Doctrine of Soul

All the Indian systems except Buddhism admit the existence of a permanent entity variously called atman, purusha or jiva. Read more

The Samkhya and the Yoga Doctrine of Soul or Purusha

The Samkhya philosophy as we have it now admits two principles, souls and prakriti, the root principle of matter. Souls are many, like the Jaina souls, but they are without parts and qualities. Read more

Locus and Object of Ajnana, Ahamkara, and Antahkarana

This ajnana rests on the pure cit or intelligence. This cit or Brahman is of the nature of pure illumination, but yet it is not opposed to the ajnana or the indefinite. The cit becomes opposed to the ajnana and destroys it only when it is reflected through the mental states (vritti). The ajnana thus rests on the pure cit and not on the cit as associated with such illusory impositions as go to produce the notion of ego “aham” or the individual soul. Read more

Jiva – the Self in association with the ego

Jiva or individual means the self in association with the ego and other personal experiences, i.e. phenomenal self, which feels, suffers and is affected by world-experiences. In jiva also three stages are distinguished; thus when during deep sleep the antahkarana is submerged, the self perceives merely the ajnana and the jiva in this state is called prajna or anandamaya. In the dream-state the self is in association with a subtle body and is called taijasa. In the awakened state the self as associated with a subtle and gross body is called vishva. So also the self in its pure state is called Brahman, when associated with maya it is called Ishvara, when associated with the fine subtle element of matter as controlling them, it is called hiranyagarbha; when with the gross elements as the ruler or controller of them it is called virat purusha. Read more

The subject: atman, jiva, antahkarana

The subject can be conceived in three forms: firstly as the atman, the one highest reality, secondly as jiva or the atman as limited by its psychosis, when the psychosis is not differentiated from the atman, but atman is regarded as identical with the psychosis thus appearing as a living and knowing being, as jivasakshi or perceiving consciousness, or the aspect in which the jiva comprehends, knows, or experiences; thirdly the antahkarana psychosis or mind which is an inner centre or bundle of avidya manifestations, just as the outer world objects are exterior centres of avidya phenomena or objective entities. The antahkarana is not only the avidya capable of supplying all forms to our present experiences, but it also contains all the tendencies and modes of past impressions of experience in this life or in past lives. The antahkarana is always turning the various avidya modes of it into the jivasakshi (jiva in its aspect as illuminating mental states), and these are also immediately manifested, made known, and transformed into experience. Read more

Guna

It cannot be said that current explanations give a clear understanding of this subject. Yet such is necessary, both as affording one of the chief keys to Indian philosophy and to the principles which govern Sadhana. The term guna is generally translated “quality,” a word which is only accepted for default of a better. For it must not be overlooked that the three guna ([tag-tec]Sattva, rajas, and tamas[/tag-tec]), which are of Prakriti, constitute Her very substance. This being so, all Nature which issues from Her, the Maha-karana-svarupa, is called tri-gunatmaka, and is composed of the same guna in different states of relation to one another. The functions of sattva, rajas, and tamas are to reveal, to make active, and to suppress respectively. Rajas is the dynamic, as sattva and tamas are static principles. That is to say, sattva and tamas can neither reveal nor suppress without being first rendered active by rajas. These gunas work by mutual suppression. Read more

The Worlds – Loka

This earth, which is the object of the physical senses and of the knowledge based thereon, is but one of fourteen worlds or regions placed “above” and “below” it, of which (as the sutra says) knowledge may be obtained by meditation on the solar “nerve” (nada) sushumna in the merudanda. Read more

The Human Body – The Five Sheaths

The human body is Brahma-para, the city of Brahman. Ishvara Himself enters into the universe as jiva. Wherefore the maha-vakya “That thou art” means that the ego (which is regarded as jiva only from the standpoint of an upadhi) (1) is Brahman. Read more

Waking state – dreams – dreamless sleep

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 Isvarapratya-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 Visva. Read more

The Three Temperaments

THE Tantras speak of three temperaments, dispositions, characters (bhava), or classes of men namely, the pasu-bhava (animal), vira-bhava (heroic), and divya-bhava (deva-like or divine). These divisions are based on various modifications of the gunas as they manifest in man (jiva). It has been pointed out (1) that the analogous Gnostic classification of men as material, psychical and spiritual, correspond to the three gunas of the Samkhya-darsana. In. the pasu the rajo-guna operates chiefly on tamas, producing such dark characteristics as error (bhranti), drowsiness (tandra), and sloth (alasya). Read more

Mantra

Sabda, or sound, which is of the Brahman, and as such the cause of the Brahmanda, is the manifestation of the Cit-sakti itself. The Visva-sara-Tantra says (1) that the Para-brahman, as Sabda-brahman, whose substance is all mantra, exists in the body of the jivatma. It is either unlettered (dhvani) or lettered (varna). The former, which produces the latter, is the subtle aspect of the jiva’s vital sakti. Read more

Yantra

This word in its most general sense means an instrument, or that by which anything is accomplished. In worship it is that by which the mind is fixed on its object. The Yogini-Tantra says that the Devi should be worshipped either in pratima (image), mandala, (1) or yantra.(2) At a certain stage of spiritual progress the sadhaka is qualified to worship yantra. The siddha-yogi In inward worship (antar-puja) commences with the worship of yantra which is the sign (samketa) of brahma-vijnana as the mantra is the samketa of the Devata, It is also said that yantra is so called because it subdues (niyantrana) lust, anger, and the other sins of jiva and the sufferings caused thereby.(3) Read more

Samskara

There are ten (or, in the case of Sudras, nine) purificatory ceremonies, or “sacraments,” called samskaras, which are done to aid and purify the jiva in the important events of his life. These are jivasheka, also called garbhadhana-rtu-samskara, performed after menstruation, with the object of insuring and sanctifying conception. The garbhadhana ceremony takes place in the daytime on the fifth day and qualifies for the real garbhadhana at night-that is, the placing of the seed in the womb. Read more

Nyasa

This word, which comes from the root” to place,” means placing the tips of the fingers and palm of the right hand on various parts of the body, accompanied by particular mantras. Read more

Yoga

Thiss word, derived from the root Yuj (”to join”), is in grammar samdhi, in logic avayavasakti, or the power of the parts taken together and in its most widely known and present sense the union of the jiva or embodied spirit, with the Paramatma, or Supreme Spirit (1) and the practices by which this union may be attained. Read more

Sin and Virtue

ACCORDING to Christian conceptions, (1) sin is a violation of the personal will of, and apostasy from, God. The flesh is the source of lusts which oppose God’s commands, and in this lies its positive significance for the origin of a bias of life against God. According to St. Thomas, in the original state, no longer held as the normal, the lower powers were subordinate to reason, and reason subject to God. “Original sin” is formally a “defect of original righteousness,” and materially ” concupiscence.” Read more

Karma

Karma is action, its cause, and effect. There is no uncaused action, nor action without effect. The past, the present, and the future are linked together as one whole. The iccha, jnana, and kriya saktis manifest in the jivatma living on the worldly plane as desire, knowledge, and action. Read more