There are five subtle elements
This is a translation of an upanishadic verse made by Gandhi when he was in prison: “Even as the rivers giving up name and form rush joyfully down into the deep, even so the wise, joyfully giving up name and form are merged in God.” There is a verse by Bhatrihari quoted by Swami Rama Tirtha under the heading ‘beautiful’, “O Mother Earth, Father Sky, Brother Water, Sister Wind, Sweetheart Light, here take my last salutation with folded hands, for today I am melting away into the Supreme, because my heart became pure and all delusions vanished through the power of your good company.”
These two verses speak of giving up name and form, of a return. There is a very short work by Shankaracharya called Panchikaranam, ‘five folding’, which speaks of a putting forth of name and form and then liberation by resolving it. There are only four short paragraphs or verses. “OM. The five great elements, each divided five-fold and their effect, which is everything, are called ‘virat’ and this is the perceptible body of the Self. Perception of objects by the senses is the waking state. The Self taking itself as possessed of the perceptible body and the waking state is ‘vishwa’. All this is the letter A of the syllable AUM.
“The five great elements before dividing five-fold are the subtle elements, their effect is the pranas, the senses, mind and buddhi. This is all subtle matter called Hiranyagarbha. It is the subtle body of the Self. When senses are withdrawn, an idea born of an impression of the waking state appears as an object and this is called dream. The Self taking itself as possessed of the subtle body and the dream impressions is called ‘taijas’ the brilliant. All this is the letter U, the second vowel of AUM.
“The cause of the other two, ignorance of the true Self, but with a reflection of it, is called the unmanifest, which is the causal body of the Self. It is neither being nor non-being, nor again being non-being; not separate, not non-separate, nor separate non-separate from anything; not without parts, not with parts, nor both of them. It is to be removed by the pure knowledge of oneness of Brahman and Self. When from the intellect all knowledge of waking or of dream is withdrawn by the causal self, the state is deep sleep. The Self which takes itself as possessing both these, the unmanifest and the state of deep sleep, is called ‘prajna’.
“The A, the waking state and all its contents resolved into the U; the U, the subtle state into the M, the causal state; the M into OM. ‘I am witness, pure consciousness alone by nature, not ignorance nor its effect.’ What then? ‘Ever pure, aware, free by nature, bliss, non-dual.’ Samadhi is to abide in this state of non-difference, inner wisdom, ‘I am Brahman. Brahman alone am I’. ‘Brahman alone am I, supreme knowledge and bliss. This I is Brahman. I am the Self, Brahman and so [in] other sacred texts. This concludes the Panchikarana text.”
This is a very brief summary of the holy philosophy put out by Shri Shankara. We don’t have to discuss all the details, but in brief it is a creation, projection and then a resolution. The great elements – this is the projection, not completely real, but from a conscious purposeful entity. Our teacher says, “The united testimony of the ancient sages is that That, the Absolute, assumed a fractional manifestation as ‘This’ to us. The ancients had no right to give this opinion and would never have done so, unless they had been quite certain of these facts in the world of no dimensions. When God takes upon Himself the condition in which He is able to project Himself, He projects Himself first as ‘akasha’, shining space. In Indian philosophy there are seven divisions of this, divided into the great space and the lesser space. We cannot feel the vibrations of the great space by any instrument of subjective consciousness that we possess here and now. Perhaps one day we may be able to do so, because the elements of subjective perception are being added to every fifty or a hundred years. The evolution operating in the invisible worlds is quite different from that in our world. From the light, ‘akasha’, comes air. Hanuman, the disciple of Rama, the avatar, is called the son of the wind because he was conceived in the etheric realms, though born of woman, Behold a great mystery in our own and other religions.
“Fire – from the air, fire. The Greek myth of Prometheus, who brought down fire from heaven makes reference to the manifestation of fire on the higher planes. On our own plane, human beings blindly try to create a coarser and lower thing called fire. Fire has three aspects, that in which we see it blazing on the hearth, and also a latent one, and further, a metaphysical aspect. We do not doubt the existence of the fire we see, but we do doubt the existence of its invisible aspects. Yet it is fire in its metaphysical form which helps us in digesting our food, according to the ancient science.
“There is fire in the air, and from this fire is born water. Perhaps science confirms this. From water came forth the earth. Scientific data confirmed this fact also. God is the stage manager behind the scenes, the wirepuller and certain of his children are his instruments. It is the duty of man through meditations, to perfect his character, to rise to heights of greater and greater impersonality, and above all else to manifest, ceaselessly, devotion to his maker.”
This is an account of creation and there are many in the upanishads. Shri Shankara makes the point that it’s very important for the aspirant to liberation to study creation; but only on one main point, that creation comes from an intelligent creator, an intelligent projector. He says this is the point on which all the other accounts agree. There can be differences in detail, although he says in the end they are not differences; but the purpose of the accounts is to point to the fact that the world is created, is projected, by intelligence and according to a plan. He makes this point again and again. It’s not a blind chance; it is not indifferent; it is not unconscious, and we are expected to see this point. There are, as our teacher says, some other facts which can be discovered by reading these accounts, but they are not the main point of the accounts. Just as if we read the law cases of the Middles Ages we can learn a great deal about the social conditions of the time, but that was not the purpose of the people who compiled them. They were illustrating the legal precedents and if we try to do a social study simply based on those accounts, we might find there were great gaps in them.
Titles in this series are:
1. There are five subtle elements
3. Consciousness underlies all
The full talk is OM and meditation
© Trevor Leggett