Passage 2

Tap any word for its meaning.

In plain words

Such evolution is what has been called spiritual evolution. This spiritual evolution has today secured a special place in every human being.

The human being is made up of the five kośas

Truly, humanness is nothing but the embodiment of consciousness! The consciousness that is everywhere is in all living beings as well. The consciousness that is in all living beings is everywhere. A human being is not merely an assemblage of body, Manas and Buddhi. The human being lies hidden within the annamaya, prāṇamaya, manomaya, vijñānamaya and ānandamaya kośas. Here, however, the Upaniṣads have gone on describing these five kośas as most worthy of reverence, most sacred, divine and full of meaning. When the food we have eaten takes physical form, this has been spoken of as a kind of gross body. Then it is by the joining of these three, the prāṇamaya, the manomaya and the vijñānamaya, that the liṅga form has come to be. This is what is called vital body or sense body. The third, that which abides in knowledge of its svarūpa, they have called the ānandamaya kośa. But there is one principle that holds these three, the prāṇamaya, the manomaya and the vijñānamaya, under its own control. That is the Antarātma. This Antarātma can be called the ‘puruṣa of consciousness’. Where does this puruṣa of consciousness dwell? ‘Hṛdayeguhyaṃ’: that is, he dwells in the heart, this puruṣa of consciousness. The heart here is not the heart that belongs to our physical body. It is the spiritual heart, the infinite heart, the all-pervading heart. The omniscient heart. This is what the śrutis have been calling the ‘Ātma’. And the Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad has gone on describing the many different forms this puruṣa of consciousness takes.

Consciousness of pure sattva is itself the Sai principle

The Ātma joined with physical consciousness is named the annamaya puruṣa. The second: the Ātma joined with the prāṇamaya has been called the embodiment of life. This is what is called life consciousness.