Panchadasi Talks - Day 3

By Sowmya Ramkumar

Day 3 of the Panchadasi Talks



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http://www.archive.org/download/PanchadasiDay1/Panch3_5Jan09.mp3

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CHAPTER 03 - DIFFERENTIATION OF THE FIVE SHEATHS
SHLOKA

NATURE OF SHEATHS(KOSHA)

1. Possible to know Brahman differentiating from 5 Sheaths
2. Sheaths are one inside the other covering Atman

SHEATH IS NOT ATMAN

3. Food Sheath does not exist before birth and after death. So not Atman
4. Body did not exist in the previous birth, how could it produce this body
5. Vital(Prana) Sheath is devoid of Consciousness, hence not Atman
6. Mind(Manas) Sheath has desires and is moved by pleasure and pain
7. Intellect Sheath disappears in deep sleep, hence changeable. Not Atman
8. Inner Organs function as Agent, also as instrument working in and out

BLISS SHEATH NOT ATMAN
9. Intellect enjoys the fruit of actions, further catches the reflection of bliss
10. Bliss sheath is temporal and impermanent
11. OBJ: when all Sheaths negated, no other object remains to be experienced
12. RPL: who can deny that by which these are experienced?

SELF IS SUBJECT, ‘THE EXPERIENCED’
13. As Self itself is of the nature of experience, it cannot be object of experience
14. Sweet and bitter tastes impart their tastes to others, not to themselves
15. Self stands as The Experience, even when it is not experienced

NATURE OF ATMAN(SELF)
16. Before Atman alone was shining, by its shine, universe shines
17. How can that by which the universe is known, can be known by any other?
18. Self knows all that is knowable. there is none to know it. It is consciousness

DETERMINING THE NATURE OF BRAHMAN(SELF)
19. Dull is he who cannot experience consciousness in any act of knowing a thing
20. Has a tongue or not, or ‘I don’t know what consciousness is. I must know it now’
21. Dismiss objects, then pure consciousness, Brahman remains. Such an understanding is called the determination of the nature of Brahman.
22. Dismissing objective element,(5 sheaths). is the real nature of the Self
23. One’s self is surely existing; there cannot be any opposition to that.
24. Nobody, except thru delusion, can entertain the idea that he does not exist.
25. ‘He who believes Brahman to be non-existent, becomes non-existent himself’. It is true the Self can never be an object of knowledge. But you must accept the existence of the Self (identified with one’s own existence) as a fact.

NATURE OF SELF (CONTD)
26. What Self is; Indescribable. inconceivable as ‘this’or ‘that’.Your Real nature.
27. Subject cannot be object of senses. Self of everyone, is not beyond perception.
28. Though not object of knowledge, Self is felt directly. So must be self-revealing. Existence, consciousness and infinity, the indications used for Brahman, are all present here also (in the Self).
29. Existence is what cannot be negated. If the Self which is the witness of the perishable world becomes perishable, then who will be the witness to the fact of its perishability?
30. When forms are destroyed, the formless space still remains. So, when all the perishable things are destroyed, what remains is imperishable Brahman or Self).

‘THIS’(WORLD) AND ‘THAT’(BRAHMAN)
31. After everything is destroyed, ‘Nothing’ is the Self.
32. Shruti “That Atman is ‘not this, not this’” negates all objects (having names and forms), but keeps the ‘that’ (i.e. Atman) intact.
33. The entire world as ‘this’ can be negated, but ‘not this’ can never be negated and this indestructible witness is the Self.
34. Thus established eternal existence of Self which, is Brahman; of pure consciousness has already been proved by statements like ‘It is awareness itself’

BRAHMAN THRICE UNLIMITED
35. Being All-Pervasive, Brahman is not limited by Space; being eternal, It is not limited by Time; and being of the Nature of Everything, It is not limited by any Object. Thus Brahman is infinite in all three respects.
36. Space, Time and the Objects in them being illusions caused by Maya, there is no limitation of Brahman by them. Infinity of Brahman is therefore clear.
37. Brahman is existence, consciousness and infinity is Reality. Its being Ishvara (the Omniscient Lord of the world) and Jiva (the individual soul) are (mere) superimpositions by the two illusory adjuncts (Maya and Avidya, respectively).

POWER OF ISHVARA
38. Power (called Maya) of Ishvara controls everything. It informs all objects from the bliss sheath (to the physical body and the external world).
39. If the particular attributes of all objects are not determined by this power, there would be Chaos in the world, for there would be nothing to distinguish the properties of one object from those of another.
40. This power appears as ‘conscious’ because it is associated with the reflection of Brahman. And because of Its association with this power, Brahman gets Its omniscience.


BRAHMAN WITH ASSOCIATION
41. Brahman is called the individual soul (Jiva) when It is viewed in association with the five sheaths, as a man is called a father and a grandfather in relation to his son or his grandson.
42. As a man is neither a father nor a grandfather when considered apart from his son and his grandson, so Brahman is neither Ishvara nor Jiva when considered apart from Maya or the five sheaths.
43. He who knows Brahman thus becomes himself Brahman. Brahman has no birth. So he also is not born again.