MANO-MAYA, VIJNĀNA AND ANANDA-MAYA KOŚAS
The next two sheaths are the mano-maya and vijnāna kohas. These coustitute the antah-karaṇ a, which is four-fold-namely, the mind in its two-fold ̣ aspect of buddhi and manas, self-hood (ahamkāra), and ̣ citta.1 The function of the first is doubt, samkalpavikalpātmaka, (uncertainty, certainty); of the second, determination (niscaya-kāriṇ i); of the third (egoity), of the fourth consciousness (abhimana). Manas automatically registers the facts which the senses perceive. Buddhi, on attending to such registration, discriminates, determines, and cognizes the object registered, which is set over and against the subjective self by ̣ Ahamkara. The function of citta is contemplation (cintā), the faculty 2 whereby the mind in its widest
̣ 1 According to Samkhya, citta is included in buddhi. The above is the Vedantic classification. 2 The most important from the point of view of worship on account of mantra-smaraṇ a, devatā-smaraṇ a, etc. sense raises for itself the subject of its thought and dwells thereon. For whilst buddhi has but three moments in which it is born, exists, and dies, citta endures. The antah-karaṇ a is master of the ten senses, which are the outer doors through which it looks forth upon the external world. The faculties, as opposed to the organs or instruments of sense, reside here. The centres of the powers inherent in the last two sheaths are in the Ājnā Cakra and the region above this and below the sahasrāra lotus. In the latter the Ātmā of the last sheath of bliss resides. The physical or gross body is called sthūla-śarira. The subtle body (sūkṣ maśarīra also called linga śarīra and kāraṇ a-śarīra) comprises ̣ the ten indriyas, manas, ahamkāra, buddhi, and the five functions of prāṇ a. This subtle body contains in itself the cause of rebirth into the gross body when the period of reincarnation arrives.
The ātmā, by its association with the upādhis, has three states of consciousness—namely, the jāgrat, 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 Īśvara-pratya-bhījnā as follows—“the waking state dear to all is the source of external action through the activity of the senses.” The Jīva is called jāgari—that is, he who takes upon himself the gross body called Viśva. The second is svapna, the dream state, when the sense organs being withdrawn, Ātmā is conscious of mental images generated by the impressions of jāgrat experience. Here manas ceases to record fresh sense impressions, and it and buddhi work on that which manas has registered in the waking state. The explanation of this state is also given in the work last cited. “The state of svapna is the objectification of visions perceived in the mind, due to the perception of idea there latent.” Jīva in the state of svapna is termed taijasa. Its individuality is merged in the subtle body. Hiraṇ ya-garbha is the collective form of these jīvas, as
Vaiśvānara is such form of the jīva in the waking state. The third state is that of suṣ upti, or dreamless sleep, when manas itself is withdrawn, and buddhi, dominated by tamas, preserves only the notion: “Happily I slept; I was not conscious of anything” (Pātanjala-yoga-sūtra). In the macrocosm the upādhi of these states are also called Virāṭ , Hiraṇ yagarbha, and Avyakta. The description of the state of sleep is given in the Śiva-sūtra as that in which there is incapacity of discrimination or illusion. By the saying cited from the Pātanjala-sūtra three modifications of avidyā are indicated—viz., ignorance, egoism, and happiness. Sound sleep is that in which these three exist. The person in that state is termed prājna, his individuality being merged in the causal body (kāraṇ a). Since in the sleeping state the prājna becomes Brahman, he is no longer jīva as before; but the jīva is then not the supreme one (Paramātmā), because the state is associated with avidyā. Hence, because the vehicle in the jīva in the sleeping state is Kāraṇ a, the vehicle of the jīva in the fourth is declared to be mahā-kāraṇ a. Īśvara is the collective form of the prājna jīva.
Beyond suṣ upti is the turīya, and beyond turīya the transcendent fifth state without name. In the fourth state śuddha-vidya is required, and this is the only realistic one for the yogī which he attains through samādhiyoga. Jīva in turīya is merged in the great causal body (mahā-kāraṇ a). The fifth state arises from firmness in the fourth. He who is in this state becomes equal to Śiva, or, more strictly tends to a close equality; for it is only beyond that, that “the spotless one attains the highest equality,” which is unity. Hence even in the fourth and fifth states there is an absence of full perfection which constitutes the Supreme. Bhāskararāyā, in his Commentary on the Lalitā, when pointing out that the Tāntrik theory adds the fourth and fifth states to the first three adopted by the followers of the Upaniṣ ads, says that the latter states are not separately enumerated by them owing to the absence in those two states of the full perfection of Jīva or of Śiva.
