaḥ; limitless - nissīmaḥ and finally connectionless – nissangaḥ; such is the nature of the ātmā. A jñāni has assimilated this true nature of the ātmā. As a jñāni, he does not say “I am the body”. He only says “I temporarily use the body. I am only the user of the body and I am not the body”. And therefore, author says, nāhaṁ brāhmaṇaḥ – if we understand that we are not the body, we cannot say that “I am a brahmin or I am a kṣatriya or I am a vaiśya, or I am śūdraḥ” because they are divisions all based on the body mind complex. Ātmā the consciousness is varṇa atītaḥ– beyond all these classifications. So there is no superiority complex that one is a brahmin and because of the same logic there is no inferiority complex that one is a śūdraḥ. Body based consciousness, caste based consciousness - all drop off. The next is na puruṣaḥ - gender based complex; or gender discrimination. The word puruṣaḥ means men but includes
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strī – women also. There is neither superiority nor inferiority based upon the gender. Gender identity is also dropped. And how firm is this knowledge in a jñāni? The author implies that this knowledge in a jñāni is as firm as the knowledge of an ignorant person with regard to himself. The ignorant person has a firm knowledge that he is either a brahmin or kṣatriya etc. or a puruṣaḥ or strī etc. Just as an ignorant person has a firm wrong knowledge about himself, the wise person has a firm right knowledge. Therefore, the author says by way of an example, yathā – like an ignorant person who says dēhaḥ ahaṁ – I am the body; puruṣaḥ ahaṁ – I am a male; brāhmaṇaḥ ahaṁ – I am a brahmin; śūdraḥ ahaṁ – I am a śūdra; īti dṛḍha niścayaḥ– such a strong but wrong conviction and misconception an ajñāni has; the jñāni has the same strong conviction about him being sat cit ānanda svarūpaḥ prakāśa rūpaḥ sarvāntaryāmi cidākāśa rūpaḥ asmi iti. So strong is the knowledge of the jñāni with regard to his real nature. By using the word dṛḍha niścayaḥ i.e. conviction, the author wants to emphasise this knowledge is a spontaneous knowledge and never forgotten by the jñāni at any time. When one is growing old, the body identification becomes stronger; worry or concern about death becomes stronger; concern about the children becomes stronger; and it is at those times that the jñāni is aware of the fact that his body is only an incidental medium. It has to arrive, grow and finally it has to go. And because of this objectivity, he doesn’t have any obsession either with his own physical body or with the
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physical bodies of his near and dear ones. He accepts the fact of the temporary nature of the body. He doesn’t look upon old age as a tragedy. He doesn’t look upon death as a tragedy. He looks upon them as the most natural events which have to be accepted as they are. And because of this conviction the jñāni attains mōkṣaḥ or freedom or liberation. We have already equated mōkṣaḥ as the five fold benefits in the introductory Chapter. It will be worthwhile to briefly revise these and remind ourselves of these benefits in this context. a) िज�ासा �नवि ृत्त (jijñāsā nivṛttiḥ) – Satisfaction of natural curiosity. The satisfaction of the natural curiosity; quenching the thirst; finding an answer to the mysteries of life and to questions about one self - “Who am I? From where do I come? Where do I go? Why am I born? What is God? Is there a God? If so, where does he exist? What is the world? Who created it? How was it created? There are innumerable questions regarding one self, God and the world. All those questions and mysteries are cracked. Mystery is a pain for the intellect. Intellect cannot withstand mystery, it cannot withstand ignorance. Therefore, it has an instinctive curiosity to know answers to all these questions. That curiosity is quenched by gaining self knowledge. This is intellectural satisfaction.
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b) �वद्यानन प्र ािप (vidyānanda prāptiḥ) – Gaining knowledge driven happiness. The self knowledge which teaches us that we exist eternally gives us total satisfaction. As we assimilate this knowledge more and more, the sense of insecurity goes away. The sense of fear goes away. In fact all emotional problems are based on this fear. When all of them go away, we enjoy the inner peace which in turn leads to superlative happiness which is called Vidyānandaḥ. c) काप्र ण �नवि ृत्त (kārpaṇya nivrutti ḥ ) – Freedom from desperation. This is also called pāratantra nivrittiḥ . Once we discover ānandaḥ in this knowledge, we no longer need to depend upon external sources of happiness. External pleasures become a bonus. So we have no desperate dependence on external sources of happiness. They only serve as a standby. Just like the back up power supply we have for computer installations. With this back up in place there will be no desparate dependence on the main power supply. So with the self knowledge the desperate craving for external pleasures go away. d) आघात �नवि ृत्त (āghāta nivrutiiḥ) – freedom from shock, trauma. This self knowledge is a great shock absorber. It gives us such an emotional cushion and an emotional insulation that no problem in life will give us a shock. We have the jñāna kavacaṁ – the shield of
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knowledge. The worst of the tragedies, we can receive and react with great resilience of mind. We will learn to consider all such shocks as disturbances and carry on with life. Thus the self knowledge gives us freedom from shock and trauma inflicted on us by people, events and experiences. e) द�ता प्रािप (dakṣatā prāptiḥ) – Gaining efficiency. This knowledge also leads to an increase in our efficiency in our day to day life. Due to the fact that we do not have a desperate dependence and since we are free from the shocks of life, our mind is generally relaxed and calm. And this very calmness increases our efficiency. If a disturbing experience takes place, we take it in our own stride and do not brood over it. We are able to set aside such events to fully apply our mind and efforts to the task at hand. This focussed approach is a must for the efficient completion of any undertaking. And this is the fifth benefit of self knowledge. These five fold benefits put together is called mōkṣaḥ. This is called jīvan muktiḥ because it happens when one is alive. So a jñāni obtains these benefits or aikya jñāna phalaṁ while living. But the next question would be what will happen to such a person at the time of death? The author deals with this question also. ब्रह्मैवाहमस्मीत्यपरो �न खलकमर्बन्ध �वनमुर् स्यात I ्यात Brahmaivāhamasmi iti aparōkṣa jñānēna nikhila karma bandha vinirmuktaḥ syāt.
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The author says, aparōkṣa jñānēna – by the sheer power of self knowledge; that Brahma ēva aham – I am Brahman alone; not the temporary falling body, not the temporary wobbling mind, not the temporary confused intellect – but I am the Brahman the limitless consciousness – by this sheer knowledge; we have to add maraṇakālē i.e. at the time of death because that is the question being answered here; nikhila karma bandha vinirmuktaḥ syāt – nikhila means entire or all; vinirmuktaḥ means free from; so this jīvan muktaḥ becomes free from all the karmās, which are referred to as bandaḥ– shackles. Thus a jñāni will become free from all the shackles called karmāḥ – otherwise called puṇya-pāpaṁ which can be loosely translated as good deeds and bad deeds. From this the author is also hinting that at the time of an ajñāni ’s death, he is not freed from all the karmās. Because, when the author says that at the time of death, a jñāni is free from puṇya-pāpaṁs, he implies that an ajñāni at the time of his death is not free from puṇyapāpaṁs. Jñāni alone is totally free. Let us understand the implication of this statement. We have to remember that puṇya-pāpaṁs, otherwise called karmās are responsible for rebirth. At the time of death, a jñāni is freed from all the karmās. Therefore, a jñāni , otherwise called a jīvan muktaḥ, will not have punar janma or rebirth. That means he will not take another body. He is freed from assuming a new body. And this freedom from a new body is called vidēha muktiḥ.Vi means free from; without. Dēhaḥ refers to a next body or a new body. So vidēhaḥ means freedom from a new body; which is
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freedom from punar janma. So a jñāni while living is a jīvan muktaḥ and after death he becomes a vidēha muktaḥ. This is the benefit of ātma jñānaṁ. And this freedom from another human birth, this vidēha muktiḥ is in essence a merger into the Lord – freedom from individuality is merger into totality. When a river merges into the ocean, it loses its individuality as a river but it continues to survive as one with the total ocean. This cessation of individuality is vidēha muktiḥ. It is the merger of the microcosm with the macrocosm. The acquisition of the totality is called Īśvara prāptiḥ. Now the author has introduced a new word karmāḥ in this sentence. This is another technical word from a Vedāntik standpoint. The dictionary meaning of karmāḥ is any action. That is why we earlier referred to the hands and legs as karmēndriyaṁ – organs meant for karmāḥ or action. But here the word karmāḥ does not mean action but it refers to puṇya-pāpaṁ. This is a very very important teaching unique to the Vēdās – unique to our Hindu scriptures. The author, therefore, feels that he needs to explain the law of karmā or the principle of karmā, which he does in the next chapter.
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Law of Karma What does the law of karmā say? It says that every action that a person does will produce two types of results called karma phalaṁ. One result of action is the visible result which we can see and experience directly. In Sanskrit it is called dṛṣṭa phalaṁ which is purely based on the physical action we do. Dṛṣṭa means that which can be seen. But we know that behind every action which is visible there is an invisible motive also. This motive also will produce a result which has to be invisible, because the invisible motive will have to produce a proportional result which is invisible. This invisible result is called adṛṣṭa phalaṁ. So dṛṣṭa phalaṁ is one result and adṛṣṭa phalaṁ is the second result of any action. And since the results of any action can be positive or negative, the adṛṣṭa phalaṁ can be either positive or negative. The positive adṛṣṭa phalaṁ is called puṇyaṁ and the negative adṛṣṭa phalaṁ is called pāpaṁ. Thus depending upon our motive or intention for every action we do, we gather puṇyaṁ and pāpaṁ. For example, suppose I am walking on the road which has no footpath. And I am walking almost on the edge of the road. It is a busy road and vehicles are moving up and down. Suppose all of a sudden, I feel a push from behind. Someone has pushed me. I fall down and get injured. Naturally, my first reaction will be anger. I will be very angry with that someone who had pushed me and
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caused pain to me. So I get up and look angrily behind to see who had pushed me. Just as I turn my head, I see a huge public transport bus run past me very closely, missing hitting me by a ‘hair’s breadth’. As I face that person who had pushed me, he says that “That bus was coming so close to you and was about to hit you. So in order to save you, I had to push you. I am extremely sorry”. Now what will be my reaction? There is bound to be a change in my attitude. It will turn from one of anger to one of gratitude. Now what has happened to my injury the dṛṣṭa phalaṁ, the visible result? The injury remaining the same, pain remaining the same, the action is approved, admired and thanked. In the normal course harming another person would have been pāpaṁ. But in this particular case even though that person has caused injury, we would certainly call it puṇyaṁ. This puṇyaṁ he begets on the basis of his main motive which was to save me from being hit by the bus. He never had any motive to cause injury to me. Thus behind every action there is an invisible motive which is responsible for the puṇya pāpa phalaṁ. Now this puṇyaṁ and pāpaṁ which are the adṛṣṭa phalaṁ get accumulated in the name of the jīva. This is like the debits and credits which get accumulated in one’s bank account. This puṇyaṁ and pāpaṁ later get converted into visible happy and unhappy experiences. Puṇyaṁ gets converted into favourable experiences. And pāpaṁ gets converted into unfavourable
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experiences. Thus every puṇyaṁ and pāpaṁ is an invisible seed of future pleasure and pain. To put this in Sanskrit, adṛṣṭa puṇyaṁ sukhaṁ dadāti, adṛṣṭa pāpaṁ duḥkhaṁ dadāti. Now the next question that will arise is “How long do this puṇyaṁ and pāpaṁ take to get converted into pleasure and pain? How long will the seed take to fructify into sukhaṁ and duḥkhaṁ?” The scriptures point out that this period is not uniform, just as all types of seeds do not take the same amount of time to become a tree and fructify. A papayā seed will quickly grow into a tree and we can get the papayā fruit in a short time. Whereas, a mango or coconut seed may perhaps take years grow into a tree and give out the fruits. Perhaps the benefit will not accrue to the present generation but only to the next generation.Thus the duration of fructification will vary from seed to seed, some of them may fructify tomorrow, some of them may fructify next week, next month, next year, next decade, next century etc. And some puṇyaṁ and pāpaṁ may not fructify in this janmā or birth! This is because any seed to fructify requires a favourable atmosphere. A seed can grow into a plant only when the soil is proper, water is available, the temperature is appropriate, the elevation of the land is proper etc. So therefore, some puṇyā and pāpā (plural) may not fructify in this birth. They will remain in a potential form and therefore they will require another birth for fructification. And all this unfructified puṇyā and pāpā earned and
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accumulated in several births, are called sañcita karmā. Just as savings accounts in banks, we have in puṇyā and pāpā also the balances gathered in past lives and brought forward to this life. These are sañcita karmās. Sañcita means accumulated. Now suppose, out of the sañcita or accumulated karmā, one portion gets ready for fructification in the present life. They have completed their gestation period. Like the maturity of various fixed deposits over different periods of time. Similarly the different fixed deposits of puṇyā and pāpā mature at different times. A bunch of sañcita karmā which is mature and ready to fructify in the present birth is called prārabdha karmā. Prārabdha karmā means maturing sañcita karmā; fructifying sañcita karmā. And this prārabdha karmā alone decides what type of body we should get in the present birth. If it is a puṇyā prārabdhaṁ; the body will be a very favourable body, irrespective of whether it is a plant body, an animal body or a human body. This is decided by, not sañcita karmā but by the prārabdha karmā. Even it is to be a human body, the prārabdha karmā determines whether it should be a male or a female. Further even after gender selection, whether the body should be a healthy one or have some congenital diseases is again determined by the fructifying prārabdha. Not only that, this prārabdha alone determines, the parentage, the place of birth, whether born in a rich family or a poor family etc. Even the duration of the life is controlled by this prārabdha.
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It is not uncommon for us to sometimes have an experience for which we have not worked for. Whenever we work for something and achieve it, we are not surprised. But at times we get an experience, a certain condition for which we know that we have not worked for at all. If it is a favourable condition, we may call it good luck and if it is unfavourable, we could call it bad luck. Whatever comes to us without our working for is the job of prārabdhaṁ. And while we are thus exhausting the prārabdhaṁ, reaping the sukha and duḥkha experiences, we keep on doing karmā. These present actions that we are doing now will also produce fresh puṇyaṁ and pāpaṁ. And this freshly acquired puṇya pāpaṁ in this birth, this freshly augmented and replenished puṇya pāpaṁ is called āgāmi Karmā. Āgāmi means the puṇya pāpaṁ which is acquired in this janmā, in this birth. This āgāmi puṇya pāpaṁ also will be partly exhausted in this birth itself since some āgāmis will fructify in this birth itself. But the other āgāmis will not fructify because the conditions are not conducive for fructification. This unfructified āgāmi will continue to remain in our account and at the time of death of the body, get added to the sañcita karmā balance. Thus we will exhaust our prārabdha karmā and a part of our āgāmi karmā and when prārabdha and the fructified part of āgāmi are exhausted, the body falls. This is because the very purpose of the body is exhaustion of these karmās. Once the prārabdha and a part of āgāmi end, and the body falls, the other part of āgāmi which could not fructify at the time of
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death will join the sañcita bundle. And out of this pool of sañcita another bunch of karmās get ready for fructification. The next fixed deposit matures! Which karmās are ready to mature and which one are not, we can never say. It is unpredictable. But it is definite all karmās will eventually fructify. The next bunch of prārabdha gives another body. And in that body, those prārabdha gets exhausted. And during the process of this exhaustion, we replenish the stock with fresh karmās. Again a part will go to sañcitaṁ. And again we have another birth. This is what the scriptures mean when they say punarapi janānāṁ punarapi maraṇaṁ. In this manner these karmās gets exhausted, replenished and again replenished and exhausted. This cycle goes on and on. This is the lot of an ordinary ajñāni or saṁsārī. He is caught in this vicious cycle. And this called the law of karmā. Now the next logical question is “what will happen to these three karmās – i.e sañcita, prārabdha and āgāmi – accumulated, fructifying and arriving - of a jñāni? The author answers this question in the final part of the text which we will see later. The essence of the answer is that all the three are exhausted at the end of a jñāni ‘s life. His account will show ‘nil’ balance! So his file will be closed. Since he has no more karmā left to be exhausted, he does not have a rebirth. But before he discusses this subject, the author wants to explain the types and nature of the the karmās. We should remember that the author had referred to this word karmā in his previous sentence. He continues:
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कमार्णकतवधा सन्ती चते ्आगा�मसिञ्चतप्रारब्धभ �त्रवधा सिन् I Karmāṇi katividhāni santīti cēt āgāmi sa ñcita prārabdha bhēdēna trividhāni santi. The author says that if it is asked i.e if such a question is raised - iti cēt; karmāṇi katividhāni santī - how many types of karmās are there? Here meaning of the word karmā is the adṛṣṭa puṇya pāpa phalaṁ which we have seen earlier. He continues trividhāni santi – there are three types of karmās. And they are āgāmi sañcita prārabdha bhēdēna - āgāmi karmā i.e āgāmi puṇya pāpaṁ; sañcita karmā means sañcita puṇya pāpaṁ and prārabdha karmā means prārabdha puṇya pāpaṁ. �ानोत्पत्त्यनन �ा�नदेहकृतंपुण्यपापरू कमरयदिस् तदागामीत्यभधीयत Jñānōtpattyanantaraṁ jñānidēhakṛtaṁ puṇyapāparūpaṁ karma yadasti tadāgāmītyabhidhīyatē. The author first gives the definition of āgāmi. This definition will vary depending upon whether a person is a jñāni or an ajñāni. In the case of an ajñāni, the āgāmi karmā is the puṇya pāpaṁ acquired from birth in this life. So birth is the starting point. By birth, we mean whenever this person is capable of thinking independently. Since puṇya pāpaṁ get attached on the basis of the motive of action, the actions of the babies done without any motive do not result in any puṇya pāpaṁ. So that point whenever we start our deliberate and motivated action, āgāmi starts.
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But in the case of a jñāni, there is a slight difference. Jñāni’s āgāmi starts from the time he gains the jñānaṁ. For him the time of jñānaṁ is the starting point for āgāmi karmā. So from the time of Jñānaṁ i.e. after gaining knowledge, whatever karmā he does, is called āgāmi karmā and upto the time of jñānaṁ whatever karmās he has done will get added to his sañcita karmā. So in the case of jñāni, the cut off time is gaining the jñānaṁ, in the case of ajñāni, the cut off time is the birth. This is what the author explains: Jñānōtpatti anantaraṁ. Anantaraṁ – after; jñāna utpatti - gaining jñānaṁ i.e puṇya pāparūpaṁ karma – all the good and bad actions; jñāni dēhakṛtaṁ – done by the body of a jñāni. We have to carefully note that the author uses the word dēha i.e the body of a jñāni. He doesn’t say actions done by a jñāni. The author was to imply that the jñāni does not look upon his body as self; yadasti – whatever karma is there; tat āgāmi iti abhidhīyatē - that is called āgāmi karma. This is the definition of a jñāni’s āgāmi karma. What happens to a jñāni’s āgāmi will be explained later. The next question is: सिञ्चतकमर�कम?् (sañcitaṁ karma kiṁ) – What is sañcitaṁ karma? अनन्तकोटजन्मनबीजभतं ू सत्यत्कमर्जा पव ू ार्िजर् �तष्ठ तत्सिञ्चत �ये म I ् Anantakōṭi janmanāṁ bījabhūtaṁ sat yat karmajātaṁ pūrvārjitaṁ tiṣṭhati tat sañcitaṁ jñēyam. The author answers. Yat karmajātaṁ pūrvārjitaṁ tiṣṭhati – whatever puṇya pāpā is accumulated in all the past janmas – both
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immediate past and remote past; bīja bhūtaṁ sat – is the seed; for anantakōṭi janmanāṁ – the countless crores of future janmas; yat tiṣṭhati tat sañcita karma - all that past bundle is called sañcita karma. So as said earlier even a jñāni has past janmas. So, whatever puṇya pāpā he has accumulated in the past janmas, and not only in the past janmas but in this janma also upto the attainment of jñānaṁ, will constitute his sañcita karma. This we cannot say in the case of ajñāni. This cut off is only for a jñāni since at the time of his jñāna prāptiḥ his āgāmi karma will stop. Next the author defines prārabdhaṁ: प्रारब कमर�क�म�त चेत I इदं शर�रमत ु ्पाध इह लोके एव सखद ु ःखा ु �दप्रयत्कम तत्प्रार भोगेन नष्ट भव�त प्रारब्धकमरभोगादेव �य इ�त I Prārabdhaṁ karma kimiti cēt. Idaṁ śarīramutpādhya iha lōkē ēva sukhaduḥkhādi pradaṁ yat karma tat prārabdhaṁ. Bhōgēna naṣṭaṁ bhavati. Prārabdha karmaṇāṁ bhōgādēva kṣaya iti. Prārabdha as we have seen earlier is that part of sañcita karma which has fructified and which has given rise to the body and its experiences. So he says idaṁ śarīramutpādhya – that which produces this body; that puṇya pāpa which decides one’s date of birth, including the placements of planets in the horoscope. There is a general misconception amongst many that all these are
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determined by God. That is not true. The date birth, the type of body, the family in which one is born, all are determined by the type puṇya pāpaṁ of the past; iha lōkē – that too in this world and in the place where we are born; yat sukha duḥkhādi pradaṁ – that which is both pleasurable and painful experiences, without our working for it in this birth. We must remember that whatever work we do for pleasure in this birth will come under āgāmi. Obviously no one will work for pain! But if some pleasure or pain comes to us without our planning; whatever comes unasked prārabdha phalaṁ; yat karma tat prārabdhaṁ – that is called karma. So this is the definition of prārabdha karma. It is the same in the case of jñāni and ajñāni alike. In the case of āgāmi and sañcitaṁ, the definition is different in the case of a jñāni and ajñāni. But in the case of prārabdha it is the same.
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Law of Karma for Jñ ānis Having defined the three types of karmās, the author now wants to explain as to what happens to the three karmās of a jñāni. First he takes up prārabdhaṁ and says bhōgēna naṣṭaṁ bhavati – it is exhausted only by experiencing the karma phalaṁ or fruits – bitter or sweet! Prārabdhaṁ will have to be exhausted both by jñāni and ajñāni alike. The jñāni’s body is also under the influence of prārabdha. He may have long life or a short life, a healthy body or a sick body – it all is determined by the prārabdhaṁ at the time of his birth. So he cannot escape its effect. That is the law of karma. But the advantage of a jñāni is that he does not identify with his body. He has understood he is sthūla, sūkṣma, kāraṇa śarīrāt vyatiriktaḥ – he is different from the śarīra trayaṁ. Just as a dress has got its own life period, he looks upon his body also as an external object which has to go through its karma. Therefore, he doesn’t react to the prārabdha anubhava. The author emphasises again - prārabdha karmaṇāṁ bhōgādēva kṣayaḥ - the prārabdha karmas will get exhausted only by experiencing the consequences. With regard to sañcitaṁ karma, he says” सिञ्चतकमरब्रह्मैवाह �नश्चयात्मका न नश्य I Sañcitaṁ karma brahmaivāhamiti niścayātmaka jñānēna naśyati I He says niścayātmaka jñānēna – by gaining the knowledge with total conviction; brahmaiva aham iti – that I am Brahman; sañcitaṁ karma naśyati - all the sañcita karmas are destroyed. One great benefit of this knowledge is that it is so powerful that it is capable
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of destroying all the unfructified karmas known as sañcitaṁ karma. Just as the radiation has the power to destroy the cancerous cells, this ātma Jñānaṁ has the power to destroy all the sañcita karma. Thus for a Jñāni, the prārabdhaṁ is exhausted and sañcitaṁ is destroyed. What about āgāmi? The author says: आगा�म कमरअ�प �ानने नश्य �कञ् आगा�म-कमर्णा न�लनीदलगतजलवत् �ा�ननांसम्बन् नािस् I Āgāmi karma api jñānēna naśyati kiñca āgāmi-karmaṇāṁ nalinīdalagatajalavat jñānināṁ sambandhō nāsti I Āgāmi karma api jñānēna naśyati – this knowledge destroys āgāmi karmas also. Here we have to understand the import of the word naśyati. There is no actual destruction of āgāmi karma because for a Jñāni, āgāmi karma does not arise at all. According to the law of karma, the motivation for any action arises as a result of the ego or ahankāraḥ. It means dēha abhimānaṁ – identification with the body. It is this motivation which leads to karmas. It is the ego which is the cause of puṇya and pāpaṁ. A jñāni does not have an ego when performing karma. He has no ahankāraḥ. The world may praise him; he doesn’t bother about it. The world may criticize him; he doesn’t bother; because he does not have dēha abhimānaṁ. So he says, āgāmi-karmaṇāṁ jñānināṁ sambandhō nāsti – the āgāmi karmas have no relationship with a jñāni; a jñāni does not have
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any identification with the karmas done after attaining jñānaṁ; the author provides a beautiful and apt comparison. He says this position is like nalinīdalagata jalavat; nalinīdalaṁ means lotus leaf; jalaṁ means water. If we observe a drop of water on the lotus leaf, we will find that even though the drop sits on the leaf, it does not get attached to the leaf and the leaf does get wet by the water. Similarly, while we see the actions coming from a jñāni, those actions; nāsti do not have any sambandhaḥ or relationship with him because he does not identify with the body. And now the author goes on to make a very interesting observation. �कञ् ये�ा�ननांस्तुविन भजिन् अचर्यिन तान्प् �ा�नक ृतंआगा�म पुण्यगच्छ I ये�ा�ननां�नन्दिन द्वषिन दःखप ु ्रदा क ुवर्िन तान्प् �ा�नक ृतं सवर्मागा �क्रयमा यदवाच्यकम र पापात्मक तद्गच्छ I सहुृद पुण्यकृत् दहुृर् पापक ृत्यगह्णिनृ ह्णिन I Kiñca yē jñāninā ṁ stuvanti bhajanti arcayanti tānprāpti jñānikṛtaṁ āgāmi puṇyaṁ gacchati. Yē jñāninā ṁ nindanti dviṣanti duḥkhapradānaṁ kurvanti tānprāpti jñānikṛtaṁ sarvamāgāmi kriyamāṇaṁ yadavācyaṁ karma pāpātmakaṁ tadgacchati. suhṛdaḥ puṇyakṛtyaṁ durhṛdaḥ pāpakṛtyaṁ gṛhṇanti. The author says the Jñāni does not have an ego. In whatever way we treat them, they are not going to reciprocate positively or
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negatively. One has to be, therefore, very careful while relating to a jñāni. If a person ill treats a jñāni, the jñāni is not going to retaliate or take revenge or curse because he doesn’t have an abhimāna or feeling of insult. But the author warns that if one mistreats a jñāni, all the pāpa karmās of the jñāni, which he has done knowingly or unknowingly, will get transferred to that person. Of course, we should not take this as a literal transfer. What the author wants to point out is that is if we ill treat a jñāni, it will be pāpa karma for us. On the other hand, if we are going to revere and respect a jñāni, he is not going to feel elated and give us some reward because he is also indifferent to our reverence and respect. But Bhagavān will reward us by transferring some of his puṇyaṁ s to us. So the idea behind this warning is that the worship of a jñāni is puṇya karma and the insult of a jñāni is pāpa karma. He says yē jñāninā ṁ stuvanti bhajanti arcayanti – those who worship, sing his glories and does puja of jñānis; tānprati – to them; jñāni kṛtaṁ āgāmi puṇyaṁ gacchati– the punyam earned by the jñāni will accrue or get ‘transferred’. We have already discussed earlier that there is no question of accruing of āgāmi puṇyaṁ or āgāmi pāpaṁ for a jñāni. So the correct interpretation of this sentence is that one will get puṇyaṁ if he reveres a jñāni. On the other hand yē jñāninā ṁ nindanti – he who criticizes the jñānis; dviṣanti – hates them; duḥkha pradānaṁ kurvanti – injures or hurts them; tānprati - to them; jñānikṛtaṁ sarvam āgāmi kriyamāṇaṁ yadavācyaṁ karma pāpātmakaṁ tadgacchati - all the āgāmi pāpaṁ will accrue or get “transferred”. Here also we have to
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remember that a jñāni does not have āgāmi pāpaṁ. The idea is that we will get pāpaṁ if we insult or hurt a jñāni. So, these two sentences should not be taken literally. These types of sentences should not be taken literally but only their implied meaning should be understood. They are called अथर वाद वाक् (artha vāda vākya). The above idea or thought is re-emphasized in the end to highlight its importance. Suhṛdaḥ puṇyakṛtyaṁ durhṛdaḥ pāpakṛtyaṁ gṛhṇanti - those who worship and revere a jñāni, who can be called suhṛdaḥ, will acquire puṇyaṁ and those who hurt or ill treat a jñāni, who can be called durhṛdaḥ will acquire pāpaṁ.
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Important aspects of Law of Karma In the last chapter, we were in the midst of a discussion on the topic of benefits of self-knowledge and in that context we are now discussing the law of karma. Before we proceed to the concluding sentences in the Tattva Bōdhaḥ text, we need to discuss a few important aspects of this law. This law of karma is unique to the Vēdik teaching. It is very significant with a lot of practical corollaries. If we understand the law of karma and all the corollaries, then this understanding will give us a lot of mental relaxation. The first corollary that we derive is that, every experience that we undergo in our life is either because of our prārabdha karma or the āgāmi karma. That is our own actions done in the previous births or those actions done in the immediate past in the current birth. These prārabdhaṁ and āgāmi alone give us every pleasurable and painful experience. We can, therefore, never blame any third factor for our experiences. We cannot blame other human beings. We cannot blame the world and we cannot even blame the poor God. Because the rule is यः कतार भवत सः एव कमर् फल भोक ता भ (yaḥ kartā bhavati saḥ ēva karma phala bhōktā bhavati) – whoever is the kartā, the doer, that person alone becomes the present bhōktā - reaper of the results. And therefore if at all one has to blame someone, if at all the bhōktās have to blame someone, then he can blame only one person and that is the past kartā. This past kartā is
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none other than one’s own self who is the present bhōktā. So the past ‘me’ is responsible for the present ‘me’. We ourselves are responsible for our present. Thus the first corollary of this law of karma is that we stop blaming others in the world for all our experiences. The second important corollary of the law of karma is that, if the past ‘I’ is responsible for the present ‘I’, by the same token i.e by extending this logic, we can say, the present ‘I’ is responsible for the future ‘I’. The past cannot be corrected. There is no use grieving over spilt milk. It was our foolishness in the past and no purpose will be served by talking about it. But we can concentrate on the present and by doing so; we can very much influence, control, direct and manage our future. So the law of karma says most emphatically, “take responsibility for your future. Don’t take to a fatalistic philosophy, saying that everything is in the hands of some unknown destiny; some unknown fate. Don’t take refuge in some fatalism and wash off your own responsibility. You and you alone are responsible for your future”. Therefore, the law of karma is the only remedy for fatalism. Many people think law of karma is fatalism. On the contrary, the law of karma is the only remedy for the wrong philosophy of fatalism. Fatalism is a wrong philosophy because it makes us to wash away our responsibility. Lord Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna in the 6th Chapter of the Gītā: उद्धरेदात्मन ात्(uddharēdātmanātmānaṁ) – “Arjuna do not expect
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me to uplift you. I will never do that. I will encourage you but you and you alone will have to uplift you”. In a children’s race, the parents can cheer their children like the cheer leaders, enthuse them etc. but the running has to be done by the children only. Similarly Bhagavān can only cheer us, motivate us, boost our confidence and support our efforts but we have to take charge of our life and that too right from this moment onwards. This is the second important corollary. The third corollary is also important. At any given time, a person is experiencing either prārabdha phalaṁ or āgāmī phalaṁ. We can call them the actions of the ‘remote kartā ’and ‘current kartā ’. Both are the same person only. The remote kartā has produced prārabdhaṁ and the current kartā has produced āgāmī. Now when these experiences come, our human tendency always is to co-relate or connect the kartā and the experiences. When we try to thus co-relate, the āgāmī phalaṁ and its equation to the current kartā, they will match. We will say that he is a good person and therefore he has good experiences. So and so is a bad person and so he has bad experiences. Thus experiences and the person can be co-related when it is a case of āgāmī phalaṁ. But we also come across numerous instances where a person whom we consider as good undergoes miserable experiences and the person whom we consider bad has very pleasurable experiences. We get confused and take the easy way out of blaming God for all these injustices. For example, in Mahābhārata itself, we see the Pandavās who follow dharma suffering all along
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and even spending 13 long years of their life in the forests and we see Duryōdhana who is adharma incarnate enjoying all pleasures as a King. What we fail to realize that we are trying to erroneously work out an equation between the prārabdha phalaṁ experiences and the current kartā. We need to bear in mind that prārabdha is not associated with the current kartā but prārabdha is the result of the action of the remote kartā – pūrva janma kartā – whom we don’t see at all. Therefore, when we co-relate the prārabdha anubhava and the current kartā –they will not match. That is why when we see very good people suffering, we are disturbed because we think that good people should enjoy and bad people should suffer. This is the equation that our intellect can easily assimilate. But when we see a noble person suffering in life and a corrupt person having all prosperity, we are disturbed and get angry with the world. We are unable to accept such a situation. We get angry with the world and we get angry with God accusing him of being grossly unjust. Seldom do we realize that the problem is neither with the world nor with the God nor with justice. The problem lies with our wrong equation. We are trying to equate the prārabdha phalaṁ and the current kartā, which will never work. Therefore, the third corollary is “never make the wrong equation between karma phalam and kartā”. The fourth corollary is an interesting one. We have seen that our experiences are in the form of both āgāmī and prārabdha. The prārabdha karma, the prārabdha puṇya pāpaṁ is not generally
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known to us. That is why it is called adṛṣṭaṁ – that which cannot be seen. We have learnt this earlier. So fortunately or unfortunately, we don’t know what our prārabdha is, until it fructifies. When we get a sukha experience, we infer that we had a good prārabdhaṁ. And if it is a painful experience, we infer that we had a bad prārabdhaṁ. However, before fructification, normally we have no way of knowing what prārabdha is waiting for us tomorrow. And since this is unknown, we are unable deal with the prārabdha also. We struggle to deal with even the known issues; what to talk of unknown issues! But the shāstrās say that there are different methods by which we can have access to our prārabdha and know it. However, it is preferable not to know it because even without that it is too much of an effort for us to handle the known world. One can imagine what would happen if we start handling the unknown also! So shāstrās point out that we should better thank Bhagavān for covering our vision from prārabdha! Yet as per the shāstrās, one method to know the prārabdhaṁ is one’s horoscope or jātakaṁ. The horoscope of a person which indicates the planetary position is supposed to be an indicator or clue to one’s prārabdha. The various positions of the planets and constellations at the time of one’s birth as stated in the horoscope are supposed to indicate one’s prārabdha based on which one can know if the experiences will be pleasurable or painful.
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We need to understand this point very carefully. The planets do not cause pleasure and pain. The planets can never influence our life or give us pleasure and pain. The planets are not the cause of suffering. The planetary position is only the indicator of the prārabdha and it is the prārabdha alone which is the cause of suffering. This is similar to the clock indicating the time of Sunrise and Sunset. Is the clock the indicator of Sunrise and Sunset or is the clock the cause of Sunrise and Sunset? There is a vast difference between an indicator and a cause. In Sanskrit they are called ल�कं (lakṣakaṁ) and �ापकं (jñāpakaṁ) or कारकं (kārakaṁ) and �ापकं (jñāpakaṁ). Kārakaṁ means cause and jñāpakaṁ means indicator. So a clock does not cause Sunrise. If the clock were to cause the sunrise, what will happen? If the clock stops, there will be no Sunrise!!! So like the clock is only an indicator, the planetary positions are also the indicators of one’s prārabdha, both puṇyaṁ and pāpaṁ. Now suppose we are able to know the prārabdha based on the horoscope or any other method, the shāstrās say there is a method of handling that! We know that our future experiences are not only dependent on our prārabdha, but also they are dependent on our āgāmī which we are continuously generating. So if we create such āgāmī, which is capable of countering or neutralising the prārabdha that karma is called prāyaścitta karma or parīhāra karma – that is the production of an appropriate āgāmī to counter
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or handle the effects of the arriving prārabdha. This is similar to carrying an umbrella while going out in the hot Sun. We cannot change the heat of the Sun and we cannot avoid going out also. So we take a āgāmī umbrella to counter the effect of the Sun’s heat. So the prārabdha which is the Sun’s heat can be remedied, at least partially, with the āgāmī which is the umbrella. So taking the umbrella is the prāyaścitta karma. The next question will be “can prāyaścitta karma cure or remedy all the prārabdha karmas? Do we have prāyaścittaṁs or prāyaścitta āgāmī for all types of prārabdhas”? Everyone will be eager to know the answer because then we can get total protection from the effects of prārabdha karmas! The answer to this question lies in another question? And that is “Do we have medicines for all diseases or do medicines cure dieseases. What will be the answer”? If we are intelligent, we will never answer. We will say that it will depend on the type of disease. We will not have a blanket ‘yes’ or ‘no’ as an answer. For certain diseases, the medicines are sufficiently advanced and they can completely cure such diseases. Once upon a time, cholera was fatal, typhoid was fatal and tuberculosis was fatal. Now we can cure all such bacteria borne diseases. We have got anti-biotics which is a great blessing. So, in certain diseases, medicines can cure the disease. In certain other diseases, medicines do not cure, but they give us the capacity to manage the diseases, thus saving us from death.
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Suppose a person suffers from diabetes. The doctor advises him to take care of his diet, cut off sugar, go for regular walks and take the medicine prescribed by him. This medicine may not cure the diabetes but the person is not likely to succumb to the disease, at least in the near future. Thus medicines help us to manage in certain cases though they cannot cure. Then there are certain other diseases which the medicines cannot cure at all. The doctor will pronounce them as a terminal case. There are hospitals and institutions where terminal patients are managed. These patients are also given medicines but these are not meant for curing. They are only meant for alleviating the suffering or pain. Thus, medicines can cure some diseases, medicines can help us manage some diseases and in the case of some diseases even though the medicines cannot cure them, they can alleviate the pain or suffering. The shāstrā says that the prāyaścitta karmas also act as either a cure, or as a management or as alleviation. In a weaker prārabdha, it can cure. In an intermediary prārabdha, it will help us to manage. In a powerful prārabdha, it will alleviate the pain or suffering. This is also a corollary of the law of karma. Also, sometimes the prāyaścitta is general and we call it prayer. When it is specific we call it parīhāra. So parīhāra and prayer are one and the same. Prayer or prārthanā is sāmānyaṁ or general whereas prāyaścitta or parīhāra is specific and well directed. So therefore, the fourth corollary of the law of karma is the availability of prāyaścitta.
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Then the fifth and the final corollary of the law of karma is that in any particular janma or birth, we never exhaust all the karmas. We may exhaust the prārabdha or we may remedy or neutralize some prārabdha. At best all the prārabdha and a part of āgāmī also may be exhausted but certainly another part of āgāmī and the full baggage of sañcita can never be exhausted in one janma. The law of karma, therefore, says that punar janma or re-birth is a compulsory necessity. Thus the fifth and final corollary of the law of karmā is punar janma or re-birth. This is accepted by some other religions and some others reject it. But in the Vēdik teaching, the cycle of births and re-births is the natural corollary of the law of karma. Even in the case of an animal, it will exhaust all the prārabdha by going through pleasure and pain. A dog, if it has got a lot of puṇyaṁ, will become the dog of a cinema actress, all the time having cosy life. It will have an airconditioned room; imported biscuits. Many people in that city may not have food but the dog will have imported biscuits. In short, it will have all luxuries including a Mercedes Benz car ride while ordinary people struck by their prārabdha will be going in the miserable local transport bus! And from the window of the bus they will see the dog’s face looking out of the window of the car with its tongue out as though it was mocking at them! Many people may sometimes wonder that the janma of that dog was better than their own janma! So this is the manifestation of puṇyaṁ.
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We can also see cases of some other dogs which we call street dogs being attacked by all the urchins etc. It has to scavenge for food and sleep in filthy surroundings. All this because of the manifestation of pāpaṁ! Thus even a dog exhausts all its prārabdhaṁ, through varieties of experiences. But fortunately, a dog does not have āgāmī karma because the dog does not have an ego to do a deliberate and planned action. And that is why, if the dog violates the traffic signal, no police man impose a fine because it doesn’t have a will or kartṛtvaṁ or bhōktṛtvaṁ. So a dog avoids āgāmī like a jñāni. The dog is like a jñāni. It exhausts prārabdhaṁ. It avoids āgāmī. But we should not be tempted to believe that all this means that the dog is liberated! The problem is that a dog cannot gain jñānaṁ. Otherwise it will be a student a Vēdānta attending some class or reading this text on Tattva bōdhaḥ! And because it cannot gain jñānaṁ, it cannot burn the sañcita karmās, which only a jñāni can do. So for a dog also, sañcita karmās will be there which cannot be destroyed. So animals will have to be reborn. Therefore, punarapi jananaṁ punarapi maraṇaṁ cycle is the fifth corollary. This is how the process works. At the time of death, the prārabdha is exhausted. In fact it is on exhaustion of the prārabdha that death occurs. At the time of death, a part of āgāmī is also experienced and exhausted. But the remaining part of āgāmī is still unexperienced. This unexperienced part of āgāmī will join the sañcita karma.
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When prārabdha is exhausted sthūla śarīraṁ or the physical body falls off. But only the sthūla śarīraṁ goes away. The sūkṣma śarīraṁ and kāraṇa śarīraṁ continue even after death. The Reflected Consciousness, i.e RC also continues after death. Only the sthūla śarīraṁ and its reflection go away. That is RM 1 goes away but RM2, RM3, RC2 and RC3, they all continue. And of course the OC, the orginal consciousness eternally exists. The jīva consisting of the original consciousness, sūkṣma and kāraṇa śarīra media and their respective reflected consciousnesses, survives. But we cannot see sūkṣma and kāraṇa śarīraṁs and the reflections in them. Thus this invisible jīva nucleus continues and travels to acquire another physical body depending upon the next fructifying prārabdha. Of this jīva nucleus, which part travels and which part does not travel? The sūkṣma śarīraṁ and kāraṇa śarīraṁ travel as they are finite. The reflected consciousness also travels because it is also finite. Just as when the mirror moves, the reflection of the Sun also moves along with the mirror. When the reflected medium (RM) moves, the reflected consciousness (RC) also moves with it. So RC travels RM travels. However the original consciousness (OC) cannot travel because it is infinite and all pervading. What is infinite will have no space to move. So when we say the jīvātmā travels, we refer all parts other than OC, i.e. the RMs and RCs travel. This jīvātmā acquires another body, exhausts the prārabdhaṁs of that body, collects some more āgāmī and on its
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death, again travels and this punarapi jananaṁ punarapi maraṇaṁ cycle goes on. Let us now look at this process for a jñāni. The author has already said the jñāni like an ajñāni has to exhaust his prārabdha. So this sukha duḥkh anubhava, the physical experiences of pleasure and pain cannot be avoided by jñānis. That is why even the great jñānis fall sick. They too have got diseases. They also undergo physical pain. But the difference is that because of the jñānaṁ of the nature of the self and the ānandā gained by that knowledge, the sorrow or the pain at the body level is overshadowed. Even ajñānis experience this occasionally. For example, let us consider the case of a person who has a severe body pain and is lying down on the bed. Suddenly he is visited by a dear old friend. That person’s happiness will know no bounds. He will at least for sometime forget all pain, overcome the painful experience and get up from the bed to greet the friend. This is called अ�भभा वः (abhihāvaḥ). So, for a jñāni, the prārabdha duḥkhaṁ is overshadowed by vidyānandā. We can cite another example to understand this. Suppose in a cricket match between India and Pakistan (that is the most emotionally charged event), an Indian batsman gets out after scoring 98 runs. Every team member and he himself will feel very sad. But suppose in the end the Indian team wins the match. Everyone, including the batsman will not feel the pain of having got out without scoring the century because the victory of the team
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will overshadow his pain. The victory against Pakistan will be a greater ānandā than even mōkṣaḥ! Similarly, for a jñāni, this vidyānandā overshadows prārabdha duḥkhaṁ. It will be made insignificant. Like a candle light or the stars in front of the bright sun. During the day time, it is not that the stars are not existent, but their light is overpowered by the light of Sun and therefore, we do not feel their presence. Similarly for a Jñāni, the prārabdhaṁ stars will be there, but the vidyānandā of Sunlight will overshadow the pain and therefore the will get reduced to something like pin pricks. He will exhaust his prārabdha without even bothering about it. Others around him may sympathise and feel the pain on seeing him suffer but he wont’ bother. Thus his prārabdha is exhausted. The lives of jñānis like Swāmi RāmaKṛṣṇa Paramahamsā, Bhagawān Ramana Maharishi etc. are proof for this truth. Now as regards his sañcita karma is concerned, we have learnt that the sañcitaṁ karma jñānēna naśyati. The ātma jñānaṁ is so powerful. It is like a person waking up from the dream. The knowledge of the waker that “I am the waker” is so powerful that all the pāpaṁs committed in the dream will get destroyed immediately. So it is like waking up from the dream. Then what happens to āgāmī? We seen that āgāmī does not arrive at all. It is avoided because a jñāni does not have ego or abhimāna. For all practical purposes he is like an animal, without any negative connotation. Just as an animal’s action does not produce
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puṇyaṁ or pāpaṁ because they don’t have the ego, a jñāni does not acquire puṇyaṁ or pāpaṁ because he does not have an ego.
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Pramāṇāḥ - scriptural proofs Now the author concludes his teaching with these words. तथा चात्मवत् संसा तीत्वा ब्रह्मानन ्द प्राप्न I तरत शोकमात्मव तइ त श्रुत I Tathā cātmavit saṁsāraṁ tīrtvā brahmānandamihaiva prāpnōti. Tarati śōkamātmavit iti śrutēḥ. Tathā ca – And therefore; ātmavit– a wise person; saṁsāraṁ tīrtvā - crosses over saṁsāra consisting of all the three karmas, sañcita, āgāmī and prārabdha which means that when a jñāni dies, all the three śarīrams dissolve and gets merged into the all pervading Īśvaraḥ; brahmānandam iha eva prāpnōti. – he enjoys brahmānandā even while living, in this life itself; and then the author says this has been stated in the original scriptures – iti śrutēḥ – śrutēḥ means the Upaniṣadik statements. This statement is made in the Chandogyo Upaniṣad - tarati śōkam ātmavit – ātmavit means the knower of ātma, a Jñāni; tarati – swims or crosses over; śōkam – sorrow. This means that even though prārabdha karmas do bring favourable and unfavourable situations for a jñāni, he wades through them, he swims through them. So this is Upaniṣadik support for jīvan muktiḥ. Now author quotes another scriptural statement for vidēha muktiḥ which is a shlōka or a verse from a smṛti. तनं ुत्यजत वा काश्याश्वपचस गृहेऽथ वा I
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ानसपं ्राि समयेमक ु्तोऽस �वगताशयः I इ त स्मृतेश I Tanuṁ tyajatu vā kāśyāṁ śvapacasya gṛhē'tha vā. Jñāna samprāpti samayē muktō'sau vigatāśayaḥ. Iti smṛtēśca. Kāśyāṁ tanuṁ tyajatu – a jñāni may die in a Kāśā - that means he may drop his body in a very sacred place like Kāshī; śvapacasya gṛhē'tha vā – or he may die in the house of a dog eater – śvapaca means a dog eater i.e. in the house of an uncultured person; therefore, let him die in a very sacred place or let him die in a very ordinary place – the place of death doesn’t matter for him, the time of death doesn’t matter for him, the mode of death doesn’t matter for him – nothing matters for him because by the power of his knowledge, he will attain Īśvaraḥ . Jñāna samprāpti samayē asau muktaḥ – this jñāni is already liberated at the time of gaining the knowledge itself; that means even while he was alive he has been liberated and vigata āśayaḥ – is liberated from all the karmās. Āśayaḥ means the karmās which reside in the sūkṣma śarīram. We know that all the karmās are supposed to reside in the sūkṣma śarīram. So for him all the karmās are gone and also the sūkṣma śarīram has gone. And therefore, he is free from the cycle of birth and death. Iti smṛtē ca – so it is said in the smṛti. This is vidēha muktiḥ. We have already seen in the introductory chapters that smṛtis are secondary literature based on the Vēdās. Thus Śruti and Smṛti point out that jñānaṁ gives both jīvan muktiḥ and vidēha muktiḥ.
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That is the power of jñānaṁ and so it is worthwhile to seek this knowledge with full commitment. The author concludes with: इ त तत्त्वबोधप्रसमाप्तम I्तम Iti tattvabōdha prakaraṇaṁ samāptaṁ. He says that with this concludes the prakaraṇa grantha known as Tattva bōdhaḥ. Thus with this, the fifth and final topic jñāna phalaṁ , the Tattva bōdhaḥ teaching is complete. पण ू र्मदः पूणर्मदं पूणार त् पूणर्मुदच पण ू र्स य पूणर्मादाय पूणर्मेवावशष pūrṇamadaḥ pūrṇamidaṁ pūrṇāt pūrṇamudacyatē. pūrṇasya pūrṇamādāya pūrṇamēvāvaśiṣyatē..
NOTE: Swami Paramarthananda has not verified the transcription of talks. The transcriptions have been done with Swamiji’s blessings by his disciples.
तत्त बोधः Tattva bōdhaḥ Transcription of Pravacanaṁs (talks) of Swami Paramarthananda Saraswati Transcribed by Raghu Ganapathy
ii Pravacanaṁs (talks) Swami Paramarthananda
Tattva Bōdhaḥ iii Contents Key to transliteration and pronunciation of Sanskrit letters .......................................................vii Preface.................................................................................................................................................................. ix A Note on Hindu Religious Systems.......................................................................................................xiii Why learn Tattva Bōdhaḥ ? - Self knowledge and its benefits.......................................................
Page 1
Scheme of the Śāstrās ...................................................................................................................................
Page 19
Invocation - Prayer ........................................................................................................................................
Page 25
Sādhana Catuṣṭaya Sampattiḥ- The Four-fold qualifications..............................................
Page 35
Introduction to the four-fold qualifications.........................................................................................
Page 36
Qualification 1: Vivēkaḥ - Discrimination.....................................................................................
Page 48
Qualification 2: Virāgaḥ - Dispassion.............................................................................................
Page 52
Qualification 3: Śamādi Ṣaṭka sampattiḥ - The six disciplines..............................................
Page 54
Discipline 1: Śamaḥ- Mind Control ................................................................................................
Page 55
Discipline 2: Damaḥ- Sense Control ..............................................................................................
Page 58
Discipline 3: Uparamaḥ - Withdrawal or quietude.................................................................
Page 60
Discipline 4: Titikṣā – Endurance or forbearance ...................................................................
Page 65
Discipline 5: Śraddhā – Faith or trust...........................................................................................
Page 70
Discipline 6: Samādhānaṁ – Concentration or focusing power........................................
Page 73
Qualification 4: Mumukṣutvaṁ - Intense desire ........................................................................
Page 75
Vyaṣṭi vicāraḥ - Analysis of individual - Microcosm................................................................
Page 83
Tattvavivēkaḥ - Inquiry into Truth....................................................................................................
Page 84
Ātmā and anātmā - Real and unreal...........................................................................................
Page 85
Sthūlaśarīraṁ - The Gross body - its elements and functions.................................................
Page 95
Sūkṣmaśarīraṁ and saptadaśa kalābhiḥ - The subtle body and its instruments........
Page 104
iv Pravacanaṁs (talks) Swami Paramarthananda Pañca jñānēndriyāṇi – Five organs of knowledge..........................................................
Page 112
Pañca karmēndriyāṇi –Five organs of action...................................................................
Page 117
Pañca prāṇaḥ - Five physiological systems.......................................................................
Page 122
Antaḥkaraṇaṁ - Four inner equipments ...........................................................................
Page 124
Kāraṇaśarīraṁ - Causal body.............................................................................................................
Page 128
Avasthātrayaṁ - The three states of existence...........................................................................
Page 140
Jāgradavasthā – The waking state ........................................................................................
Page 140
Svapnāvasthā – The dream state...........................................................................................
Page 144
Suṣuptyavasthā – The deep sleep state ..............................................................................
Page 148
Pañca kōśāḥ - The five sheaths or covers .....................................................................................
Page 152
Annamayaḥ - The food sheath................................................................................................
Page 154
Prāṇamayaḥ - The vital air sheath........................................................................................
Page 157
Manōmayaḥ - The mental sheath..........................................................................................
Page 158
Vijñānamayaḥ - The intellectual sheath .............................................................................
Page 159
Ānandamayaḥ- The bliss sheath............................................................................................
Page 161
Ātmā – Atma..............................................................................................................................................
Page 165
Cit – Consciousness.....................................................................................................................
Page 170
Sat - Existence ...............................................................................................................................
Page 177
Ānandaḥ - Limitless happiness or bliss ..............................................................................
Page 178
Samaṣṭi or Sṛṣṭiḥ Vicāraḥ – Analysis of the Cosmos- Macrocosm ..................................
Page 181
Caturviṁśati tattvōtpatti prakāraṁ -The process of evolution of 24 elements and elementals..................................................................................................................................................
Page 182
a.Brahman māyā triguṇāḥ - Brahman, Maya and the three cosmic qualities or aspects ....................................................................................................................................................
Page 183
b. Pañca bhūtaḥ sṛṣṭiḥ - Evolution of five fundamental elements .................................
Page 190
c. Sāttvik guṇaḥ- Evolution of the Sattvik aspect..................................................................
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d. Rājasik guṇaḥ- Evolution of Rajasik aspect........................................................................
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e. Tāmasik guṇaḥ- Evolution of Tamasik aspect...................................................................
Page 204
f. Pañcīkṛta pañcatattvaṁ - Evolution of five ................................
Page 205
Tattva Bōdhaḥ v Fig. 1 Caturviṁśati Tattvōtpatti Prakāraṁ (with Sanskrit terms)....................................
Page 209
Fig. 2 Caturviṁśati Tattvōtpatti Prakāraṁ (with English terms)......................................
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Fig. 3 Pañcīkṛta pañcatattvaṁ - Evolution of the five Grossified elements ...................
Page 211
Aikya vicāraḥ- Oneness of microcosm and macrocosm......................................................
Page 213
Jīvaḥ Īśvara – The individual and the total...................................................................................
Page 215
Fig.4 Jīva-Ishwara Aikyaṁ..................................................................................................................
Page 222
Mahā Vākyaṁ - The Great equation................................................................................................
Page 229
Aikya Jñāna phalaṁ- Benefits of the knowledge of oneness ...........................................
Page 245
Jīvanmuktāḥ - Liberated individual.................................................................................................
Page 246
Law of Karma............................................................................................................................................
Page 262
Law of Karma for Jñānis.......................................................................................................................
Page 272
Important aspects of Law of Karma………………………………………………………………………………
Page 277
Pramāṇāḥ - scriptural proofs.............................................................................................................
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vii Key to transliteration and pronunciation of Sanskrit letters Sanskrit is a highly phonetic language and therefore accuracy in the pronunciation of the letters is very important. A change in the pronunciation could change the meaning of the word itself. For those who are not familiar with the Dēvanāgarī script, the International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration is a guide to the correct pronunciation of the Sanskrit letters. अ a fun आ ā father इ i it ई ī feet उ u full ऊ ū poo ऋ ṛ rhythm l ॠ ṝ mari ऌ ḷ reve ne lr ए e play y ऐ ai ai ओ o go sle औ au cow अं aṁ ** अः aḥ *** क ka Seek
P 1
ख kha blockh ग ga get
P 1
ead*
P 1
घ gha log-h ङ ṅa sing
P 1
ut *
P 1
च ca ch छ cha mat unk
P 2
ch ज ja jump
P 2
*
P 2
झ jha hedge त tra hog *
P 2
th ठ ṭha ree 2ट ṭa ड ḍa duck *
P 3
ant-hill *
P 3
ढ ḍha godhead *
P 3
ण ṇa thunder *
P 3
त ta (close to) th थ tha (close to) pa ink *
P 4
th द da (close to) etic *
P 4
th ध dha (close to) brea at*
P 4
the न na numb *
P 4
*
P 4
प pa purse
P 5
फ pha sapph ब ba but
P 5
ire *
P 5
भ bha abh म ma mother
P 5
or
P 5
य ya loya र ra red l ल la luck व va virtue श śa sure ष ṣa sh स sa sir un ह ha hum � kṣa worksh � jña * eet ळ (close to) world * ऽ ' unpronounced अ(a) ऽऽ '' unpronounced आ(ā) * No English equivalent ** Nasalisation of preceding vowel *** Aspiration of preceding vowel.
P 1
. Guttural – Pronounced from throat
P 2
. Palatal - Pronounced from palate
P 3
. Lingual - Pronounced from cerebrum
P 4
. Dental - Pronounced from teeth
P 5
. Labial - - Pronounced from lips. The 5th letter of each of the above class – called nasals – is also pronounced nasally.
Preface ix Preface
A few words about this text. This text is based on the series of 22 talks –the word pravacanaṁ would probably be more appropriate - on the subject of Tattva Bōdhaḥ rendered by Svami Paramārthānandā Sarasvatī (Svami Ji), a disciple of Svami Dayānanda Sarasvatī of Arṣa Vidhyā Gurukulam headquatered at Coimbatore in India.
While listening and understanding Svami Ji’s Pravacanaṁs, I took extensive notes, almost verbatim. I feel that it was the Guru’s blessings and God’s will that the thought to use my notes to produce this text book occurred to me. I feel that this text could help a lot of earnest students like me to get introduced to this subject of Advaita (non-dual) philosophy of Sanātana Dharma which is popularly known as Hinduism.
This text is in no way meant to be a substitute for Svami Ji ’s pravacanaṁs. I would strongly urge any serious seeker to first listen to the pravacanaṁs of Svami Ji in a systematic and regular manner as one would do in a class room in a school or a college. This text should help such students to revise their learning after listening to Svami Ji’s pravacanaṁs. In these pravacanaṁs Svami Ji provides, in addition to the subject matter under discussion i.e Tattva Bōdhaḥ, a significant insight into the the various aspects of our Dharma śāstrā, the dos and don’ts for leading a spiritual life and answers to many questions that we may have concerning the religion, spirituality etc. which may only be indirectly related to the topic under discussion. Listening to his pravacanaṁs is thus, a highly enriching and totally fulfilling experience.
While, I have tried to faithfully reproduce Svami Ji ’s words in this text for the most part, I have taken the liberty to suitably edit the narrative to conform to the print and reading medium. For example, Svami Ji, like all effective teachers, uses repetition as a tool to drive home a point or make it easy for listeners to follow the line of thought. In this text, I have tried to avoid such repetitions, as much as possible.
Secondly, Svami Ji, like all traditional and proficient teachers, starts every class with a brief summary of what was taught in the previous class. I have excluded these summaries and the points therein wherever I found them repetitive.
Tattva Bōdhaḥ is written in Sanskrit language. So it will be a great advantange to one who has a good knowledge of this language, the script, the grammar, the interpretation rules etc., to study and understand the original text. In the absence of such knowledge one can of course fall back upon the available commentaries in English or a couple of other languages. However, in my view a basic knowledge of Sanskrit and the Dēvanāgarī script will make this journey of learning much more enjoyable. Svami Ji, in his pravacanaṁs, takes great pains to explain each and every word in the original Tattva Bōdhaḥ text. So I have reproduced the words in the text in Dēvanāgarī script. I admit that I have only a very preliminary knowledge of the Sankrit language (middle school level) and hence I cannot rule out errors in the reproduction of the words in Dēvanāgarī script. I humbly request the readers to give me feedback on such errors (gana.gana@gmail.com), so that they can be rectified. I have adopted the scheme of International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) for Romanization of the Dēvanāgarī script. Of course the meaning of each word is elaborated by Svami Ji himself. The transliteration and pronounciation guide is given at the beginning of this text. Svami Ji often emphasises in his pravacanaṁs on other vēdāntik texts - especially the Bhagavad Gītā – that, it is not sufficient to merely acquire self-knowledge at the intellectual level. All this knowledge should be fully assimilated, actualized and converted into inner strength. Only then can we hope to escape from this whirlpool of saṁsārā and attain true liberation. I am reminded of an anecdote relating to Svāmi Cinmayanandā which Svami Ji recounts in one of his pravacanaṁs. A person once proudly boasted to Svāmi Cinmayanandā, that he had gone through many Upaniṣads and also the Bhagavad Gītā. Svāmi Cinmayanandā with his characteristic wit responded - “I am glad that you have gone through many Upaniṣads and also the Bhagavad Gītā. I know that it is not an easy task. But tell me, how many Upaniṣads have gone through you?”
I, therefore, appeal to all those who want to pursue this study not to treat this merely as learning at the intellectual level but put the knowledge to practice on a day to day basis. This will most certainly change your attitude and your approach to life. I am only echoing the guarantee given by the scriptures.
I am indebted to scores of people who have helped me, directly and indirectly, in compiling this text. However, I would like to make a special mention of the contributions of my daughter Shruti and my son Shreyas and my good friend M. Janardan for the successful completion of this project.
I offer my humble pranams and prostrations at the lotus feet of Svami Paramārthānandā Ji and seek his blessings for the successful completion of this maiden endeavor of mine. Harih Oṃ Tat Sat Raghu Ganapathy
A Note on Hindu Religious Systems xiii A Note on Hindu Religious Systems Sanātana Dharma popularly known as Hindusim is one of the oldest religions of the World. Sanātana means unending, perpetual, ever lasting, primeval etc. The word Dharma has several meanings. In this context, one could take the meaning as that customary observance or prescribed conduct which relates to justice, virtue or morality. More than a religion it is a way of life to be practiced by one and all. That is what Sanātana Dharma is all about. The original scriptures of Hindus are called Vēdās. They were so vast – the mass of writings – that the largest library in the World today would be found to be insufficient to store all the texts in a printed form. Sadly, most of this literature has been lost forever. A large portion of the Vēdās has disappeared and what we have today is, perhaps, only a miniscule of the original volume. The Vēdās which form part of the Mīmāṁsā School which deals with religious and spiritual thoughts, are divided into two parts - the Karma Kāṇḍaḥ which relates to action or work part. This consists of rituals and ceremonies, some of which are very elaborate, to be performed by the people and various hymns addressed to various Gods. The other part i.e.the Jñāna Kāṇḍaḥ consists of the Upaniṣads imparting the knowledge of the nondual limitless reality.
xiv This chart provides a brief overview of the traditional Hindu religious systems. As can be seen from the Chart, the Vēdāntik School, a part of the Āstikā stream, has six branches. Of this, three branches viz. Advaita (Non-dualsim), Viśiṣṭādvaita (Qualified dualism) and Dvaita Traditional Hindu Religious Systems Orthodox (Āstikā) (Vedic) Unorthodox (Nāstikā) (Non-Vedic) Sā̃ khya Nyāya Yōga Vaiśēṣika Mīmāṁsā Pūrva Mīmāṁsā Vēdik rituals and hymns Uttara Mīmāṁsā Vēdāntik knowledge Advaita Viśiṣṭādvaita Dvaitaa Dvaitadvaita (Bhēdābēda) Śuddavaita Acintya bhēdābhēda Cārvāka Buddhism Jainism
A Note on Hindu Religious Systems xv (Dualism) are very popular having been extensively commented upon by medieval philosophers and modern teachers of the philosophy. Tattva Bōdhaḥ is an introductory text which expounds the philosophy of the Advaita branch i.e the non-dualistic philosophy contained in the Upaniṣads. The contents of this text are broadly divided into 5 Sections. The first section is called Sādhana catuṣṭayaṁ. This section deals with the four fold qualifications required for a spiritual seeker to undertake the Vēdāntik study. The second section is Vyaṣṭi vicāraḥ - the analysis of the individual. Vyaṣṭi means the individual – the microcosm; Vicāraḥ means analysis. The third section is Samaṣṭi vicāraḥ - the analysis of the total. Samaṣṭi means the total, the universal, the cosmos, or the macrocosm. The fourth section is called Aikya vicāraḥ – the analysis of the essential oneness of the individual i.e Vyaṣṭi and Samaṣṭi the total; Aikyaṁ means essential oneness. And the fifth and final section is Jñāna phalaṁ the benefit that will accrue to any one who gains this knowledge i.e. the Aikya jñāna phalaṁ. Within each section, the topics which have been discussed are arranged in the form of Chapters.
xvi Now over to Svami Ji’s pravacanaṁs.
TATTVA BODHAH By Swami Paramarthananda Transcribed by Sri R. Ganapathy Published by : Arsha Avinash Foundation 104 Third Street, Tatabad, Coimbatore 641012 Phone: 9487373635 E mail: arshaavinash@gmail.com www.arshaavinash.inTop
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