LITMIR.BIZ

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eye, just as, by the Optophone, the blind may read by means of the ear.

      In the same Shāstra various colors and figures (Mandalas) are assigned to the Tattvas to denote them. Ākāsha is represented by a transparent white circular diagram in which, according to some accounts there are dots (Chhidra), thus displaying the interstices which Ākāsha produces; for Ākāsha, which is all-pervading, intervenes between each of the Tattvas which are evolved from it.

      Vāyu is denoted by a smoky grey, six-cornered diagram;{246} Tejas, red, triangular diagram; Apas, white, crescent-shaped diagram; and Prithivī, yellow, by the quadrangular diagram which as the superficial presentation of the cube well denotes the notion of solidity.

      Similarly, to each Devatā also there is assigned a Yantra, or diagram, which is a suggestion of the form assumed by the evolving Prakriti or body of that particular Consciousness.

      The gross body is, then, a combination of the compounds of these Mahābhūtas, derivable from the Ākāsha (“Ether”) Tattva.

      The Bhūtas and the Tanmātra, as parts of these compounds, pervade the body, but particular Bhūtas are said to have centers of force in particular regions. Thus the centers (Chakra) of “earth” and “water” are the two lower ones in the trunk of the body. “Fire” predominates in the central abdominal region, and “air” and “ether” in the two higher centers in the heart and throat. These five Tanmātras, five Bhūtas, and the ten senses (Indriyas) which perceive them, are known as the twenty gross Tattvas which are absorbed in Yoga in the centers of the bodily trunk. The remaining four subtle mental Tattvas (Buddhi, Ahangkāra, Manas) and Prakriti have their special center of activity in the head. Again, the Bhūtas may be specially displayed in other portions of the bodily organism. Thus, Prithivī displays itself as bone or muscle; Apas as urine and saliva; Tejas as hunger and thirst; Vāyu in grasping and walking. Fire is manifold, its great mystery being saluted by many names. So Tejas manifests both as light and heat, for, as Helmholtz says, the same object may affect the senses in different ways. The same ray of sunshine, which is called light when it falls on the eyes, is called heat when it falls on the skin. Agni manifests in the household and umbilical fires; as Kāmāgni in the Mūlādhāra center; Vadavā or submarine fire and in the “Lightning” of the Sushumnā in the spinal column.

      Matter thus exists in the five states etheric,{247} aerial,{248} fiery,{249} fluid,{250} and solid.{251} Prithivī does not denote merely what is popularly called Earth. All solid (Pārthiva) odorous substance is in the Prithivī state. All substance in the fluid (Āpya) state is in the Apas state, as everything which has cohesive resistance is in that of Prithivī. This latter, therefore, is the cohesive vibration the cause of solidity of which the common earth is a gross compounded form. All matter in the aerial (Vāyava) condition is in the Vayu state. These are all primary differentiations of cosmic matter into a universe of subtly fine motion. The Tattvas regarded objectively evoke in the Indriyas smell, taste, sight, touch, and hearing.

      The gross body is thus a combination of the compounds of these Mahābhūta, derivable ultimately from ether (Ākāsha), itself evolved in manner described.

      The gross and subtle bodies above described are vitalized and held together as an organism by Prāna, which is evolved from the active energy (Kriyā Shakti) of the Linga Sharīra. Prāna, or the vital principle, is the special relation of the Ātmā with a certain form of matter which by this relation the Ātmā organizes and builds up as a means of having experience.{252} This special relation constitutes the individual Prāna in the individual body. The cosmic all-pervading Prāna is not Prāna in this gross sense, but is a name for the Brahman as the author of the individual Prāna. The individual Prāna is limited to the particular body which it vitalizes, and is a manifestation in all breathing creatures (Prānī) of the creative and sustaining activity of the Brahman, who is represented in individual bodies by the Devī Kundalinī.

      All beings, whether Devatās, men, or animals, exist only so long as the Prāna is within the body. It is the life duration of all.{253} What life is has been the subject of dispute in India as elsewhere. The materialists of the Lokayata school considered life to be the result of the chemical combinations of the elements, in the same manner as the intoxicating property of spirituous liquors results from the fermentation of unintoxicating rice and molasses, or as spontaneous generation was supposed to occur under the influence of gentle warmth. This is denied by the Sāngkhya. Though Prāna and its fivefold functions are called Vāyu, life, according to this school, is not a Vāyu in the sense of a mere biomechanical force, nor any mere mechanical motion resulting from the impulsion of such Vāyu.

      According to the view of this school, Prāna, or vitality, is the common function of the mind and all the senses, both sensory Jnānendriya and motor (Karmendriya), which result in the bodily motion. Just as several birds when confined in one cage cause that cage to move, by themselves moving, so the mind and senses cause the body to move while they are engaged in their respective activities. Life is, then, a resultant of the various concurrent activities of other principles or forces in the organism.

      The Vedantists agree in the view that the Prāna is neither Vāyu nor its operation, but deny that it is the mere resultant of the concomitant activities of the organism, and hold that it is a separate independent principle and “material” form assumed by the universal Consciousness. Life is therefore a subtle principle pervading the whole organism which is not gross Vāyu, but is all the same a subtle kind of apparently unconscious force, since everything which is not the Ātmā or Purusha is, according to Māyāvāda Vedānta and Sāngkhya, unconscious or, in Western parlance, “material” (Jada).{254} The gross outer body is heterogeneous (Parāchchhinna) or made up of distinct or well-defined parts. On the other hand, the Prānamaya self which lies within the Annamaya self is a homogeneous undivided whole (Sādhārana) permeating the whole physical body (Sarvapindavyāpin). It is not cut off into distinct regions (Asādhārana) as is the Pinda, or microcosmic physical body. Unlike the latter, it has no specialized organs each discharging a specific function. It is a homogeneous unity (Sādhārana) present in every part of the body, which it ensouls as its inner self. Vāyu{255} which courses through the body is the manifestation, self-begotten, the subtle, invisible, all-pervading, divine energy of eternal life. It is so called from the fact of its coursing throughout the universe. Invisible in itself, yet its operations are manifest. For it determines the birth, growth, and decay, of all animated organisms, and as such it receives the homage of all created being. As vital Vāyu it is instantaneous in action, radiating as nerve force through the organism in constant currents. In its normal condition it maintains a state of equilibrium between the different Doshas{256} and Dhātus,256 or root principles of the body. The bodily Vāyu is divided, as are the principles called Pitta256 and Kapha,256 into five chief divisions according to the differences in location and function. Vāyu, known in its bodily aspect as Prāna, the universal force of vital activity, on entry into each individual is divided into tenfold functions (Vritti), of which the five chief are: Breathing, bearing the same name (Prāna) as that given to the force considered in its totality—the function whereby atmospheric air with its pervading vitality, which has been first drawn from without into the bodily system, is expired.{257}

      On the physical plane Prāna manifests in the animal body as breath through inspiration (Sa), or Shakti, and expiration (Ha), or Shiva. The male principle of Prāna throws out, and the female principle draws in, in accordance with the nature of Shakti as Shabdabrahman (Kulakundalinī). Breathing is itself a Mantra, known as the Mantra which is not recited (Ajapāmantra), for it is said without volition.{258}

      The divine current is Hang and Sa or the motion of Ha and Sa. This motion, which exists on all the planes of life, is for the earth plane (Bhūrloka) created and sustained by the Sun, the solar breath of which is the cause of human breath with its centrifugal and centripetal movements, the counterpart in man of the cosmic movement of the Hangsah or Shiva-shakti Tattvas, which are the soul of the Universe. The Sun is not only the center and upholder of the solar system,{259} but the source of all available energy and of all physical life on earth. Accompanying the sunshine there proceeds from the orb a vast invisible radiation, the prerequisite of all vegetable and animal life. It is these invisible rays which, according to science, sustain the mystery of all physical life. The Sun whose body is the great luminary is in itself

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