Chapter X - The Evil and its Cure

^[1]

The seed of human organism.

From earth co-operated by rain, etc., all plants, such as rice, composed of the five guṇas or component parts, come into being in orderly succession. To say that the earth is co-operated by rain, etc., is to say that the earth becomes quintupled; i.e., it combines with the other four elements and thus forms a compound of all the five elements. And all food, all that is edible, is derived from plants. From the food, when digested, comes chyle (rasa); chyle generates blood, blood generates flesh, and flesh gives birth to fat (medas); from fat bones are produced, and bones give rise to marrow (majjā); from marrow comes the semen, which, combined with the mother’s blood (asṛj), constitutes the seed (bīja).

 

The seed developing into man.

With his intellect enveloped by the mighty snares of avidyā or ignorance of his real Self, with his heart carried away by the fish-hook of insatiable kāma(desire) that is born of non-discrimination (moha), man, the father of the one yet to be born, is assailed by darkness (tamas), struck down by the arrows of sense-objects that are poisoned with attachment and discharged from the bow of desire with all the force of purposeful thoughts. Then he is powerless as if possessed with a demon; and urged on by the karma of the person that is to be born, he falls amain into the woman-fire, as the moth rushes into a blazing fire, covetous of its flame. When the man has embraced the woman, the semen described above is extracted from every part of the body; and through the semen-carrying tube (nāḍī), it is soon let into the womb, in the manner determined by their karma and knowledge.^[2] The semen thus poured into the womb and acted on by the controlling force of the two causes— namely, the former karma and knowledge—passes successively through the embryonic states of ‘kalala’ and ‘budbuda’ in a few days. Then it passes on into the state of the foetus (peśī) and then becomes a compact mass (ghana). This compact mass gradually assumes the form of a body endued with various limbs, and from these limbs grow the hairs. With whatever elements of matter (bhūtas) and with whatever senses (karaṇas) the soul was associated in the former birth, the same elements and the same sense-organs go to make up the organism in which the soul is to be born here in the present life;^[3] and this we maintain on the strength of the śruti which declares as follows:

“As a goldsmith, taking a piece of gold, turns it into another newer and more beautiful shape, so does this self, after having thrown off this body and dispelled all ignorance make unto himself another newer and more beautiful shape.”^[4]

 

The action of five fires in the birth of man.

The śruti elsewhere says:

“Into the five fires of heaven, rain-cloud, earth, man and woman, the Devas pour the oblations of faith, soma (moon), rain, food, and semen; and when the fifth oblation has been made, the soul is born as man.”^[5]

Here the śruti mentions the stages through which the constituents of human organism have passed. The Devas, i.e., the prānas or life-forces of the man^[6], pour his faith (śraddhā) into the fire of heaven. The matter of heaven, thus acted on by the faith of the individual and by the life-forces, becomes the luminous matter of heaven, the soma-rājan. The same life-forces of man then pour that matter of heaven (soma) into the fire of rain-cloud; and thence it comes as rain. Then the Devas pour this rain into the third fire called earth, and there comes the food. This food enters into man and is converted into semen, and this semen, when cast into the woman’s womb, becomes man.

 

Limitation of the Self as man by avidyā.

The Virāj, the Universal Self manifested in His vesture of the gross physical matter of the universe, has been evolved from the Sūtra, the same Universal Self manifested in the subtle matter of the universe; and though infinite and coextensive with the whole universe, He yet becomes a limited being through ignorance (sammoha), and thinks “this much I am”—with reference to the physical body of man, in virtue of kāma and karma. In the same fashion the sūtra, manifested both as the Universal Being and as limited beings in the subtle matter of the universe, becomes limited as the liṅga-śarīra or subtle body 'of man which is made up of the seventeen constituents.^[7] The source of this twofold limitation is in the Avyakta, the Unmanifested Cause; and this Avyakta, as limited in the human organism, is identical with man’s Ego in the suṣupti state. The Supreme Self who is beyond the cause and the effects above referred to, and who is infinite in Himself, becomes by avidyā what is called the Kṣetrajña, the knower of the body, the self-conscious Ego, as manifested in man, who is a mere semblance of the Supreme Conscious Self. Hence the words of our Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa: “Do thou know Me as the Kṣetrajña.”^[8]

 

Avidyā and its proof.

It is avidyā,—the consciousness ‘I do not know,’ bringing about the limitation of the Supreme Self as the self of man,—which is the sole cause of the threefold limitation above referred to. Our consciousness is the sole evidence of its existence, just as the consciousness of the owl is the sole evidence of the night’s darkness that it sees during our daytime. That is to say: nothing but Consciousness exists as an objective reality; and for the existence of avidyā in It, there is no proof other than our own experience (svānu-bhava). He who seeks to prove avidyā by proper tests of truth is, indeed, like one who tries to see the darkness of a mountain-cave by means of a lamp. What the human consciousness knows as the non-self is all evolved from avidyā, and is looked upon as avidyā itself, as false knowledge. Vidyā or real knowledge is identical with the Self; it is Consciousness itself. Avidyā is the non-perception of the Self, the veil of the Self. It is not a mere negative of vidyā, since the mere absence of vidyā cannot act as the veil of the Self. The negative prefix ‘a’ in ‘avidyā’ implies only that the thing denoted by the word is something opposed to or other than vidyā, —as in ‘a-mitra (non-friend)’ and ‘a-dharma (demerit)’; —not that it is the mere absence of vidyā. And, when properly examined, all differentiation perceived by the deluded minds in the nonself,—in the external universe,—as being and non-being, resolves itself into this non-perception, i.e., is finally traceable to the idea ‘I do not know’; and it is therefore proper to hold that it is all a manifestation of avidyā.

 

The growth of the subtle body

With his discrimination obscured by this avidyā, the human Ego (jīva) abandons his former body, and with the upādhi of the liṅga-śarīra enters the womb of the mother, wafted thither by the strong winds of karma.

The solid, watery, and fiery substances eaten by the mother are each resolved into three parts; and each of these three parts undergoes a definite transformation. Thus the subtlest portion of the solid food builds up manas, buddhi, and indriyas (senses); the subtlest part of the watery food builds up prāṇa or life-breath in all its various manifestations; the subtlest part of the fiery food builds up speech and other organs of action. Their less subtle parts are transformed respectively into flesh, blood, and marrow; and the grossest parts are transformed into dung, urine, and bone.

 

Evolution of manas, etc., from Consciousness.

The several senses are evolved from the Ahaṃkāra (Egoism) under the impulse of former impressions (bhāvanās) which are now brought up by karma; and the nature and efficiency of the senses so evolved depend therefore upon the former karma and knowledge of the individual concerned. To illustrate: The organ of hearing is evolved from the consciousness “I am the hearer;” and this principle should be extended to the evolution of the other indriyas or senses: from Egoism conjoined with the consciousness “I am the toucher” the sense of touch is evolved; and from the Egoism conjoined with the consciousness “I am the seer,” the sense of sight is evolved. Thus it is from the Ahaṃkāra acted on by Consciousness that the senses are evolved, not from the Ahaṃkāra pure and simple as some Sāṇkhyas hold.

 

The Self is unborn.

Ātman is said to be born when the body is born just as when the pot is produced the ākāśa of the pot is said to be produced. Ātman being thus really not subject to birth, He is not subject to other changes, inasmuch as all these changes presuppose the change called birth.

 

Review of the past lives just before birth.

As this visible physical body of the man lying in the womb develops, his liṅga-śarīra also develops itself more and more. In the ninth or tenth month after conception, when all his senses (karaṇas) have been developed, and prior to his birth into the world, all the vāsanās or latent impressions gathered up in the past innumerable births present themselves one after another to the view of the embodied soul who, in his liṅga-śarīra, has already entered into the womb under the impulse of his past dharma and adharma and is lying there awake in all his senses. Man, thus awakened as to his past experience stored up in him as vāsanās or latent impressions, becomes alive to the misery of existence in the womb and the like.

“Ah, what a great misery has befallen me!” Thus feeling dejected, he then grieves about himself in the following wise:

“Ere entering this womb, I often suffered intolerable excruciating pain; I often fell into the burning sands of the hell that burn the wicked souls; but these drops of the pitta fluid heated by the digestive fire of the stomach cause more excruciating pain to me who am held down in the womb; and the worms in the stomach, with their mouths as sharp as the thorns of the kūṭaśālmalī plant,^[9] torture me, who am already tormented by the saw-like bones on each side. The misery of the kumbhīpāka hell looks very small by the side of the torture in the womb which is full of all mal-odors and is burning with the digestive fire of the stomach. Lying in the womb, I suffer all the misery of the hells where the wicked souls have to drink of pus, blood and rheum, and to eat of things vomitted; and I suffer all the misery of the worms that live in the dung. The greatest misery of all hells put together cannot exceed the pain now suffered by me lying in the womb.”^[10]

 

The misery of birth and infancy

Then squeezed by the net-work of bones, overwhelmed by the fire of the stomach, with all the limbs smeared with blood and liquid discharges, and enveloped in a membrane, tormented by excruciating pain, crying aloud, with the face downwards, he emerges out of the womb as if delivered from a snare and drops down lying on the back. Then the baby knows nothing, and remains like a mass of flesh and foetus. He has to be guarded from the grip of dogs, cats and other carnivores, by others with sticks in hand. He cannot distinguish the demon from the father and Ḍākinī^[11] from the mother; he cannot distinguish pus from milk. Fie upon this miserable state of infancy!

 

The misery of youth.

Then, on attaining youth, he grows haughty and is assailed with the fever of sexual passion. All on a sudden he sings aloud, and as suddenly he leaps or jumps and ascends a tree. He frightens the mild; and, blinded by the intoxicating love and anger, he pays no heed to anything whatsoever.

 

The misery of old age.

Then attaining to the age of decrepitude which is the  object of all insult, he becomes miserable. With the chest choked up by phlegm, he cannot digest the food; with fallen teeth, with weak sight, having to eat of sharp and bitter and astringent things, with the loins, neck and hands, thighs and legs, bent down by the morbid humours of wind, he becomes quite helpless, assailed by myriads of diseases, insulted by his own kinsmen, precluded from all ablutions, smeared with dirt all over the body, lying on the floor, embracing the earth as it were. Having swallowed all the intelligence, memory, courage, bravery, and the strength of the youth, this damsel of a Jarā^[12] feels as if she has achieved all and dances with joy to the drum of asthmatic cough, to the kettle-drum of the roaring stomach, to the flute of the sonorous breath, with the garment-hem of white mustachios, with the petty-coat of the wrinkled and grey-haired skin, having a third leg as it were in the staff, again and again reeling and tumbling; brilliant in the gold-jewels of projecting knots of flesh, veiled in the thin skin, with the tinklings of moving anklets caused by the rubbing of the heel and knee-bones.

 

The misery of death and the after career.

To the death-pangs that succeed, there is no parallel. Creatures suffering from the direst maladies of the body are afraid of death. In the very embraces of kinsmen, the mortal creature is dragged away by death, as the serpent lying hidden in the depths of the ocean is dragged away by the kite. “Ah! my dear! my wealth! O my son!” While thus bitterly weeping, man is swallowed by death as a frog by a serpent. It is meet that the seeker of mokṣa should remember the pangs of the dying man whose vitals are cut to pieces, and whose joints are unloosed. “When thy consciousness fails thee and with it thy perceptive faculty, when tied by the band of death, how canst thou find a saviour? Encountering darkness everywhere, as when entering a deep pit, thou wilt see with distressed eyes, thy kinsmen beating their breasts. Thou wilt then find thyself dragged by kinsmen all around with their iron-bands of affection.” Tormented by hiccough, withering away by hard breathing, dragged by bands of death, man finds no refuge.

Mounted on the wheel of saṃsāra, and led on by the couriers of death, and bound fast by the death-band, man grieves, ‘where am I to go?’ As man goes alone after death, his karma alone leading him on,—is he a wise man who in this world of māyā thinks that the mother, father, elders, sons and kinsmen are all his and will come to his help? This world of mortals is verily like a resting-tree. One evening birds meet together on a tree for the night’s rest, and the next morning they leave the tree and part from one another and go their way; just so do men meet for a time as relatives and strangers in this world and then disperse. Birth leads to death, and death to birth; thus without rest man wanders for ever like ghaṭī-yantra (a machine for raising water).

 

The study of kośas and its purpose.

Having described the evolution—from Brahman—of the universe including man, the śruti proceeds to shew how to bring about the destruction of the great evil of saṃsāra. It is with this end in view that the five kośas of man will be described; and by resolving each kośa into that which precedes it in evolution, each effect into its immediate cause till the Ultimate Cause is reached, man will be led on to a knowledge of Brahman who is neither the cause nor the effect, and of the unity of his Self and Brahman.

 

Saṃsāra is due to avidyā.

The dwelling in the womb and all other vicissitudes of existence described above as making up the evil of saṃsāra pertain to the liṅga-deha, or subtle body. Though the real Self of man has nothing to do with those vicissitudes, still, by delusion (sam-moha), by confounding together the two bodies and the real Self, he thinks that he himself is subject to the changes. Identifying himself with buddhi (understanding, intellect), man regards himself as the cogniser, and engages in the act of congnising. Identifying himself with manas, he regards himself as the thinker, and as a result of this confusion he performs mental acts. Identifying himself with prāṇa (up-breathing) and other forms of vitality he feels concerned in all outgoing activities. And identifying himself with sight and other senses, he is engrossed in thinking of color and so on. Similarly, when the physical body is burnt, he thinks himself burnt; the deluded man regards himself black and thus puts on the blackness of the body. By avidyā man becomes attached to cattle, wealth and the like and thinks himself the owner of them; and by attachment he ascribes to himself the affections of the physical body and the liṅga-śarīra, and thinks that he is a student, a householder, an ascetic, a sage, and so on. The body is in fact a product of the various elements of matter, quite foreign to the real Self of man, and man subjects himself to evil by mere delusion, by regarding the human organism as ‘I’ and ‘mine’.

 

Brahmavidyā is intended for man.

Though all beings alike—the lower kingdoms as well as man,—are products of food and are evolved from Brahman primarily, still, the human being is here made the subject of investigation, simply because it is man who is qualified for karma and jñāna, who is capable of acting and knowing aright. Man is plunged deep down in this ocean of saṃsāra, in this repository of all evil; and it is man whom the śruti seeks, by means of Brahmavidyā, to unite to Brahman, to his own Innermost Self.

 

The process of imparting Brahmavidya.

The śruti tries to impart this Brahmavidyā or knowledge of Brahman by an exposition of the five kośas. By affording to man an insight into the nature of the kośas (the sheaths of the Self), it will be shewn that Brahman beyond the kośas is one with man’s real Self within. It is indeed by first pointing to the end of the tree’s branch that one points out the moon beyond. The human mind which is fully tainted with the vāsanās—with the tendencies and impressions of past mundane experiences—that have accumulated in this beginningless saṃsāra can realise the real Self within only by some peculiarly appropriate process, and it is this appropriate process which the śruti describes in the sequel.

 

The one Self differentiated into the Ego and the non-Ego.

The Pratyagātman, the real Self within, is one in Himself, untouched with any duality; neither does there exist anything whatever even outside the Self. The one Self is, owing to avidyā, differentiated into the two false categories of the Ego and the non-Ego. That is to say, when the one true Self is not realised in His true nature as one, that very Self appears differentiated as the Ego and the non-Ego; so that all the differentiation we are conscious of is due to avidyā and therefore false; and the Self remains all the while one in fact, untouched by duality.

 

The kośas, subjective and objective.

There are five kośas or sheaths in which the Self manifests Himself as the Ego,—namely, the Annamaya or the one composed of food, the Prāṇamaya or the one composed of vitality, the Manomaya or the one composed of thought, the Vijñānamaya or the one composed of intelligence, and the Ānandamaya or the one composed of bliss; and corresponding to these there are five kośas or sheaths in which the same Self manifests Himself as the objective, as the non-Ego,—namely, Anna or food, Prāṇa or vitality, Manas or thought, Vijñāna or intelligence, and Ānanda or bliss.

So that, ultimately, there are five principles,—

1. Anna,
2. Prāṇa,
3. Manas,
4. Vijñāna
5. and Ānanda.

Anna is the Virāj (the radiant), that which is manifested to our senses, the physical. This has grown or evolved out of Prāṇa or vitality.

Prāṇa, Manas, and Vijñāna constitute what is called the sūtrātman. This Sūtrātman is made up primarily of two kinds of matter: one of them is the vehicle of all outgoing activity (kriyā-śakti) and is called Prāṇa or life-principle; the other kind of matter is the vehicle of all intellection or knowledge (vijñāna-śakti) and is of two kinds, Manas and Vijñāna.

Manas is the antaḥ-karaṇa, that kind of matter in which all concrete (savikalpaka) thought expresses itself. It is in the mānasic form of matter that all concrete thoughts, such as those embodied in the Rig-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, and the Sāma-Veda, express themselves. And Manas is behind Prāṇa: that is to say, it is from Manas that Prāṇa has been evolved.

Vijñāna or intelligence, too, is the antaḥ-karaṇa, the matter in which all abstract (nirvikalpaka) thought expresses itself. All determinate ascertained knowledge, such as that concerning the truths taught in the Veda, constitute the Buddhi, the understanding. These three kośas of Prāṇa, Manas, and Vijñāna constitute the sūtrātman.

Ānanda is the bliss which results from knowledge and action, and is the ultimate cause of all.

Thus,

• Anna or physical matter constitutes the Virāj-kośa;
• Prāṇa, Manas, and Vijñāna constitute the Sūtrātman;
• and Ānanda constitutes the Kāraṇakośa (the Cause sheath).

The same five kośas (sheaths or principles) are mentioned in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka^[13] under the names of Anna, Prāṇa, Manas, Vāch (sheech, corresponding to Vijñāna here) and Avyākṛīta (the undifferentiated Root of matter). Prāṇa Manas and Vāch, spoken of as the three foods of Prajāpati, constitute the sūtrātman; Anna is the Virāj; and the Avyākṛta is the Kāraṇa, the ultimate Cause of all.

 

The relation between the subjective and the objective kośas.

The five sheaths of the non-Ego or objective group constitute respectively the material essences of which the five sheaths of the Ego or subjective group are built up. On realising the nature of the ten kośas of the Ego and the non-Ego groups, the student should first resolve in thought the five sheaths of the Ego group into their respective material essences in the objective group; i. e., he should understand that the Annamaya-kośa is made up of the matter on the plane of physical matter, that the Prāṇamaya-kośa is made up of matter on the plane of Prāṇa or vital essence, and so on. He should then realise that, as the effect is not distinct from the cause, the Annamaya is not distinct from Anna, its material cause. So, too, with regard to the other kośas. The student should now take the next step: he should see that as Anna has been evolved from Prāṇa, the one is not distinct from the other, its material cause, and is therefore one with it. In the same way he should see that Prāṇa is not distinct from Manas, that Manas is not distinct from Vijñāna, and that Vijñāna is not distinct from Ānanda, the first Cause.

 

The Self beyond.

When the student has by this process risen above the level of effects and attained to the level of the Cause, he is taught the grand truth that the Self and Brahman are identical. In the light of this teaching he ceases to identify himself with the Cause and rises to the level of Brahman beyond the Cause, and thus realises the unity of Brahman and the Self.

 

Contemplation of the sheaths as altars of sacred fire.

As Ānanda is the innermost essence of the remaining four principles of the non-Ego group, so, the Ānandamaya-kośa is the pratyagātman or the innermost essence of the remaining four sheaths of the Ego group, inasmuch as these sheaths are all manifestations of the one jīva who is consciousness pure and simple (prajñāna-ghana). The contemplation, however, enjoined in the sequel, of the Ānandamaya-kośa which is consciousness pure and simple —as made up of a head, two Wings, a trunk and a tail—may be explained as referring to the variety in the manifested forms of bliss resulting from the acts of the individual. Each sheath is represented as made up of a head and so on for the purposes of contemplation. Accordingly, the teachers of old have explained that these are but imaginary representations of the kośas in the form of altars of the sacred fire. The Annamaya-kośa, for instance, should be contemplated as the altar of the sacred fire arranged in the form of a bird:^[14] the head of the human physical body corresponding to the head of the bird, the arms to the wings, the middle portion to the trunk, and the remaining part to the tail of the bird.

 

The purpose of the contemplation of kośas.

By a constant contemplation of these kośas represented as altars of the sacred fire, the student attains wisdom. His buddhi or understanding becomes purer and acquires the faculty of true discrimination. With the growth of the faculty of true discrimination, he abandons the first kośa and recedes to the one next behind. Thus step by step he abandons one kośa after another, and receding behind all kośas and dissolving away all of them, he attains to a knowledge of his unity with Brahman and becomes liberated. The śruti further declares that he who contemplates Anna or the Virāj obtains all food. This must be the additional fruit of the contemplation accruing to the devotee; for, so the Veda teaches, and no teaching of the Veda can ever be doubted. Doubt may arise only as to the matters known through sensuous perception or through inference therefrom, the vision in this case being distorted by the idiosyncrasies of the human mind. The Vedic revelation, on the other hand, is not subject to any such distortion.

Or, the purpose of the teaching of these upāsanas may be explained in another way:—Man naturally identifies himself with the kośas. The śruti, taking hold of this natural bent of the human mind, enables man to resolve, by Dhyāna or meditation, each kośa into what is behind it, till he reaches the Self behind all kośas, and then enjoins him to hold on to that Self alone. The fruits of the contemplation mentioned in connection with the several kośas should not be supposed to accrue as declared here. The unity of Brahman and the Self is the main point of teaching, and that alone therefore is the truth which the śruti seeks to impress in this connection. A parallel case is found in the Chhāndogya-Upaniṣad. There^[15] the śruti teaches the contemplation of name, etc.,—to which man resorts of his own accord, without the śruti enjoining it,—only with a view to enjoin the contemplation of the Infinite (Bhūman), declaring it as the highest of the upāsanas therein taught.

Or, it may be that in speaking of the contemplation of food, etc., and the fruits thereof, the Taittirīya merely reiterates the teaching of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka concerning the contemplations of the Virāj and the sūtrātman,—which are there enjoined as the means of attaining fruits ranging below mokṣa,—while the main object of the Taittirīya is to impart a knowledge of the Absolute Reality as the means of attaining the highest good.

 

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

The whole of this Chapter is a translationof the Vārtika and of portions of Ānandagirīs gloss thereon.

[2]:

i. e. by the karma and knowledge of the parent and the offspring, or of the two parents of the forthcoming child.—(A)

[3]:

That is to say, the same five elements of matter that entered into the composition of the former body form the material cause of the present body, and the same senses that functioned in the former body become manifested in the present one.—(A)

[4]:

Bri. Up. 4–4–4.

[5]:

This is an abstract of the Chhā. Up. 5–4, et seq.

[6]:

The yajamāna, who in his former birth was engaged in the sacrificial ritual.

[7]:

These are manas, buddhi, five Jñānendriyas or organs of knowledge, five Karmendriyas or organs of action, and five prāṇas or vital airs.

[8]:

Bh. Gītā XIII 2.

[9]:

with which the wicked are tortured in the world of Yāma.

[10]:

The saṃsāra in its hideous aspect as experienced in the Womb is here described with a view to create a disgust for saṃsāra and to spur on the disciple to a strong endeavour to get out of it and to avoid future return to the womb.—(A)

[11]:

A kind of female imp.

[12]:

Old age personified

[13]:

1–2.

[14]:

In sacrificial rites, the altars of the sacred fire are usually arranged in the form of a bird, such as a hawk.

[15]:

Op. cit. 7.