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Mano-maya, Vijñana Kosha, and Ananda-maya Kosha The next two sheaths are the mano-maya and vijñana kosha. These constitute the antah-karana, which is fourfold – namely, mind in its twofold aspect of buddhi and manas, self-hood (ahankara), and chitta. The function of the first is doubt sangkalpa-vikalpatmaka, (uncertainty, certainty); of the second, determination (nishchaya-karini); of the third (egoity), consciousness (abhimana). Manas automatically registers the facts which the senses perceive. Buddhi, on attending to such registration, discriminates, determines, and cognizes the object registered, which is set over and against the subjective self by Ahangkara. The function of chitta is contemplation (chinta), the faculty whereby the mind in its widest sense raises for itself the subject of its thought and dwells thereon. For whilst buddhi has but three moments in which it is born, exists, and dies, chitta endures. The antah-karana is master of the ten senses, which are the outer doors through which it looks forth upon the external world. The faculties, as opposed to the organs or instruments of sense, reside here. The centres of the powers inherent in the last two sheaths are in the Ajna Chakra and the region above this and below the sahasrara lotus. In the latter the Atma of the last sheath of bliss resides. The physical or gross body is called sthula-sharira. The subtle body (sukshma-sharira, also called linga-sharira and karana-shanra) comprises the ten indriya, manas, ahangkara, buddhi, and the five functions of prana. This subtle body contains in itself the cause of rebirth into the gross body when the period of reincarnation arrives. The atma, by its association with the upadhis, has three states of consciousness – namely, the jagrat, or waking state, when through the sense organs are perceived objects of sense through the operation of manas and buddhi. It is explained in the Ishvara-pratya-bhijna as follows – "the waking state dear to all is the source of external action through the activity of the senses." The jiva is called jagari – that is, he who takes upon himself the gross body called Vishva. The second is svapna, the dream state, when, the sense organs being withdrawn, Alma is conscious of mental images generated by the impressions of jagrat experience. Here manas ceases to record fresh sense impressions, and it and buddhi work on that which manas has registered in the waking state. The explanation of this state is also given in the work last cited. "The state of svapna is the objectification of visions perceived in the mind, due to the perception of ideas there latent." Jiva in the state of svapna is termed taijasa. Its individuality is merged in the subtle body. Hiranyagarbha is the collective form of these jiva, as Vaisvanara is such form of the jiva in the waking state. The third state is that of sushupti, or dreamless sleep, when manas itself is withdrawn, and buddhi, dominated by tamas, preserves only the notion: "Happily I slept; I was not conscious of anything" (Patanjala-yoga-sutra). In the Macrocosm the upadhi of these states are also called Virat, Hiranyagarbha, and Avyakta. The description of the state of sleep is given in the Shiva-sutra as that in which there is incapacity of discrimination or illusion. By the saying cited from the Patanjala-sutra three modifications of avidya are indicated – viz., ignorance, egoism, and happiness. Sound sleep is that state in which these three exist. The person in that state is termed prajna, his individuality being merged in the causal body (karana). Since in the sleeping state the prajna becomes Brahman, he is no longer jiva as before; but the jiva is then not the supreme one (Paramatma), because the state is associated with avidya. Hence, because the vehicle in the jiva in the sleeping state is Karana, the vehicle of the jiva in the fourth is declared to be mahakarana. Ishvara is the collective form of the prajna jiva. Beyond sushupti is the turiya, and beyond turiya the transcendent fifth state without name. In the fourth state shuddha-vidya is acquired, and this is the only realistic one for the yogi which he attains through, samadhi-yoga. Jiva in turiya is merged in the great causal body (maha-karana). The fifth state arises from firmness in the fourth. He who is in this state becomes equal to Shiva, or, more strictly, tends to a close equality; for it is only beyond that, that "the spotless one attains the highest equality," which is unity. Hence even in the fourth and fifth states there is an absence of that full perfection which constitutes the Supreme. Bhaskara-raya, in his Commentary on the Lalita, when pointing out that the Tantrik theory adds the fourth and fifth states to the first three adopted by the followers of the Upanishads, says that the latter states are not separately enumerated by them owing to the absence in those two states of the full perfection of Jiva or of Shiva. |
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