Prose-section 15
In plain words
The five faculties of perception know sound, touch, form, taste and smell. Speech, hands, feet and the organs of excretion and generation perform action. Within, one instrument serves as mind when it considers alternatives, intellect when it determines, ego when it identifies, and memory when it returns to an object. The single vital force likewise has five functions, called prana, apana, vyana, udana and samana. Eight groups together make the subtle body, the eightfold city: elements, faculties of perception, faculties of action, vital currents, the inner instrument, ignorance, desire and action. It is made from subtle elements, carries latent tendencies and enables experience of karmic results. It is a beginningless adjunct born of ignorance, and its state is dream. There the mind forms agents and experiences from waking impressions. The Self shines throughout as their unattached witness. The subtle body serves as an instrument, as tools serve a carpenter. Its activity depends on the Self’s presence; the Self remains unchanged. The condition of sight, hearing or speech belongs to the relevant organ. Breathing, yawning and sneezing belong to the vital functions, as do hunger and thirst. None defines the pure Self. Illumined by reflected consciousness, the inner instrument identifies with the faculties and says “I.” This ego claims agency and enjoyment, passes through the three states under the gunas, and finds favourable experiences pleasant and unfavourable ones painful. These variations belong to the ego. The Self is described as ever-blissful: objects are loved for its sake, while it is itself most dear. Deep sleep discloses bliss without an object. Scripture, direct experience, tradition and inference are the evidence for this.
Word for word
Hearing, touch, sight, taste and smell are organs of knowledge because they know the five objects beginning with sound. Speech, hands, feet, anus and generative organ are organs of action because they perform speaking and other activities. The one inner instrument takes four forms according to its differing functions: mind through proposing and doubting alternatives, intellect through determining an object, ego through identification, and memory through recollecting or attending to an object. As gold and water take different forms through modification, the one vital force is fivefold through its functions: prana, apana, vyana, udana and samana. The five elements beginning with space, five organs of knowledge, five organs of action, five vital currents, fourfold inner instrument, ignorance, desire and action are the eight groups called the eightfold city or subtle body. Made from the five subtle elements before gross compounding, endowed with latent tendencies and serving as an instrument for the Self to experience karma’s fruits, this subtle body is a beginningless limiting adjunct arising from ignorance. Its state is dream. In dream the mind itself, through various waking impressions, appears assuming the roles of agent and the like. The self-luminous Self, with mind alone as its adjunct, remains merely the witness of everything, unattached to the mind’s actions. As an adze and other tools serve a carpenter, this subtle body is the instrument for all activity attributed to the Self whose nature is knowledge. Since that instrument performs all actions through the Self’s mere presence, the Self always remains unchanged and unattached. Blindness, dim sight and keen sight arise from the eye’s impairment or soundness; likewise deafness, inability to speak and the like are attributes of the sensory organs, not of the pure Self. Outgoing and incoming breath—explained as breath’s upward and downward movement—yawning, sneezing and the like are functions of the vital currents. Hunger and thirst are functions of prana itself. The inner instrument, with the light of reflected consciousness, associates with the organs beginning with sight and firmly identifies as ‘I’: that is the ego. Identifying as agent and experiencer, the ego experiences the three states arising under the three qualities beginning with sattva, and obtains pleasure from favourable objects and pain from unfavourable ones. Pleasure and pain therefore belong to the ego, not to the ever-blissful Self. Objects appear dear for the Self’s sake, not intrinsically dear in themselves. Because the Self is supremely dear to everyone, its nature is ever-blissful and it has not the least suffering. This objectless bliss is everyone’s experience in deep sleep. Revelation, direct experience, received testimony and inference are means of knowledge for this.