All the physical matter created in the universe including
the bodies of humans is inert and insentient borne out of the Panchamahabhutas
(five elements). But the ‘vital’ consciousness which is sentient is created as
a prior stage. A manifestation of the same supreme universal consciousness
formed the jiva or jiva-atma (no longer universal but individual) and
simultaneously the universe was created out of separation of the senses from
the universal general homogeneous sensations of sound, temperature, colour,
flavour and odour.
The creation of the jagat (universe) is a manifestation that
is perceived by the ‘jiva’. (As if it is only real as long as the jiva in
humans perceives it as such; not absolutely real.) The jiva is consisting of a
vital life force (Prana), the consciousness that ‘is’ (Citta), the mind
(Manas) and the intellect (Buddhi) and ego (Ahamkara) and sense powers
(Jnanendriya and Karmendriya that is cognitive senses and muscular senses). Manas,
Buddhi, Ahamkara and Citta together make the ‘Antahkarna’ which are sometimes all
together called our mind.
The cognitive senses (nervous senses) are hearing, feeling,
seeing, tasting and smelling while the reactive senses (muscular senses or powers
of action) are voicing (tongue), handling (hands) , moving (feet), and ejection
(excretory organ) and ejaculation (reproductive organ). The senses function
with the cooperation of the mind (Manas) otherwise a person seems ‘absent
minded’. Sometimes there may be a lot of noise in our background but we do not
‘hear it’ because our mind is not focussed upon it. The intellect (Buddhi) holds the experience sensed by the
senses and cognizable by the mind together as a unit to substantiate it and
identifies it (gives it an identity) owing to it’s ego (Ahamkara).
The five elements of space, air, fire, water and earth
representing sound, temperature (head,cold), colour, flavour and odour
respectively provide the stimulus to five senses of hearing, feeling, seeing,
tasting and smelling and the powers of voicing, touching, moving, excreting and
reproducing. These sense powers are independent of the physical organs to an
extent so that if a hand is broken, some learn to write by their foot.
It is said that the mind, intellect and ego were created
along with the five elements of earth, water, fire, air and space. The five
bhutas provide a standard of reference (sensation-general such as 'colour' rather than blue or red) to the intellect to base its sensations
upon in order to substantiate what the sensory powers and
the mind together experience. The sensation-generals are said to be one end of
a single composite phenomenon of which the sense powers (Indriyas) represent
the other end.
The vital Prana holds the physical body of living entities
as an organic whole which makes them ‘alive’. This life force carries out the
functions of breathing in (‘Prana’), breathing out (‘Apana’), assimilating
(into the blood stream known as ‘Samana’), distributing (throughout the body
known as ‘Vyana’), and regeneration (‘Udana’)
The ‘atma’ is thus said to be covered with five layers (koshas)
which separate it from the supreme consciousness ‘Atman’. The physical gross body
(sthula sharira) forms the outermost layer composed ultimately out of food
(annamaya kosha) and including its sensory and muscular organs. The next layer
(subtle body or sukshma sharira) consists of the mind (manomaya
kosha), the intellect and ego (vijnyanamaya kosha) and the vital energy
(pranamaya kosha). The most subtle layer is the Karana sharira (causal body)
consisting of the bliss sheath (anandamaya kosha) which comprises of ‘Vasanas’
i.e. human tendencies which define their jiva and are said to travel with their
jiva from one life to the next until it becomes free of all five layers and
merges with the Atman (Moksha). These layers of body, mind and intellect are
also known as ‘Upadhis’ which condition the jiva-atma thus separating it from
‘Atman’. Moksha is attained by realizing the identity of Atman and detaching
from these layers.
The three Gunas of ‘sattva, rajas and tamas’ constituting
Maya are said to be reflected in human physiology as ‘doshas’ known as kapha,
pitta and vata. The balance or imbalance of these doshas is said to define the
nature of one’s body. Also the dominance of rajas in one’s nature is said to
make a person very active, passionate and excitable. The dominance of the tamas
quality makes a person inactive, lazy whereas the ‘saatvic person’ shows
qualities of calmness, purity, creativity.
The sensing and
identifying of the universe using the intellect, mind and senses of the Jiva
and the existence of the universe is thus inextricably linked. If the Jiva
ceases to distinguish objects and instead sees uniformity then the universe as currently
perceived ceases to exist to the extent that there are no attributes sensed by
the Jiva to distinguish one object from another and everything thus becomes one
uniform nothingness that is the consciousness (Atman).
The ego gives a
feeling of possessiveness and differentiation between one object and other.
When the ego is overcome everyone and everything looks one, looks uniform and
the self also can be identified with God as the feeling of a ‘separate I’
disappears. This complete detachment when experienced by
the Jiva (freedom in action rather than freedom from action) results in a state
of liberation ‘Moksha’ whereby the Jiva-atma can merge with the supreme
consciousness, Atman.
In practical life the thrust is upon doing one’s duty without expectation or attachment to anything or anyone. This
helps to overcome one’s ego so that it does not overpower one’s life and
instead we live following just a sense of ‘duty’. Ego usually distances an
individual from others and results in a lack of leadership and teamwork
especially if it is unjustified. We have heard of the wise words ‘you can
achieve every success in aims of life as long as you don’t care who gets the
credit for it’ Where religion claims that ego must be overcome to reach God, it
makes practical sense also therefore that in order to achieve worldly success
one has to forget one self and immerse in the work at hand without worrying
about the credit or even success. They say you can’t just become wealthy if you
set out to become rich. But if you set out to perform the best in the work that
you like and excel in then chances are you might just find yourself making a
lot of money and building a reputation too in the process. There is therefore
an alignment in religious teachings and common sense teachings.
