The Philosophy of the Panchadasi: 3.2 - Swami Krishnananda.

 

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Tuesday 05, Aug 2025, 06:20.
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Upanishads
The Philosophy of the Panchadasi: 3.2.
Chapter 3: Discrimination of the Five Sheaths 2.
1.The Sheaths and Their Constitution
Swami Krishnananda.

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The Atman reflected in the Sattvika Buddhi is called Chidabhasa. The Buddhi, by itself, is unconscious because of being an effect of Prakriti, but it assumes intelligence when the Atman is reflected in it. This itself is the Jiva. The Ahamkara or the principle of ego is associated with it, so that the ego and the intellect go together.

When they are in an inactive state, there is a passive introversion of their modes which goes by the name of sleep. The Vrittis of the mind, being accustomed to contact with external objects and unfamiliar with any supernormal experience, find nothing positive when there is a forced introversion brought about either by fatigue or by frustration, but there is some sort of a joyous experience when the Anandamaya-kosa or the causal body is in operation on account of its being the medium of the fructification of the meritorious actions which one has performed in previous lives. All happiness that the Jiva has in this world is nothing but a logical consequence of the good things it has done in its past lives. When there is a cessation of conscious experience, there is sleep. 

This causal body, too, is not the Atman, because it has a beginning and an end, for it is the cumulative effect of the actions of the past and shall cease to be when there dawns spiritual knowledge and realisation. The causal condition cannot be identified with eternal and infinite Being, as the cause is connected with an effect which is obviously other than itself. It cannot have the character of universality. The Atman is that which is the very presupposition of all thinking and experience and so no Jiva has an experience of it for the reason that in the universal Atman there is no distinction between the knower and the known. It is experience itself, and not any objective experience. It cannot be known by another process of knowing different from itself. It appears to be non-existent from the point of view of the Jivas, because the latter have no means of perception of what is universal, they being used to sensory and mental perception alone.

They are three types of the unknowable: (1) That which is absolutely non-existent and therefore cannot be known, such as the horns of a hare; (2) that which does not have any contact with the operative Vrittis of the mind for the time being, such as distant objects and unthinkable regions such as heaven; (3) Universal Being in which there is no possibility of the operation of the Vrittis. 

The latter function only where there is the idea of space, time and cause; not in Brahman, the Absolute, which is prior to all these. The Atman is the Light of all lights. It precedes even the light of thinking and understanding. It is Svayamjyoti, or Self-luminous. Everything shines after it, and everything borrows light from that absolute light. It being the Knower, it cannot be known. This is a clue to the understanding of the nature of ignorance in which the Jivas are shrouded, and also a hint for the Jivas to find their way to rising above their predicament of Jivahood and Samsara.

Anandamayakosa is a name given to the latent condition of the Vrittis of the Antahkarana, wherein not only the manifested but also all the unmanifested potencies of future possible experiences are hidden. They are the subtlest impressions of all past thoughts and deeds, ready to germinate when proper conditions are provided. The providing of such conditions is called birth. (Mantras 1-10)

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The Atman
Continued

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