Book: Five Years Of Theosophy

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Q. By what is produced this taking of a body?

A. By Karma.**

Q. Why does it become so by Karma?

A. By desire and the rest (i.e., the passions).

Q. By what are desire and the rest produced?

A. By egotism.

Q. By what again is egotism produced?

A. By want of right discrimination.

Q. By what is this want of right discrimination produced?

A. By ignorance.

Q. Is ignorance produced by anything?

A. No, by nothing. Ignorance is without beginning and ineffable by
reason of its being the intermingling of the real (sat) and the unreal
(asat.)*** It is a something embodying the three qualities**** and is
said to be opposed to Wisdom, inasmuch as it produces the concept "I am
ignorant." The Sruti says, "(Ignorance) is the power of the Deity and
is enshrouded by its own qualities." *****

----------
* Chandogya Upanishad.

** This word it is impossible to translate. It means the doing of a
thing for the attainment of an object of worldly desire.

*** This word, as used in Vedantic works, is generally misunderstood. It
does not mean the negation of everything; it means "that which does not
exhibit the truth," the "illusory."

**** Satva (goodness), Rajas (foulness), and Tamas (darkness) are the
three qualities; pleasure, pain and indifference considered as
objective principles.

***** Chandogya Upanishad.
--------

The origin of pain can thus be traced to ignorance and it will not cease
until ignorance is entirely dispelled, which will be only when the
identity of the Self with Brahma (the Universal Spirit) is fully
realized.* Anticipating the contention that the eternal acts (i.e.,
those enjoined by the Vedas) are proper, and would therefore lead to the
destruction of ignorance, it is said that ignorance cannot be dispelled
by Karma (religious exercises).

--------
* This portion has been condensed from the original.
--------

Q. Why is it so?

A. By reason of the absence of logical opposition between ignorance and
act. Therefore it is clear that Ignorance can only be removed by
Wisdom.

Q. How can this Wisdom be acquired?

A. By discussion--by discussing the nature of Spirit and Non-Spirit.

Q. Who are worthy of engaging in such discussion?

A. Those who have acquired the four qualifications.

Q. What are the four qualifications?

A. (1) True discrimination of permanent and impermanent things. (2)
Indifference to the enjoyment of the fruits of one's actions both here
and hereafter. (3) Possession of Sama and the other five qualities.
(4) An intense desire of becoming liberated (from conditional
existence).

(1.) Q. What is the right discrimination of permanent and impermanent
things?

A. Certainty as to the Material Universe being false and illusive, and
Brahman being the only reality.

(2.) Indifference to the enjoyment of the fruits of one's actions in
this world is to have the same amount of disinclination for the
enjoyment of worldly objects of desire (such as garland of flowers,
sandal-wood paste, women and the like) beyond those absolutely necessary
for the preservation of life, as one has for vomited food, &c. The same
amount of disinclination to enjoyment in the society of Rambha, Urvasi,
and other celestial nymphs in the higher spheres of life beginning with
Svarga loka and ending with Brahma loka.*

--------
* These include the whole range of Rupa loka (the world of forms)
in Buddhistic esoteric philosophy.
--------

(3) Q. What are the six qualities beginning with Sama?

A. Sama, dama, uparati, titiksha, samadhana and sraddha.

Sama is the repression of the inward sense called Manas--i.e., not
allowing it to engage in any other thing but Sravana (listening to what
the sages say about the Spirit), Manana (reflecting on it), Nididhyasana
(meditating on the same). Dama is the repression of the external
senses.

Q. What are the external senses?

A. The five organs of perception and the five bodily organs for the
performance of external acts. Restraining these from all other things
but sravana and the rest, is dama.

Uparati is the abstaining on principle from engaging in any of the acts
and ceremonies enjoined by the shastras. Otherwise, it is the state of
the mind which is always engaged in Sravana and the rest, without ever
diverging from them.

Titiksha (literally the desire to leave) is the bearing with
indifference all opposites (such as pleasure and pain, heat and cold,
&c.) Otherwise, it is the showing of forbearance to a person one is
capable of punishing.

Whenever a mind, engaged in Sravana and the rest, wanders to any worldly
object of desire, and, finding it worthless, returns to the performance
of the three exercises--such returning is called samadhana.

Sraddha is an intensely strong faith in the utterances of one's guru and
of the Vedanta philosophy.

(4.) An intense desire for liberation is called mumukshatva.

Those who possess these four qualifications, are worthy of engaging in
discussions as to the nature of Spirit and Not-Spirit, and, like
Brahmacharins, they have no other duty (but such discussion). It is
not, however, at all improper for householders to engage in such
discussions; but, on the contrary, such a course is highly meritorious.
For it is said--Whoever, with due reverence, engages in the discussion
of subjects treated of in Vedanta philosophy and does proper service to
his guru, reaps happy fruits. Discussion as to the nature of Spirit and
Not-Spirit is therefore a duty.

Q. What is Spirit?

A. It is that principle which enters into the composition of man and is
not included in the three bodies, and which is distinct from the five
sheaths (Koshas), being sat (existence),* chit (consciousness),** and
ananda (bliss),*** and witness of the three states.

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* This stands for Purusha.

** This stands for Prakriti, cosmic matter, irrespective of the state we
perceive it to be in.

*** Bliss is Maya or Sakti, it is the creative energy producing changes
of state in Prakriti. Says the Sruti (Taittiriya Upanishad): "Verily
from Bliss are all these bhutas (elements) born, and being born by it
they live, and they return and enter into Bliss."
--------

Q. What are the three bodies?

A. The gross (sthula), the subtile (sukshma), and the causal (karana).

Q. What is the gross body?

A. That which is the effect of the Mahabhutas (primordial subtile
elements) differentiated into the five gross ones (Panchikrita),* is
born of Karma and subject to the six changes beginning with birth.** It
is said:--

What is produced by the (subtile) elements differentiated into the five
gross ones, is acquired by Karma, and is the measure of pleasure and
pain, is called the body (sarira) par excellence.

Q. What is the subtile body?

A. It is the effect of the elements not differentiated into five and
having seventeen characteristic marks (lingas).

Q. What are the seventeen?

A. The five channels of knowledge (Jnanendriyas), the five organs of
action, the five vital airs, beginning with prana, and manas and buddhi.

-------
* The five subtile elements thus produce the gross ones--each of
the five is divided into eight parts, four of those parts and one
part of each of the others enter into combination, and the result
is the gross element corresponding with the subtile element,
whose parts predominate in the composition.

** These six changes are--birth, death, existence in time, growth,
decay, and undergoing change of substance (parinam) as milk is changed
into whey.
--------

Q. What are the Jnandendriyas?

A. [Spiritual] Ear, skin, eye, tongue and nose.

Q. What is the ear?

A. That channel of knowledge which transcends the [physical] ear, is
limited by the auricular orifice, on which the akas depends, and which
is capable of taking cognisance of sound.

Q. The skin?

A. That which transcends the skin, on which the skin depends, and which
extends from head to foot, and has the power of perceiving heat and
cold.

Q. The eye?

A. That which transcends the ocular orb, on which the orb depends,
which is situated to the front of the black iris and has the power of
cognising forms.

Q. The tongue?

A. That which transcends the tongue, and can perceive taste.

Q. The nose?

A. That which transcends the nose, and has the power of smelling.

Q. What are the organs of action?

A. The organ of speech (vach), hands, feet, &c.

Q. What is vach?

A. That which transcends speech, in which speech resides, and which is
located in eight different centres* and has the power of speech.

--------
* The secret commentaries say seven; for it does not separate the lips
into the "upper" and "nether" lips. And, it adds to the seven centres
the seven passages in the head connected with, and affected by, vach--
namely, the mouth, the two eyes, the two nostrils and the two ears.
"The left ear, eye and nostril being the messengers of the right side of
the head; the right ear, eye and nostril, those of the left side." Now
this is purely scientific. The latest discoveries and conclusions of
modern physiology have shown that the power or the faculty of human
speech is located in the third frontal cavity of the left hemisphere of
the brain. On the other hand, it is a well known fact that the nerve
tissues inter-cross each other (decussate) in the brain in such a way
that the motions of our left extremities are governed by the right
hemisphere, while the motions of our right limbs are subject to the left
hemisphere of the brain.
---------

Q. What are the eight centres?

A. Breast, throat, head, upper and nether lips, palate ligature
(fraenum), binding the tongue to the lower jaw and tongue.

Q. What is the organ of the hands?

A. That which transcends the hands, on which the palms depend, and
which has the power of giving and taking.... (The other organs are
similarly described.)

Q. What is the antahkarana? *

A. Manas, buddhi, chitta and ahankara form it. The seat of the manas
is the root of the throat, of buddhi the face, of chitta the umbilicus,
and of ahankara the breast. The functions of these four components of
antahkarana are respectively doubt, certainty, retention and egotism.

Q. How are the five vital airs,** beginning with prana, named?

--------
* A flood of light will be thrown on the text by the note of a learned
occultist, who says:--"Antahkarana is the path of communication between
soul and body, entirely disconnected with the former, existing with,
belonging to, and dying with the body." This path is well traced in the
text.

** These vitals airs and sub-airs are forces which harmonize the
interior man with his surroundings, by adjusting the relations of the
body to external objects. They are the five allotropic modifications of
life.
-------

A. Prana, apana, vyana, udana and samana. Their locations are said to
be:--of prana the breast, of apana the fundamentum, of samana the
umbilicus, of udana the throat, and vyana is spread all over the body.
Functions of these are:--prana goes out, apana descends, udana ascends,
samana reduces the food eaten into an undistinguishable state, and vyana
circulates all over the body. Of these five vital airs there are five
sub-airs--namely, naga, kurma, krikara, devadatta and dhananjaya.
Functions of these are:--eructations produced by naga, kurma opens the
eye, dhananjaya assimilates food, devadatta causes yawning, and krikara
produces appetite--this is said by those versed in Yoga.

The presiding powers (or macrocosmic analogues) of the five channels of
knowledge and the others are dik (akas) and the rest. Dik, vata (air),
arka (sun), pracheta (water), Aswini, bahni (fire), Indra, Upendra,
Mrityu (death), Chandra (moon), Brahma, Rudra, and Kshetrajnesvara,*
which is the great Creator and cause of everything. These are the
presiding powers of ear, and the others in the order in which they
occur.

All these taken together form the linga sarira.** It is also said in
the Shastras:--

The five vital airs, manas, buddhi, and the ten organs form the subtile
body, which arises from the subtile elements, undifferentiated into the
five gross ones, and which is the means of the perception of pleasure
and pain.

Q. What is the Karana sarira?

---------
* The principle of intellect (Buddhi) in the macrocosm. For further
explanation of this term, see Sankara's commentaries on the Brahma
Sutras.

** Linga means that which conveys meaning, characteristic mark.
--------

A. It is ignorance [of different monads] (avidya), which is the cause
of the other two bodies, and which is without beginning [in the present
manvantara],* ineffable, reflection [of Brahma] and productive of the
concept of non-identity between self and Brahma. It is also said:--

"Without a beginning, ineffable avidya is called the upadhi (vehicle)--
karana (cause). Know the Spirit to be truly different from the three
upadhis--i.e., bodies."

Q. What is Not-Spirit?

A. It is the three bodies [described above], which are impermanent,
inanimate (jada), essentially painful and subject to congregation and
segregation.

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* It must not be supposed that avidya is here confounded with prakriti.
What is meant by avidya being without beginning, is that it forms no
link in the Karmic chain leading to succession of births and deaths, it
is evolved by a law embodied in prakriti itself. Avidya is ignorance or
matter as related to distinct monads, whereas the ignorance mentioned
before is cosmic ignorance, or maya-Avidya begins and ends with this
manvantara. Maya is eternal. The Vedanta philosophy of the school of
Sankara regards the universe as consisting of one substance, Brahman
(the one ego, the highest abstraction of subjectivity from our
standpoint), having an infinity of attributes, or modes of manifestation
from which it is only logically separable. These attributes or modes in
their collectivity form Prakriti (the abstract objectivity). It is
evident that Brahman per se does not admit of any description other than
"I am that I am." Whereas Prakriti is composed of an infinite number of
differentiations of itself. In the universe, therefore, the only
principle which is indifferentiable is this "I am that I am" and the
manifold modes of manifestation can only exist in reference to it. The
eternal ignorance consists in this, that as there is but one
substantive, but numberless adjectives, each adjective is capable of
designating the All. Viewed in time the most permanent object or mood
of the great knower at any moment represents the knower, and in a sense
binds it with limitations. In fact, time itself is one of these infinite
moods, and so is space. The only progress in Nature is the realization
of moods unrealized before.
--------

Q. What is impermanent?

A. That which does not exist in one and the same state in the three
divisions of time [namely, present, past and future.]

Q. What is inanimate (jada)?

A. That which cannot distinguish between the objects of its own
cognition and the objects of the cognition of others....

Q. What are the three states (mentioned above as those of which the
Spirit is witness)?

A. Wakefulness (jagrata), dreaming (svapna), and the state of dreamless
slumber (sushupti).

Q. What is the state of wakefulness?

A. That in which objects are known through the avenue of [physical]
senses.

Q. Of dreaming?

A. That in which objects are perceived by reason of desires resulting
from impressions produced during wakefulness.

Q. What is the state of dreamless slumber?

A. That in which there is an utter absence of the perception of
objects.

The indwelling of the notion of "I" in the gross body during wakefulness
is visva (world of objects),* in subtile body during dreaming is taijas
(magnetic fire), and in the causal body during dreamless slumber is
prajna (One Life).

Q. What are the five sheaths?

A. Annamaya, Pranamaya, Manomaya, Vjjnanamaya, and Anandamaya.

Annamaya is related to anna** (food), Pranamaya of prana (life),
Manomaya of manas, Vijnanamaya of vijnana (finite perception),
Anandamaya of ananda (illusive bliss).

-------
* That is to say, by mistaking the gross body for self, the
consciousness of external objects is produced.

** This word also means the earth in Sanskrit.
-------

Q. What is the Annamaya sheath?

A. The gross body.

Q. Why?

A. The food eaten by father and mother is transformed into semen and
blood, the combination of which is transformed into the shape of a body.
It wraps up like a sheath and hence so called. It is the transformation
of food and wraps up the spirit like a sheath--it shows the spirit
which is infinite as finite, which is without the six changes, beginning
with birth as subject to those changes, which is without the three kinds
of pain* as liable to them. It conceals the spirit as the sheath
conceals the sword, the husk the grain, or the womb the fetus.

Q. What is the next sheath?

A. The combination of the five organs of action, and the five vital
airs form the Pranamaya sheath.

By the manifestation of prana, the spirit which is speechless appears as
the speaker, which is never the giver as the giver, which never moves as
in motion, which is devoid of hunger and thirst as hungry and thirsty.

Q. What is the third sheath?

A. It is the five (subtile) organs of sense (jnanendriya) and manas.

--------
* The three kinds of pain are:--

Adhibhautika, i.e., from external objects, e.g., from thieves,
wild animals, &c.

Adhidaivika, i.e., from elements, e.g., thunder, &c.

Adhyatmika, i.e., from within one's self, e.g., head-ache, &c.
See Sankhya Karika, Gaudapada's commentary on the opening Sloka.
-------

By the manifestation of this sheath (vikara) the spirit which is devoid
of doubt appears as doubting, devoid of grief and delusion as grieved
and deluded, devoid of sight as seeing.

Q. What is the Vijnanamaya sheath?

A. [The essence of] the five organs of sense form this sheath in
combination with buddhi.

Q. Why is this sheath called the jiva (personal ego), which by reason
of its thinking itself the actor, enjoyer, &c., goes to the other loka
and comes back to this?*

A. It wraps up and shows the spirit which never acts as the actor,
which never cognises as conscious, which has no concept of certainty as
being certain, which is never evil or inanimate as being both.

Q. What is the Anandamaya sheath?

A. It is the antahkarana, wherein ignorance predominates, and which
produces gratification, enjoyment, &c. It wraps up and shows the
spirit, which is void of desire, enjoyment and fruition, as having them,
which has no conditioned happiness as being possessed thereof.

Q. Why is the spirit said to be different from the three bodies?

A. That which is truth cannot be untruth, knowledge ignorance, bliss
misery, or vice versa.

Q. Why is it called the witness of the three states?

A. Being the master of the three states, it is the knowledge of the
three states, as existing in the present, past and future.**

-------
* That is to say, flits from birth to birth.

** It is the stable basis upon which the three states arise and
disappear.
-------


Q. How is the spirit different from the five sheaths?

A. This is being illustrated by an example:--"This is my cow," "this is
my calf," "this is my son or daughter," "this is my wife," "this is my
anandamaya sheath," and so on*--the spirit can never be connected with
these concepts; it is different from and witness of them all. For it
is said in the Upanishad--[The spirit is] "naught of sound, of touch, of
form, or colour, of taste, or of smell; it is everlasting, having no
beginning or end, superior [in order of subjectivity] to Prakriti
(differentiated matter); whoever correctly understands it as such
attains mukti (liberation)." The spirit has also been called (above)
sat, chit, and ananda.

Q. What is meant by its being sat (presence)?

A. Existing unchanged in the three divisions of time and uninfluenced
by anything else.

Q. What by being chit (consciousness)?

A. Manifesting itself without depending upon anything else, and
containing the germ of everything in itself.

Q. What by being ananda (bliss)?

A. The ne plus ultra of bliss.

Whoever knows without doubt and apprehension of its being otherwise, the
self as being one with Brahma or spirit, which is eternal, non-dual and
unconditioned, attains moksha (liberation from conditioned existence.)

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* The "heresy of individuality," or attavada of the Buddhists.
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Was Writing Known Before Panini?


I am entrusted with the task of putting together some facts which would
support the view that the art of writing was known in India before the
time of our grammarian--the Siva-taught Panini. Professor Max Muller has
maintained the contrary opinion ever since 1856, and has the approbation
of other illustrious Western scholars. Stated briefly, their position
is that the entire absence of any mention of "writing, reading, paper,
or pen" in the Vedas, or during the whole of the Brahmana period, and
the almost, if not quite, as complete silence as to them throughout the
Sutra period, "lead us to suppose that even then [the Sutra period],
though the art of writing began to be known, the whole literature of
India was preserved by oral tradition only." ("Hist. Sans. Lit.," p.
501.) To support this theory, he expands the mnemonic faculty of our
respected ancestors to such a phenomenal degree that, like the bull's
hide of Queen Dido, it is made to embrace the whole ground needed for
the proposed city of refuge, to which discomfited savants may flee when
hard pressed. Considering that Professor Weber--a gentleman who, we
observe, likes to distil the essence of Aryan aeons down into an attar
of no greater volume than the capacity of the Biblical period--admits
that Europe now possesses 10,000 of our Sanscrit texts; and considering
that we have, or have had, many other tens of thousands which the
parsimony of Karma has hitherto withheld from the museums and libraries
of Europe, what a memory must have been theirs!

Under correction, I venture to assume that Panini, who was ranked among
the Rishis, was the greatest known grammarian in India, than whom there
is no higher in history, whether ancient or modern; further, that
contemporary scholars agree that the Sanskrit is the most perfect of
languages. Therefore, when Prof. Muller affirms that "there is not a
single word in Panini's terminology which presupposes the existence of
writing" (op. cit. 507), we become a little shaken in our loyal
deference to Western opinion. For it is very hard to conceive how one
so pre-eminently great as Panini should have been incapable of inventing
characters to preserve his grammatical system--supposing that none had
previously existed--if his genius was equal to the invention of
classical Sanskrit. The mention of the word Grantha, the equivalent for
a written or bound book in the later literature of India--though applied
by Panini (in B. I. 3, 75) to the Veda; (in B. iv. 3, 87) to any work;
(in B. iv. 3, 116) to the work of any individual author; and (in B. iv.
3, 79) to any work that is studied, do not stagger Prof. Muller at all.
Grantha he takes to mean simply a composition, and this may be handed
down to posterity by oral communication. Hence, we must believe that
Panini was illiterate; but yet composed the most elaborate and
scientific system of grammar ever known; recorded its 3,996 rules only
upon the molecular quicksands of his "cerebral cineritious matter," and
handed them over to his disciples by atmospheric vibration, i.e., oral
teaching! Of course, nothing could be clearer; it commends itself to
the simplest intellect as a thing most probable! And in the presence of
such a perfect hypothesis, it seems a pity that its author should (op.
cit. 523) confess that "it is possible" that he "may have overlooked
some words in the Brahmanas and Sutras, which would prove the existence
of written books previous to Panini." That looks like the military
strategy of our old warriors, who delivered their attack boldly, but
nevertheless tried to keep their rear open for retreat if compelled.
The precaution was necessary: written books did exist many centuries
before the age in which this radiant sun of Aryan thought rose to shine
upon his age. They existed, but the Orientalist may search in vain for
the proof amid the exoteric words in our earlier literature. As the
Egyptian hierophants had their private code of hieratic symbols, and
even the founder of Christianity spoke to the vulgar in parables whose
mystical meaning was known only to the chosen few, so the Brahmans had
from the first (and still have) a mystical terminology couched behind
ordinary expressions, arranged in certain sequences and mutual
relations, which none but the initiate would observe. That few living
Brahmans possess this key but proves that, as in other archaic religious
and philosophical systems, the soul of Hinduism has fled (to its primal
imparters--the initiates), and only the decrepit body remains with a
spiritually degenerate posterity.*

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