The concept of food sheath and other sheaths (the abstraction) is meant for understanding the witness. This is your hand. Its bones, fat, muscle - this is the food sheath. If polio strikes it, the hand will not rise up even if you want it to. The hand which does not rise in that state is the food sheath. In that moment, a force which usually enabled the hand to move has left. This force is the vital force sheath of the hand. The power to move is called the vital force sheath. But, even the power to move does not act all by itself. The hand rises only when there is a desire to raise the hand. This desire is called the mental sheath. The doer of the desire to raise the hand is the intellectual sheath. The happiness created by raising the hand (which goal prompted you to raise the hand), that joy is the bliss sheath. In this manner, the establishment of the five sheaths in the body needs to be understood.
The food sheath in this body in the form of bones-fat-skin etc. is not you. It is a scene, it transforms, it is mortal, it is change-oriented, and you are the seer, do not transform, immortal, the singular (anvil-like) witness. You are also not the power of the body to act, the vital force sheath, since it is inert and you are aware. You are also not the desire to act, the mental sheath, because desires are many and you are one. In that which contains desires, you are also not the intellectual sheath, doer of all of those desires because it is not available in deep sleep, whereas you the witness are present there as well. The core prompter of the desire and effort of the doer, the bliss sheath, is also not you because bliss-ness is adjuncted, and you are the non-adjuncted bliss-nature. Then what are you? You are pure perception, observation (upalabdhimaatra) only. This point can be said that whatever objects can be perceived, that you are not.
All five sheaths are active in the waking state. The food sheath is not active in dream state, but the others are. Due to the working of the vital force sheath at that time, food is digested, hair grows, blood circulates. The mental sheath is all dream-oriented. Since it enables arrogation of doership (kartritvaabhimaana) and perception of happiness, the presence of the intellectual and bliss sheaths is known at that time. In deep sleep the food, mental and intellectual sheaths are dissolved, and only the vital force and bliss sheaths are active.
Do not see all these five sheaths. Do not even see the arrogator of each such as the food Purusha, vital force Purusha and so on. See that non-adjuncted Purusha who appears with each respective adjunct sheath, but is even presiding as the nature of the aware-only witness, untouched by the pros and faults of each sheath.
These five sheaths are caves. The self in the form of a lion is hidden in these caves. The witness self "I" of these five sheaths is distinct from them.
The method of investigation is : Investigate one sheath at one time. First think, is it right to say "I am the body"? Then, negate it through the means of shruti and logic. Until the negation "I am not the body" does not become firm, continue to investigate. Once that happens, investigate whether "I am the vital forces" is correct. Continue to negate that inappropriate statement until the negation "I am not the vital forces" does not become firm. In this manner, one should continue to take the help of shruti and logic to negate all the sheaths including and up to the bliss sheath.
Doubt : There is no self experienced other than the five sheaths. Then how can I experience "I the self am distinct from these"?
Resolution : It is correct that the "I" notion is accessible within these five sheaths. But the self is not the I-notion, it is the witness of the I-notion. The witness is beyond the five sheaths and the experience of the sheaths happens only through that. The witness does not live in any of these sheaths. It is just the opposite - the witness is the substratum of all these five sheaths.
The witness is neither the object neither the subject, yet both are the erroneous perception of the witness. For instance, the snake is the erroneous perception of the rope. Therefore, the rope is being perceived as a rope during the time of seeing it, even if it is in the form of a snake and not in the form of a rope. But when the darkness-destroying light destroys the delusion of the snake and the rope alone is cognized. Similarly, the witness alone is being perceived in the I-notion which is seemingly perceived in the five sheaths. Yet, in order to perceive the I-ness-like pure nature of the witness, it is necessary to gain knowledge of negating all I-ness notions. Even after this, the witness cannot be perceived as a pot. The experiencer self can never be the object of experience. It is only possible in the form of an erroneous perception which is a delusion.
A knower distinct from the self, and knowledge distinct from the knower does not exist. That is why the self is unknown (ajneya), it is said. But the cause of the unknown-ness is not its non-existence (asattaa). The shruti reveals the self as self-illumined. Only after the illumination of the self is the world illumined (Mundaka Upanishad 2.2.10). That by which everything is known, how will you know that witness self? (Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad 4.5.15). You can know everything by the mind, but you cannot know your witness self by the mind (Taittireeya Upanishad 2.3.1).
Doubt : Why cannot we accept the void which is beyond the five sheaths?
Resolution : You will have to accept the witness of a void otherwise "there is a void" - how will this be proved? How can the witness of a void experience himself to be a void? "He becomes unreal who thinks that the brahman is unreal" (Taittireeya Upanishad 2.6.1). This means that the self alone is brahman.
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