SDS's explanation - thathvaboDha: (Condensed) Dear SDS community members.. I think it is a good idea to create a condensed version of thathvaboDha: | This is a lexicon of vEdhAntham and any one desirous of liberation will benefit by getting these terms understood properly. This was one of the very first texts SDS introduced to his students when he had the four year vEdhantham course.. That tells teh significance of this thatvaboDha: It is like most vedhAnthic texts, set as a dialog between the teacher and the student. The student asks a question and the guru responds to the SishyA.. It deals with why this text ought to be studies; what are the necessary qualifications to understand the upanishaths; what is the nature of the individual, universe, and god.. who is a gnAni.. and so on and so forth.. SDS had asked me in the past to start teaching and I find Orkut a good way to start teaching without expecting anything from the readers ( sounds like karma yogam, right??!!) as many words will be in sanskrit and we have the misfortune of using 26 alphabets, i would like to start off with a new way to write practically almost any language with reasonable precision by using a very special transliteration taught to me by my elder brother.. in fact we write tamil words using this format.. I would like to share it with this community first, if I may.. a A i I u U R lr E ei o au H (visargam) these are the basic vowels.. then.. k K g G gn c C j J jn tTdDN th Th dh Dh n pPbBm y r l v S sh s h While this is not perfect, this will allow us the easy use of the computer key board.. the opening line of thathvaboDhaH starts with a prayer to BagavAn and guru.. vAsudhEvEndhra yogIndhram nathvA gnApradham gurum | mumukshUNAm hithArThAya thathvaboDhaH aBiDhIyathE || this simply invokes the grace of the guru.. I will explain the meaning in the next posting.. I hope using the letters above the readers, especially those who are familiar with hindhi can easily pronounce samskrtham.. hari om.. M

TB Introduction (cont'd)

vEdhAtham is a committed pursuit.. as we are ending this coil of birth and death once and for all.. Only a local guru can teach any one of us. I suggest any guru in your neighborhood who has ben ordained by Swami Dayanada of Arsha Vidya Gurukulam.. Their "teaching methodolgy" is pakka at least for a guy like me who was just quite ignorant to begin with.. perhaps more ignorant than many community members here when I was under SDS's tutelage about 10 years ago (still continuing..!!!) So I have chosen to be a vEdhAntic teaching assistant.. I won't be able to be anything more with all of the "timebites" in my life as it is now.. Yet I find this forum to be the best to discuss SDS's teachings.. which is what he learnt from his gurus, who learnt it from their gurus ans so on and so forth.. it ultimately ends in Lord DakshiNAmUrthy.. When SD started teaching vEdhAtham, it was a 4 years course. He went around the Inida advertising in local papers.. From a pool of applicants he selected about 20 or so students.. The only requirements were " A human; family should be able to spare him/her". No prior knowledge of even Indian scripture was required and they had the freedom to drop out.. He started his 4 year course with TB and RamaNA's upadhESa sAram. That tells me the significance and background of TB.. So when anyone asks a Q from TB (or any spiritual topic), instead of answering "bang-bang" I though I would share with the questioner a little bit of the background information which led to the Q and the answer itself. I also feel that only a condensed version mostly in English is apt. and I am going the full length.. SDS explains TB in about 40 hours of explanation or so.. It will be foolish for me to think that I can capture that ocean in this few characters.. Yet may be some of you will be ignited to pursue further.. That comes only if we have the blessing of SDS.. At this point I myself seek the blessing of SDS, and BagavAn to help me complete this task.. hari: om.. SrI guruByo nama: hari: om

thathvaboDhaH - Condensed Version - || TB-1 || TB Opening lines.. vAsudhEvEndhra yogIndhram nathvA gnApradham gurum | mumukshUNAm hithArThAya thathvaboDhaH aBiDhIyathE || TB-1|| |

|| TB-1 ||

this simply invokes the grace of the guru.. even the word "guru" is defined as "gu" representing the darkness or ignorance of our budhDhi and "ru" representing its removal. Whle many gurus are there, very few are capable of removing the many ignorances we have, ONLY a guru well-versed in SAsthram, committed to understanding and unfolding brmhan can remove our ignorance regarding ourselves.. a person who is desirous of the removal of selfignorance is really a mumukshu because he (here not the gender, but th quality of pumsthvam is referred to as he) has discerned that dharma and artha and kama have only limited results and thus he goes for the kill..! knowing which the samsaram ends.. for assuring that type of mumukshu the salvation, this thathva boDhah is taught.. thathvam means the true nature of jIvaH, jagath, and ISvaraH.. boDhaH means the teaching.. Here the author invokes the grace of his guru vAsudhEvEndhra.. who is capable of giving the Sishya the gnAnam (knowledge about oneself). Having saluted his guru, the author starts unfolding the granTham called thathvaboDha: which is intended for the ultimate goodness of those who desire moksham or liberation or end to samsAram..

This itself is a mahA prathignA or a great promise by the author, because this one line alone is enough to settle the uncertaities in our head about pramANa asamBAvanA or the doubts one may have as to the very validity of this text..! Now the seeker must have SradhDhA and go further into the text and analyze.. We will do just that.. The next line talks about sADhana cathustayam.. The four fold qualifications necessary to make a person qualified to pursue the teaching. It is important to note that NO one person has all of these it total measure except god..!! (to be contd..)

TB Opening lines.. || TB-2 || The beauty of TB is its ability to convey to us the essence of vEdhAntham in the question and answer format.. almost all of our teachings or that way (except perhaps in our modern schools, where the teacher gets upset if the student asks a question..!!).. in vEdhAntham THERE IS NO NAME DROPPING.. Our svarupam is the topic here.. so better get it pakkA in our budhDhi.. any vEdhAntha teacher who leaves a mystery in a questioner's mind SHOULD BE DROPPED AS A GURU INSTANTLY..! Even the word "guru" has a significant meaning.. "gu" means the darkness(in our mind about our true nature) and "ru" means its removal..! That person alone deserves to be our guru.. So the guru opens TB with words that are more powerful than nuclear explosion.. sADhana cathushtaya sampanna aDhikAriNAm mumukshUNAm moksha sADhana Butham thathva viveka prakAram vakshyAmaH |TB-2| |TB-2| "we are going to talk about the methodolgy of unfolding our true nature, for those aDhikArIs who are endowed with the four-fold qualifications which will result in moksham for such mokshAm seekers..!" Now every word and syllable in this beautiful text is explained to the student who is totally ignorant about ANYTHING, but the guru is TOTALLY capable of explaining..!! I asked SDS upon completion of this text IF TB is a complete text. SDS simply smiled and said "yes, WITHOUT ANY DOUBT, it is a complete text" I also see that this SDS community is saturated with serious seekers who have become very dear to me..!! So I am proceedinG to elaborate on the entire TB all the way to the last statement from the guru of TB. Just one observation here on my part. I found out upon listening to SD that the very first few verses of any vEdhAnthic text was quite capable of delivering the total message and the rest were a mere unfoldment of that message.. It is just like saying "I love you" and then spending a life time proving it..! May this succeed

|TB-3 &4| | (TB-3)

| | | | ( TB-4 ) Finally comes the answer to student's question..!! The question on sAdhana cathushtayam.. that started this whole ball rolling..! I have numbered this as TB-3.. sADhyathE anEna ithi sADhanam.. that which helps you accomplish something is sAdhanam.. It simply means a "A

MEANS OF DOING OR ACCOMPLISHING ANY GOAL". Like fire is a primary sADhanam for cooking.. car is a primary sADhanam for travel.. whreas gasolene is the priamry sADhanm for the engine to run.. It is important to remember here that any one sADhanam will have several sADhanms that it requires..! That is why the whole blessed thing is ULTIMATELY dismissed as "mithyA" the most misunderstood and misapplied word in the world of spiritual seekers.. LIKE US..! I am also going ot be warning this community where a potential for us to commit an error exists.. so that we can always easily revisit that topic when that error is FORGOTTEN..!! It happens all the time to all of us.. that is really the beauty of studying vEdhAntha SAsthram.. cathushtayam simply means "four" kim here means "what are they?" so in essence the student asks the guru "hey guro! you mentioned in your opening dialog this word.. i do not know its meaning what are they?.." The student's job is really extremely simple when he asks the question.. BUT EXTREMELY DIFFICULT WHEN THE ANSWER HAS TO BE REMEMBERED, RETAINED,REFLECTED UPON, AND RECITED WHEN NEEDED..!!! Actually we will see as the text goes along, the Sishya is absolutely ignorant of the teaching of vEdhAntham, yet has an ApAthatha gnAnam.. a vague understanding of vEdhAnthic terminology, at least he has heard of them.. BUT WITH ZERO UNDERSTANDING..!! he pays a lot of attention though..! All these will be explained as we read on.. The guru's answer is marked by me as |TB-4|.. That comes next..

( TB-4 ) | | | | ( TB-4 ) The first one is | This really means one must have a discriminative understanding of what is "eternal" and what is "non-eternal or temporary" The second one is | "iha" means here on planet earth (for us humans).. "amuthra" means "elsewhere" that one aspires to go to for "fun" time..! PalaBogam means an "itching" we all have for enjoying what we rightfully determine "I did this.. so I shall enjoy this result".. now comes the sADhanam..!!! virAga: is a vairAgyam or a dispassion or a determination that I AM NO LONGER INTERESTED IN THIS LIMITED RESULT.. In other words, as Americans describe it "chicken-shit" results..!! We still do not know at this point why we should develop this vairagyam.. that explanation comes later.. Remeber this is guru Sishya samvAdham.. the stuedent will not allow the teacher to rest in peace UNTIL he has every one of his quesions answered.. (here his means her also.. we are talking about the quality of both males and females who have this metal fortitude to stick with this study to gain the ULTIMATE goal.. or purushATham..) The third one is | this actually has six subsets..! It literally means the qualities such as Sama, etc..! this will be explained later also almost pretty soon.. The fourth one is | mumukshuthvam means a desire to gain moksham.. I can not but help explaining the beauty of samskrtham here.. these words are known in English as "desiderative" which is unique to samskrtham. It simply means "the desire to become or do what the primary verb of action is intended for.. " here samskrtham describes it in one clean simple word..! This actually propels the student to ask simple one word or two-word questions and the teacher usually spends a life time explaining it.. THAT IS WHY HE IS A GURU, THE REMOVER OF THE DARKNESS OF OUR MINDS AND WE ARE ARE HERE TO "BUG" HIM FOR ANSWERS..!!

TB-5,6, AND 7 | | | TB5| Here the student is NOT afraid of asking the guru any question he has because here the ending of the samsAram is being taught by the guru. Then the guru also appreciates the humulity on the part of this student and teaches him the essence of all of our scriptures in the very opening declaration of TB. The student asks what is this vivEkam or discriminative knoledge. The teacher declares that there is ONLY one such discriminative knowledge. That knowledge is that the singly non-dual brmhan is that eternal vasthu. OTHER THAN THAT EVERYTHING IS PERISHABLE.. Then the student continues with his questions. (please understnad that this is not meant for an ordinary student but who has come to a guru for ending samsAram) | |TB-6| When the student asks what is dispassion, the guru says,"any gain you strive for on planet earth as well as attainment of heaven should NOT be the passion of your life, if you want to end samsAram. So the 'absence os such a desire to accomplish the non-eternal goals" is virAga: or the dispassion necessary to obtain this knowledge. | |TB-7| Previously you may remember that the guru simply said the "six-fold gunAs, such as Sama, etc".. So here he "lists" thos 6-fold gunAs and elaborates what those six are in the following as well awaiting the student to ask a question. This also highlights how vEdhantic teachers are. The very statment they make must be relevant, yet the student must be capable of asking the proper question, and then the guru also must be capable of expalining. (This is also the main reason why I chose to be a vEthantic teaching assistant and NOT A GURU. This also allows me to enjoy the human qualities and fraities like every one of the rest of us.!) So now it is the student's turn to ask " | |" (cont)

| |TB-8| For this the teahcher simply defines it as "mind control". this is easier said that done.. even krshNa says in BG that mind control is as difficult as catching hold of air.. but it can be done by practce and determination.. We will leave it at this simple definition for now. japam, DhyAnam etc help us here.. Then the sttudent asks.. | |TB-9| What is dhama:? tTo this Q the guru says,"the ability to CONTROL one's sense organs such as eyes.." By the such as

the guru means the five organs of knowledge (skin, ears, eyes, tongue, and nose), and the five organs of action (mouth, hands, feet, organs of evacuation, and organs of procreation). (Charity, Bajans,etc) Then the sttudent asks.. | |TB-9| For this the teacher says to follow one's Dharma, without worrying about our losses as well as other's gains. One simply does what needs to be done whether it is to my liking or not.. This is a very significant quality in a student.(this is peaceful co-existence) The next Q by the student was.. | |TB-10| What is thithikshA? Here the guru says,"it is the fortitude one has in bearing the dual opposites that happen in our lives. These could be any number but he simply gives only a sample.. which covers almost the entire spectrum.. He points out that we must bear both hot and cold weather, be somewhat neutral when pleasure and pain occur in our lives, etc.. (HERE COMES WHAT I PERSONALLY THINK IS THE MOST SIGNIFICANT QUALITY IN KALI YUGAM.) | |TB-11| What is SradhDhA is the question.. To that the guru replies." the unshakeable faith in the words of the teacher and our scriptures.. Here I can go on for any length of time explaining.. But please read my topic on pramANam, which deals with what is a means of knowledge and why our scriptures must be revered by us. No self-proclaimed gurus here , but one who KNOWS

TB-12,13,AND 14 Then the student wants to know the sixth guNa of the six-fold qualities.. | |TB-12| So he asks what is samADhAnam? The guru says.."the one-pointedness of the mind". this is elaborated by SD as the ability of the student to stay focussed on WANTING TO END THE SAMSARAM.. he has no other goal.. nothing else is attractive.. he is done with power, passion, postion, money, titles, education, worldly pleasures and pain, etc.. [b/]without this one-pointedness, many a student just wander around in the forest of words.. they fail to understand what is important in life and what is not.. and more often than not, end up pursuing what is temporary and evanascent as opposed to what is permanent and real.. Then the Million dollar Q by the student.. | | TB-13| WHAT IS mumukshuthvam? many of us wander in the forest of samsAram without understnading what his term even means.. TB very clearly defines it as A DESIRE ON THE PART OF THE STUDENT THAT "LET MOKSHA HAPPEN TO ME." At this point he has heard the term moksham or liberation but has gone about it a million different ways.. but to ask a proper guru that question and tell him that "I WANT MOKSHAM" actually will bring tears to the eyes of the guru. A STUDENT CAN NOT GIVE A GURU A BETTER GURU DAKSHINA THAN

ASKING THIS QUESTION. PLEASE MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT THIS ONE Then the guru concludes the answers to student's question with the following brief statement.. | |TB-14| He simply says that once a person has these 4-fold qualifications (1. understanding of what is eternal and noneternal; 2. dispassion 3a. mind control/3b. organ control/3c. following what has to be done/3d. tolerance/3e. unshake-able faith/3f. one-pointedness in our pursuit; and finally 4. A DESIRE FOR LIBERATION.. Then and THEN ALONE, one becomes eligible for understanding the upanishadic teaching. NONE of us has all of this in full measure, right? !!!

A Brief Interlude here..! Friends, None of us has these in full measure.. But do not despair.. Our scripture declares that we are liberated already.. ONLY the ignorance that I AM BOUND must be shed.. that is where TB is a very potent text that launches you into the wonderful space of upanishadic study.. Of these total 9 qualities we have some none; some so so; some reasonably good; and some excellent.. Once the pursuit begins and ignorance shedding starts, (DO NOT WORRY IT WILL START..!!) you will find that there is an amazing internal transformation in you that is NOT APPARENT TO ANY OUTSIDER.. YOU WILL SEE THAT WHATEVER QUALITY IS NEEDED, THE SAsthram, your guru, your SELF, and God give you in necessary measure.. The above four are extolled by our SAsthram as the four types of graces necessary to reach the final purushArtham, WHICH IS ALREADY FULLY GAINED, BUT CURRETNLY UNKNOWN..! that is the humor in teaching vEdhAntham..! May you continue onward with your vEdhAnthic journey and worry about ONLY yourself.. IT IS NOT SELFISH AT ALL because what is at stake is YOURSELF..!! I wish everyone of you who happen to read this introduction to END THIS COIL OF BIRTH AND DEATH.. JUST FORGET ABOUT EVERYTHING ELSE.. And after gaining this knowledge, do WHATEVER GOD has ordained you to do in this birth.. YOUR WHOLE LIFE BECOMES ONE LONG ENJOYABLE VACATION AFTER THE RISE OF THIS KNOWLEDGE.. To unfold whole of TB as SDS had done effortlessly is a himalayan task.. and AS I mentioned to all of you, I will be able to continue with further postings on this topic, CERTAINLY with my guru SDS's grace.. I wish you all the best. I bear no grudge in my heart towards any one of you THOUGH I MAY OCCASIONALLY COME ACROSS AS AN ARROGANT SELF-PROCLAIMED TEACHER WITH A BLOATED EGO AND ZERO TOLERANCE FOR THE MEMBERS OF THIS COMMUNITY OR YOUR QUESTIONS..! IF I EVER WOULD OFFEND ANYONE WITH MY BRUSQUE STYLE OF WRITING I SINCERELY APLOGIZE. This is really an anticipatory bail I am taking in this venture..! | |TB-14|

Having described the four-fold qualifications (actually a total of 9, if you split the SamAdhi shatkam into it constituent six qualities),the guru says = thasmAth kAraNAth.. because of the presence of the four-fold qualfications in people, , they become, qualified to gain this thathva vivEkam, the descriminative knowledge,which means to understand what is said in vEdhAtham about jiva, jagath, and ISvara:| Actually this is not as easy as it sounds.. the very fact that we are born as humans itself is a miracle.. and to have a desire to gain thathva vivEkam is another miracle.. that you even have a PC to browse is another miracle.. that you are viewing this site rather than many more attractive sites (wink..!) itself is MIRACLE OF ALL MIRACLES..! Even to go thru this write up, one must have certain family and friendly environment guiding you this way.. our own pUrva janma puNyam helps us.. god's grace of course.. without which even if you understand English you may STILL GET THE WRONG MEANING.. When mahABAratha fight was over, pAndavAs gained the throne.. krshNa himself has taught arjuna, A PRIVILEGE MOST OF US DO NOT HAVE..(!!), yet he forgets what bagavAn told him and asks krshNa,"hey krshNa.. in the middle fo the noise of the battle, you said some very important words and made me fight the battle and win.. but it has been so long since that war and I have forgotten most of it.. Please teach me again..!" And you know what? krshNa starts what is popularly known as uththara gIthA to re-teach arjuna. ! If this can happen to arjuna, what to talk of simpletons like myself..? that is why this type of SravaNam and mananam is required.. Of course what is the question form the student? You rpobably guessed it by now..!! he asks the guru (for the continuation of the dialog) ? guru: |TB15| This will be explained in the next post shortly.!!!

TB-15 Student: ? guru: |TB-15| Here the student asks the teacher," what is this thatva vivEkam?" You may recall that the teacher in the opening lines first said I am goint to teach thathva vivEka which going to liberate mumukshUs..! now he gracefully introduces the term thatva vivEkam again.. so the student zeroes in on the next term he does not understand which is thatva vivEkam.. To that guru very CLEVERLY ANSWERS,"MY DEAR CHILD..! AthmA.. alone is sathyam. other than that everything else is mithyA..!!" First when he talked about sADhana cathushtayam, he said "nithyam vasthu Ekam brmha, thath vyathiriktham sarvam anithyam Eva" and now he says about AthmA..!!

Here itself, a student, if he is a uththama aDhikAri understands that AthmA (himself) is the ONLY sathyam like the eternal brmhan.. and that everything else is perishable so unlike AthmA, this everything else is mithyA..! THIS IS ACTUALLY THE END OF TEACHING.. ! But the guru is very kind and goes on further until this student is analyzed by the SAsthram to the finest degree that he is capable of assimilating.. Once this analysis is done, the jiva has NO doubt whatsoever about himself, the jagath, and god..! These are the ONLY three things in creation that matters.. this is also the beauty of TB as a complete text.. UNLIKE the one-topic prakaraNa granthAs, and we have countless of such granthAs. Here to terms are introduced.. one is sathyam and the other is mithyA.. This sathyam mithyA confusion alone is responsible for bondage, also known as the coil of birth and death, also known as samsAram, or as mIrA sings "Bava sAgar". TB and the guru dry up this ocean of samsAram.. how? We shall see..!!

|TB-16| Athma lakshaNam.. | Now that the student hears a new term, all that he has to dos is to ask,"what is this AthmA?" His guru now has to answer, not to brush him aside, but to drive him to a location from where he can not BUT see (understand) what AthmA is..! Of course, that comes after several posts in Orkut..! Now the guru answers.. |TB16| AthmA is that which is "DIFFERENT FROM", STANDS APART FROM" sThUla SarIram(gross or physical body), sUkshma SarIram (subtle body), kAraNa SarIram (causal body); that which transcends the five layers of our awareness (mistakenly represented by EVERY ONE except Sankara as five sheaths..!!); that which is the witness of three states of everybody's existence; that which is the very essence of sath, chith, and Anadham (another mistake uniformly committed by EVERY ONE except Sankara AS EXISTENCE, KNOWLEDGE, BLISS!!); Now count the numbe of new terms introduced by the guru..! The student wanted to know about "AthmA".. the guru counted 3 bodies, 5 koSAs, 3 states of our existence, and also 3 terms sath, chith, Anandham.. for a total of 14 terms.. Now you are probably guessing that the teacher has uttered a mouthful and so he will have the floor to himself.. ! In fact for quite some time to come, the guru will be definign onerm after the other.. why? Becasue physical body has parts tht needs to be defined..! The suble body.. same thing..! The causal body? even though the student may not ask it.. the guru HAS to explain it.. Then the five koSAs.. what are they? why is it necessary to define them? then what ARE the three states?

The student having heard from the guru the essential nature of AthmA or sath, chith, Anandha.. what are they? Looks like we are in for a treat here.. IF AND IF ONLY WE HAVE THE ABILITY TO HANG IN thathvaboDha: AS A DEDICATED STUDENT.. SHALL I GO FURTHER??? You tell me..!!! hari: om.. Mani

TB-17 Physical Body | Now just like VrushAli, the student asks the teacher what is this physical body? The guru replies.. (not an easy topic).. |TB-17|

Why is this not easy? Because the whole thing is mushrooming like a nuclear explosion..! The definition of any one term ends up introducing dozens of new terms.. and each one have to be explained as well for a complete understanding of TB.. First he says .. this physical body is made up of the five gross elements, which themseveves are produced by a process called pancIkaraNam..(this will be explained later for sure..!) .. it is also born due to our own puNya karma.. ( I see a lot of question marks rise on the heads of the readers.. but that also has to wait.. it comes later..) .. it is the only means by which humans are able to UNDERGO the physicall processes of pain and pleasure.. in other words a physical place to which pain is inflicted or pleasure is allowed to happen.. (how we react to pain and pleasure comes later..) .. born in time ..stays in time .. grows up in time.. .. metamorphasises in time .

grow weaker in time.. .. perishes in time .. .. that which undergoes the abovementioned the six-fold modifications (no living being is an exception to this including a gnAni..) | That is physical body..

Now summing it up.. teh five gross elements are space, air, fire, water, and earth.. these are formed from the five subtle elements which are also named the same.. the physical body of any one of us is from the grossi-fied elements only.. also Sankara says in vivEka cUdAmaNI "janthUnAm narajanma dhurlaBam" rare indeed is when one is born as a human.. so it is born of good karma becasue in our karmic baggage every one of us has enough papa karma.

TB-17 Physical Body (contd..)

With this pApa wanting to manifest, it takes eons and eons before we get a chance to be born as a human WITH FREE WILL.. moksham is possible ONLY for a human being.. even gods may be born again.. we do not know.. but for sure, a human CAN escape the cycle of birth and death.. So this human physical body is definitely due to our sath karma alone.. Why do we have to have aphysical body? Our karmic baggage nneds to be exhausted.. pApam will give us dhuKam and puNyam will give us suKam.. that is why no one if fully good or fully bad.. vyAsa says that human society is a fabric woven from white and black thresd..! how neat? then for each one os to exhaust this pain and pleasure a house needs to be constructed.. OUR PHUSICAL BODY is that house..! then the 6 vikArAs.. born, exists, grows, metamophasises (capable producing another human body), grows old, and perishes..! Tell me who is exempt from this?? NOBODY..! those who have left us so far OUTNUMBER the curren 6 billion population on this tiny earth..! Our scriptures talk about 84 lakhs of life forms of which human bodyis one of them..!! and there are several trillion stars in the universe each capable of supporting a planet liek earth and thus life forms..! and this has been going on for countless years..!! Thus jIvAs are conuntless in number, having countless karmas, being just LUCKY TO BE BORN AS A HUMAN..! Now you can appreciate the beauty of our human physical body, instead of complaining about it.. I certainly am glad to be a human.. and CERTAINLY DO NOT WANT TO BE A CRAB IN MY NEXT BIRTH..! Let us proceed later with sUksma SarIram.. this is getting to be more fun now..! hari: om affly, mani

TB-18 sUkshma SarIram.. ?|.. Again the student asks.. what is sUkshma SarIram.. or the subtle body..?? Here the explanation by the guru will go for quite some time.. simply because many new terms will be introduced. this is usually referred to as the soul.. this sould is assumed to be differnt than the body.. MANY MANY mistakes are uniformly committed by one and all all because of a TIGHT definition of these terms.. Here the real tightness of teaching as well the alertness on the part of the student IS a must..! This will not however scare any mumukshu away..!! That is for sure.. (I will also make it as precise as possible, expanding only where necessary..!!) The guru starts with a mouthful of terms.. as usual.. If he can not confuse the casula reader, HE is not FIT to be a guru..!!! |TB-18|

|TB-18|.. this alone is sUkshma SarIram.. or subtle body.. then he goes on to dissect that term like a surgen dissecting a frog in the first year medical school..! The only difference is that we are alive prior to his explanation and we begin to understand that we NEVER die.! .. previously guru spoke about the gross elements produced due to the five-fold pancIkaraNam activity. Here he refers to the respective five subtle elements (space, air, fire, water, and earth also known as thanmAthrAs in our SAsthram.. So the subtle elements are responsible for the cration of the subtle body (like the gross elements were responsible for the gross body.)

.. this goes without saying.. if EVEN the gross body is due to our good karmas, what to talk of the subtle body that permeates the entire physical body? It has to be definitely the result of god's grace that make us enjoy the proper subtlebody (by the way THIS IS THE agnAni jiva:. goes from lokam to lokam as a traveller assming many bodies

TB-18 sUkshma SarIram..(Cont'd) ..PLEASE TAKE A VERY GOOD NOE OF THIS MOST SIGNIFICANT ASPECT OF THE SUBTLE BODY..!! this is what makes each one of decide "I LIKE THIS.. I DON'T LIKE THIS.. THIS MAKES ME HAPPY.. THIS MAKES ME SAD.. and it has the most amazing miraculous power of having the ability to make us so unified (IN TOTAL ERROR OF COURSE) WITH THE PHYSICAL BODY OF EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US.. in other words makes us an agnAni..!!!.. WITHOUT this subtle body, we are ready to take the gross body to the cremation ground or burial ground..! Now guru explains the components or constituents of the subtle body further.. .. Each human (and many animals as well) is endowed with the five organs of knowledge.. (5) .. the five organs of action..(5) .. the five vital airs insode our body..(5) .. mind (1) . intellect(1) .. when we add all these together we get 17 kalAs or glories.. .. with these 17 glories.. .. AS IF IT IS ONE ENTITY.. .. WHICH EXISTS.. .. (THAT IS REALLY) .. the subtle body..

At this point the guru does not elaborate on what are the organs of knowledge, action, vital airs, what is mind, what is intellect etc.. All these are defined slowly but surely one oafter the other in the explanatiosn that follow.. That is why I said in the very beginning TB is a vEdhAnthic lexicon.. it is like defining the commands of a computer language.. once these are defined and understood, a sADhaka who is ready for gnAnam will understand at the operational level of each one of these definitions inside himself (or herself).. AGAIN, HERE THE GENDER IS NOT IMPORTANT.. THIS IS WHY I SIMPLY LOVE THATHVA BODHA:.. it the BEST vEdhAnthic formula for mumukshUs.! Now guru has to explain one term at a time about what he has uttered so far.. He first starts obviously with the five organs of knowledge.. I think we are eager to move on with the rest of these terms..(TBC)..!

TB-19, 20 sUkshma SarIra Explanation |TB-19| First the guru starts unfolding what does he mean by sUkshma SarIram or suble body.. Among the various religions and peoples of the world, "soul" is the most commonly ABUSED word.. why and how so? many think that soul is a separate entity other thatn the body, thta it survives death, that it retains its original association with each and every one of, ends up in ETERNAL HEAVEN OR HELL (if you are a non-hindu), IN VAIKUNTAM OR KAILASAM, IF YOU ARE A HINDU, go-lok-brindAban if you are a hare krishna, and so on and so forth.. So let us examine this clean model given to us by our scriptures..! .. the five organs of knowledge are.. (ears) (skin) (eyes) (taste buds) (and nose).. After simply naming them, the guru tells the student what are their functions.. | | | | |TB-20| Let us take them one at a time..

| The object to be known by the organ of knolwedge called ears is sense of sound.. FROM THE OUTSIDE.. | The object to be known by the organ of knolwedge called skin is the sense of touch.. FROM THE OUTSIDE.. |The object to be known by the organ of knolwedge called eyes is the form (including the color) of an object.. FROM THE OUTSIDE.. | The object to be known by the organ of knolwedge called taste buds is the taste.. (there are basically six types of tastes we recognize) FROM THE OUTSIDE.. | The object to be known by the organ of knolwedge called nose is the smell available to us from the outside.. FROM THE OUTSIDE.. FROM THE OUTSIDE.. IS VERY IMPORTATN HERE.. this is how BagavAn has designed he human body's organs of knowledge.. we can only understand what is FROM THE OUTSIDE..!! let us proceed furhter..!

TB-19, 20, 21 sUkshma SarIra Explanation (cont'd) Why is this definiton of the organs f knowledge important? These are known as prathyaksha pramANams.. we cognize the entire outside world only through these firve.. and these are known as mUla prmAnNams. or MAIN information gatherers..! There is an employer of these pramANams.. which is you and me and him and she and it..! It is impossible for any prmANam to analyze itself and nderstand what it is.. ! Eyes though they are capable of seeing, THEY CAN NOT AND WILL NOT SEE THEMSELVES.!

That is why we need another prmAnam to understand the truth about ourselves.. this will be explained later in TB.. At this point the guru also introduces the various devine principles behind these organs of knowledge, whose grace is required for these to function properly..! Why so? Just imagine if yu are blind and deaf, and also has lost the sense of touch, THERE IS NO WAY FOR YOU UNDERSANDvEdhAntham..! So a prayerful attitude towards these divine principles always help us stay to gether in tact and employ them productively and learn what one needs to learn.. These dhEvathAs are . | | | | | TB-21| | The deity for ears is dhig or the Quarters of the world. | The deity for the skin is VAyu.. |The deity for the eyes is the Sun..

| The deity for the taste buds is varuNa..

| The deity for the nose are the two aSvini brothers..

That is why you may go to an astroleger for an eye problem.. He will tell you go to a sUrya temple for 48 days and pray to the Sun god..! Or if you have skin troubles Vayu may be appeased. Instead of challenging these statements it is good to just to read them and move on.. All these explanations are given for those who demand and explanation from the scriptures.. and our scriptures have no problem giving htem a solution.. JUST REMEMBE SATHYAM AND MITHYA EXPLAINED EARLIER!!

TB-22,23,24 sUkshma SarIra Explanation (cont'd) sUkshma SarIram explanation by the guru contiues.. Now the guru expalins the 5 organs of action.. NO PHYSICAL ACTION CAN BE PERFORMED WITHOUT one or a combination of THESE AND THEY ALL ARE PART OF OUR PHYSICAL BODY.. then one question we may have is why are they classified under subtle body.. the reason is quite simple.. remember the phsical body is a mere place of enjoyment of pleasure and pain, but IT IS THE SUBTLE BODY that is makes us the doer or enjoyer.. THESE ORGANS OF ACTION IS NOTHING IF THE SUBTLE BODY IS NOT BEHIND THEM.. that is why the tastiest roti and subzi is totally ignored if the mind is employing the eyes in reading the cricket score or stock prices..! .. the organ of speech.. .. our hands.. .. our feet .. our organs of evacuation.. .. our genitals.. .. these are the five organs of action.. |TB-22|

Now the guru explains the presiding deities for the organs of action.. vEdhA actually has rituals through which these gods can be worshipped if they are malfunctioning..(Though thta is not the real intent of TB..)!!! | Fire is the dhEvathA for speech..! very appropriately also!! we can actually fry someone with our words..! it is good to be careful when speaking..! |.. for the hands the deity is indhra:.. want to have strong and healthy arms? you know whom to pray to now.. |.. Lord vishNu is the dhEvathA for the feet..

| Lord yamA presides over our organs of evacuation..

| The presiding dhEvathA for the genitals is brmhAji the creator.. .. these are teh dhEvathAs for the organs of action..|TB-23|

Now the guru also expalins the functions of each of these organs of action.. Now the students of TB can appreciate how the human body does what it is supposed to be doing.. Sometimes it looks obvious, but quite a few times it is obviously misunderstood or mis-explained.. Thus a cleare understanding helps us later assimilate the mahAvakyam.!!

TB-22,23,24 sUkshma SarIra Explanation (cont'd) : : |.. Talking is the function for the organ of speech.. |.. walking is perfomed with the help of feet. |.. arms are used for grabbing an object..

| the organs of evacuation performs all of the necessary functions for throwing out the waste products from the body.. One can appreciate how well our human body is put together intelligently by reflection on any of these.. .. the genitals are primary used for procreation purposes.. here no disctinctionis made betwenn whose genitals are superior, that of a male or a female.. SAsthram simply explains these as a medical doctor would approach a human body.. |TB-24| We get to knw the world with our organs of knowledge.. we cn pray to the presiding deities of the organs of knowledge if we have an ailment.. We act with our organts of action.. we can pray tot he deities if they malfunction.. It gives us a lot of reflective reasoning to ponder upon things that we take for granted.. There is also a wonderful order as TB expalins us HUMANS..! BUT PLEASE REMEMBER AT ALL TIMES THAT THIS IS ONLY A MODEL GIVEN BY OUR SCRIPTURES.. This explanation is also NOT sathyam and OURS is the only SAsthram n the universe that declares it as mithyA.. so if tomorrow a scientist comes up with a better model to explain our human body, our scriptures have NO objectio to it.. ! Why so? As none of this is sathyam.. a mithyA model is adequate for explaining the mithyA jIva, the mithyA Isvara: and the mithyA jagath.. BUT IT IS A VERY POWERFUL MODEL THAT MAKES A LOT OF SENSE.. in fact I personally believe a finer model to describe us is yet to come..! With this appreciation of our sThUla and sUkshma SarIram, we can explore a few more aspects of our sUkshma SarIram.. We have to work on the five vital airs.. what is mind.. what is budhDhi..a few more ways of looking at our existence . BUT NOT JUST LIVING, BUT UNDERSTNADING OUR EXISTNECE FROM DIFFERENT ANGLES..(to be cont'd)

TB - 25 kAraNa SarIra explanation..

? |

?.. So far, the guru has defined the gross body and subtle body. What is left is kAraNa SarIram or the causal body.. And the student properly asks about the causal body.. now the guru defines the causal body.. Please pay close attention to what the guru says.. this statement is what distinguishes our scriptures from the rest of the bunches..!! AND IT IS ENTIRELY BASED ON SRTHI.. .. that which is indefinable .. that which is beginning less.. GURU NEVER SAYS "ENDLESS".!! this means that kAraNa body can be ended.. as the scriptures show later with proper guru and gnAnam.. .. that which is the very essence of ignorance..(or avidhyA, or mAyA, or, mithyA.. these terms will be used exactly as needed in the proper context by our scriptures) .. that which alone causes the two bodies, gross and subtle, to come into being.. .. that whose essential nature is to hide the knowledge of the truth about oneself.. .. that which stays in an undifferentiated form (this is actually what makes all of identical in the avyaktha or the nmanifest satage) .. that which exists in the manner defined above, . that is causal body. Thus the causal body is what creates the samsAram experienced by all of us.. it creates the gross body as palace where pleasure and pain can be experience, ti creates teh subtle body which is able to cognize the world around us and make us judge "this is good for me, I like it and thus it is enjoyable.." or equally creates an aversion in us regarding the opposite.. So if we stop to think about what has been said so far, all of us the way we know ourselves to be have been defined so perfectly.. I AM A DOER.. I AM AN ENJOYER.. I AM A KNOWER.. I AM A MORTAL.. AND I AM LIMITED.. WELCOME, SAMSARIS

TB-26 Three states of existence.. ? :|TB-26| After introducing the three bodies possessed by all living beings, now the guru starts unfolding the three states of existence.. You may recall that the guru intitally said that AthmA is different than the three bodies.. it is also beyond the three states of existence.. So the student continues to ask his guru to explain the three states of existence..

The guru simply replies in one line.. .. The state of being a waker.. .. the state of being a dreamer.. : and the state of being a deep-sleeper.. If we thing about it for a moment, THERE IS NO OTHER STATE IN WHICH WE EXIST.. once is a while we may be either sleep walking or waking up from a dream.. where one or two states very closely co-exist prior to diffentiation. But even they will be enclosed only with in the three distinct states described above.. Now the student will ask the guru to explain the individual states furhter..

TB-27 Three states of existence.. ?| : |TB-27| Here the student asks "What is the waking state?" To that comes a nice reply from the guru.. .. by organs such as ears .. : which are known as organs of knowledge (this automatically means that the organs of skin, eyes, mouth, and nose are implied..) ..sounds etc. and such objects are known in which state that is | the waking state.. It is very important to note that the guru talks only about gnAa indhriyAs.. because when we sleep, they are NOT

functional. Also the organs of action are functional always.. even if we sleep. Whereas, when we are awake alone, the sounds falling in our ears is recognized by us.. But we often encounter a state while we are deep in thought and walking on the beach, a friend honks his horn at us.. more often than not we may not even notice it..! Are we awake? are we dreaming? or or we asleep? We will analyze this in the next two sections... for now we all can AGREE that if I am awake, I hear the sound.. I am able to enjoy the food... or bAdAm cake made by Mani Sir.. !! Then we hug each other feel the warmth of one another.. or able to recognize good scents as well as bad scents.. enjoy the scenery.. and come to conclusions about them.. Read the postings in Orkut, analyze and arrive at conclusions (more often wrong than right.. but the accuracy is of no use here..!!) In other words, all our day to day vyavahArAs take place while we are awake.. This state alone is known as jAgrath avasThA.. I will move on to svapna avasthA later.. hari: om.

TB-28 Three states of existence.. Waking AthmA : |TB-28| That aspect of the "person"

body.. as

the gross physical is "named"

attached to

: viSva: Ok.. here we go.. we are all viSva at this very moment, be it day or night..! unfortunately.. this is where most of us stop..!! The materialists are convinced that THERE IS NOTHING outside of the body.. so we can rightfully name them as viSvaA:.. We may wonder why? Remember the five gnAnendhryAs? ears, skin, eyes, taste, and smell? four of these are located only on our head.. But the 5th one is ALL OVER our body.. both inside and ourside.. Yes.. that is the sense of touch.. Becasue of this we can physically feel the presence of a person, a friend, a spoue, or a lover, or an object. Whether

we enjoy this or not will be explained later.. Becasue of this we can also sense our pain inside as well.. that is wh when the doctor can not see what is inside our knee cap, we can tell him the exact spot where teh pain is.. We can use this organ to veryfy the hotness and coldness of an object.. We can also feel the smoothness or roughness of an object.. We can also determine the comort of discomfort caused by that object.. Here the objects are both insentient and sentient.. Whether I like ti or not comes from a different explanation that is about to follow. This identification of the sense of touch can be total.. in that case it is called dhehA Athma budhDhi. in other words, dehe Athma budhDhi and Athmani deha budhDhi..that i am this body and this much alone is me.. and I am also NOTHING MORE THAN this body ..! THIS IS THE LOT OF THE PURE MATERIALISTS..!! But TB does not just stop here.. even look at the word "uccyathe" it means.."is called" TB would NEVER say "KNOWN AS"..! To the materialists, the physical body is KNOWN as viSva:.. But, To us in this community..? is it viSva: only ?? Llet us move on to TB-29..!!!

TB-29 Dream State.. |TB-29|

svapna avasThA kA ithi cheth jAgrah avasThAyAm yath dhRtham yath SRshtam thath janitha vAsanayA nindhrA samaye yath prapancham prathyathe sA svapna avasThA.. First thank you all for your sustained interest in TB.. This will stay even after we are gone in Orkut itself as good guide for serious mumukshus..!! I just realized that i have been making this one mistake so far..! I have assumed that every one in this community can read samsRtham alphabet.. ! I am totally wrong..! and I apologize for the same.. From now onwards i will give the transliterated version along with the samskRtham version BUT explain only using the transliterated version..! Please check my very first posting..(the rule that I have vilolated myself..!) First a qustion is asked by the student..! ithi cheth: Suppose you want to know kA : what is.. svapna : Dream avasThA : State..(then the answer is..) nindhrA : During our sleep

samaye : time yath : what prapancham : universe (of sentient and intert objects) prathyathe : are woven (by our own gnAnam coming from) yath SRtham : what is heard and yath dhRshtam : and what is visually seen jAgrah : while we remain in the waking avasThAyAm : state (previously explained by me) thath : those waking experience janitha : generated vAsanayA : impressions alone enable us to weave "a universe created by ME" sA : that alone is svapna : dream avasThA : state..!! Phew..!! It was so much easier to say this in samskRtham and i had a hell of a time in rearranging it in a language that does fot really do justice to samskRtham..! Still I think, the rearrange,ment was not bad..! In other words, we see hear feel smell and taste in our waking state.. we also perform actions with our organs of action.. all of these are previously explained so far in TB.. This waking experience creates in us countless impressions.. !!

TB-29 Dream State..Cont'd.. That is why in dream, I can create Sachin playing in the World series cricket finals, and I myself can be the pace bowler that gives him a 150 mph bouncer which he gently and cleverly sweeps away for a sixer while i just take off an fly like an eagle and catch it in space and i gently land like a feather in the middle of a thudering applause while I see Sachin cry fo being out and i consloe him while making Vegetable pakora in my house sitting in front of a TV while analyzing the game when suddenly a street vendor calls of selling icecream makes me run to the vendor with a bunch of little children i grew up with while a tiger comes pouncing our of nowhere in East African jugle safari then we all get into our jeep and drive off and it becomes a british airways plane while the air hostess is coming in the aisle with drink carts and order a gin and tonic and strike a conversation with my beautiful (winks..!) neighbor in seat 24B.. You see how this is going! While seemingly disconnected each one of these impressions have been gathered by me in my waking state and thus not one element of it is untur YET collectively it makes absolutely no sense. and amazingly sometimes it does ALSO.!! I was reading kenopanishath (KU) once and the slokam that attracted me most was after the teachers teaches the student all about brmhan in most elegant words.. then he tells the students that "if you think you have understood brmhan, YOU HAVE NOT!" Then one student gets up and says "I HAVE UNDERSTOOD.. manyE vidhitham.." Then of course he explains to the teacher how clear his understanding is in terms of what he could know about brmhan and what he can not! As an added bonus to me reading this KU, I also happened to meet svAmi vidhithAthmanandhA, one of the best students of SDS! that night I had a dream.. In a vast crowd on a public platform I am intorducing SV tot he audience.. and I say You may wonder who SV is.. he is THAT student in KU who tells the teacher "manye vidhitham". so he is vidhithAthmAnandhA! Nice dream!

TB-29 Dream State Continued.. I am going to dwell a little longer than usual in this dream state. This is a VERY important concept in understanding the entire vedhAntham. VedhAntham is all about orders of reality.. There is an ABSOLUTE order of reality known as pAramArthikam. From that view point there is NOTHING other than vasthu or brmhan or caithanam or AthmA.. this is the niviSEsha advaitham.. UNIVERSE IS NOT EVEN CREATED.! Then there is a RELATIVE order of reality known as vyAvahArikam. From this view point the same brmahan becomes saguNam. and then the jada or insentient objects as well as the various jIvas or living beings as well as the varous gods, the cosmos, etc.. NOW DVAITHAM IS PERFECT.. The third order of reality is that of purely NON-EXISTENT refelcted reality or the mental projection by you and me.! When one is awake from prAthiBAsikam, we enter vyAvahArikam . Similarly when one is awake from vyAvahAricam, pAramArthikam is awaiting us.! Now do not ask is there another reality beter than pAramArthikam..!! the answer is NO.. why so? BECASUE SCRIPTURES SAY SO..! So this dream state is really glorified by our sciptures as an example to explain how brmhan can create the entire UNIVERSE out of itself..! If it were NOT true then adhvaitha hAni or negation becomes a possibility.. When we gain prathyksha knowledge and act in this world, those memories help up create both sentient and insentient objects in our dream.. Now if we ask ourselves wher did we get the material to create the mountian and peoples and air crafts etc in our dream, THE ANSWER HAS TO BE OUR OWN GNANAM or knowledge of those objects.. this gnAnam alone appears as both sentient and insentient objects in our dream. So if we are able to create all objects purely from our knowledge, is it impossible to assume that this jagath is a dream of Isvara:? I am merely posing this view not to prove or disprove creation, but merely for all of us to do some internal reflection.. Then we at least start asking ourselves.. "can I awaken even more"?

TB- 30 Dream State..Conclusion.. : ||TB-30|| One thing I must warnt he readers here.. the numbering is NOT part oft he original text.. I am assigning those numbers for two reasons.. it becomes a convenient indes for us.. second.. I add them as I need to pause and amplify on certain TB statements & explanantions taught to me by SDs.having said that.. Athma : that aspect of the person, the jiva:

sUkshma : subtle Sarira : body

aBimani : attached to..

ithi uccyathE : is called

: thaijasa: : thaijasa EVER EFFLUGENT..! I am going to dwell on this topic in detail for one simple reason.. THIS IS THE CORE CONCEPT WHEN UNDERSTOOD THAT MAKES ADVAITHAM A WALK-OVER..! We have talked about the physical body as sThUla Sariram.. and subtle bodyas sUkshma SarIram.. usually our existence as Mani or you or any one living or dead is referenced only with respect to these two bodies only.. beyond that we do not see.. hence the possibility of a state wherein all questioning ends has ended when we exist in these two bodies alones.. these two are primarily responsible for the two thieves that haunt us. The firsr one is "I" and the second one is "My or Mine".. As the discussion goes on TB we can easily come back and reflect ourselves on these two culprits. The next question asked by all of us is "if world is mithyA, how come I do not see it? I see the movie Sarfarosh.. or the objects around me and the living and the dead around me.. ALL SEPARATE FROM ME ONLY.. ALL I SEE IS DUALITY either in variations in myslef or variations in things and beings other than myself.. so how can all these differences have come yet from one source.. and more importantly.. how come advaithin says they are all one and the same. This is where upanishaths kindly point our that if in your dream state you can see a variety of things and YET it all arises from one gnAnam inside you, in the same way BagavAn can create all this varigated universe out of the one gnAnam of "brmhan"

TB-31/32 Causal Body ? |TB-31| sushupthi avasThA kA? aham kim api na jAnAmi suKena mayA nidhrA anuBuyathe ithi sushupthi avasthA |TB-31| : |TB-32| kAraNa SarIra aBimAni AhmA prAgna: ithi uccyathe|TB-32| Student : sushupthi : Deep sleep avasThA : state is kA? : What? guru's Answer: aham : I na jAnAmi : Do no know kim api : anything at all mayA : By me nidhrA : Deep sleep anuBuyathe : experienced suKena : with total pleasure ithi : Thus it is (known as) sushupthi : Deep Sleep avasthA : State.. Now perhaps the most interesting part of the jiva is explained..! We exist in the waking state.. This is accepted by all. and we do exist in the dream state.. as we are able to recall in some cases even the color of the sun rise (!!!!) we experienced in dream state..! When it comes to deep sleep, all bets are OFF..! We only recall the fact that "OH, my god.. I had such a peaceful sleep..!" Why so? that island called "deep sleep" must be the most desired by one and all.. As a living proof, have my guarding dog scout, who is cuddled up like a baby in his small bed.. and if I wake up upon hearing a noicse, I have to pour water on his head to wake him up! Deep sleep is the natural equalizer for ALL living beings..! Br U declares "a king is a king in waking state and a beggar is a beggar in the waking state.. a blind man is a blind man in waking sate. however, in deep sleep a king is no longer a king.. a beggar is no longer a beggar and a BLIND MAN IS NO LONGER A BLIND MAN..!

If we think about the depth of this statement, it leaves us speechless in wonder..! All differences exist in waking only.. but none in deep sleep.. as per scriptures all living beings find their ONENESS with Isvara: in deep sleep.. so there is no difference in a gnAni's deep sleep and an agnAni's deep sleep.. but a gnAni wakes up as a gnAni and an agnAni only as an agnAni

TB-31/32 Causal Body (conclusion) TB-31/32 Causal Body (conclusion) : |TB-32| kAraNa SarIra aBimAni AthmA prAgna: ithi uccyathe|TB-32| guru continues.. AthmA : that aspect of the jIva aBimAni : who is attached to kAraNa SarIra : the causal body ithi uccyathe : is called prAgna: = prAgna: .. prAena agna: "more or less an ignorant person".. This is a very significant statement by the guru to the student.. Though the guru does not explain it in detail, I am going to provide some extra explanantion here based on whatever I have learnt from SDS in many of his lectures.. First of all, the very first doubt in the reader's mind.."why is he called more or less ignorant..?" The answer is that when we sleep we are awake when we hit the sake.. then close our eyes.. toss around.. then may be we dream.. then we eter the deep sleep.. and perhaps dream again and wake up.. THIS POST DEEP SLEEP DREAMS ALONE ARE RECOLLECTED BY US.. Whereas, our deep sleep after dream will wipe out our memory of the dream.. Then what is defined as a deep sleep? When we get up and then declare that we slept well.. and we also we add "I did not know what happened while i slept so well" The fact that we declare our ignorance of the events during our deep sleep state is the proof that we are ignorant.. BUT THAT ISGNORANCE IS only MORE OR LESS.. becasue if we were totally ignorant we will not be able even to recall that we slept well.. so something has been very closely awake EVEN when we were in deep sleep and reports to us that "hey, you.. you really slept good" then we report this to the world around us..! So this awareness makes us "more or less" ignorant. THIS CAUSAL BODY TIES THE SUBTLE BODY OF EVERY JIVA TO SAMSARAM.. AND DOES NOT PERISH EVEN DURING THE PRALAYAM OR TOTAL DISSOLUTION OF THE ENTIRE CREATION.. This is a very important fact in our SASthram because the subtle body + the causal body while enter the mahA nidhra during pralayam, the kARmic bag is kept associated to this jIva

TB-31/32 Causal Body (conclusion) Now I mentioned the 8.4 million "yonis" or life forms are there as per SRthi. Then there are countless jIvas in creation.

Each jiva possesses a causal body as well as a suble body. then in a human body karmA is performed.. due to avidhyA doership is assumed and enjoyership is attached to the jiva.. The bag gets bigger as the jiva is accumulating more and more karma Palams. Depending on which karma palams heve to be exhausted, god picks an appropriate life form for each jiva.. causal body keeps us ignorant and subtle body performs the tasks with the help of one of the 8.4 million life forms. Here SRthi tells that we can falisfy this karmic bag in ONE life form.. that of a human..! All other life forms only exhaust the puNYam or pApam accrued to each jiva's karmic account.. Why so? BECAUSE WE HUMANS ALONE HAVE FREE WILL AND IN HUMAN JANMA ONLY OUR SELFCONSIOUSNESS IS TOTAL.. !! This free will ALONE makes us perform karmA and makes us bind to the karmic bag..! SO WHAT WE DO.. CAN ALSO BE UNDONE BY US BY USING THE VERY SAME FREE WILL..! How beautiful and simple and logical the whole appraoch is for ending samsAram..! As long I have karthrthvam (doership) , Bokthrthvam (enjoyership) can not be avoided. so the cycle is "beginningless" Ignorance, that makes us feel that we are limited Once I feel limited kAma (DESIRE) takes root. then ahamkAram (ego) kicks in.. kAma + ego makes me do things, alter my surroundings, choose and discard. as per my likes and dislikes. some Dharmic and some aDharmic.. now karma kicks in.. Once ego-centric karma is performed, karthRthvam is in full swing..! Once karma is perfomed with karthRthvam, it generates puNyam and pApam to be attached to the jIva. This necessitates ENJOYERSHIP (or BokthRthvam) on the part of the ignorant jiva. Now the karmic bag begins to bulge.! As the karma palam of one single human janma can no be exhausted in one birth, more births are necesitated.! You see, AvidhyA causes havoc!

An executive summary of TB thus far..! The guru starts the teaching with a maha prathignA (great promise) that he is going to tell the "proper" candidate what is the means of liveration..! Then he expalins the four-fold qualifications (actually totalling nine..!) and then sets the stage for the student to ask more and more and more questions.. And then he explains each and every question just by defining the term and NOT explaining in any great detail what it all means.. (which I have been doing with the grace of SDS..) From the four-fold qualifications he moves on to explain the physical body.. with its six-fold modifications.. Then he moves on to explain the subtle body.. and its 17 sub-components..

Then he explains the causal body.. He also explains the three avasThAs namely waking, dream and deep sleep.. Along with that, the three bodies associated with the 3 states are also explained.. JUST REMEMBER.. THIS IS THE MITHYA EXPLANATION FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO HAVE A POSSIBLE ANSWER TO THEIR "mithyA" QUESTIONS.. Thus all of these answers are "REASONABLE" They need not be perfect.. SAsthra does not really worry about the exactness of these answers.. We have questions and we expect the scripturs to answer.. So the scriptures give an answer with the full agreement that we can challenge those and prove the SRThi to be wrong..! Then if we come up with a better model to expalin vyAvahArikam, SRthi says "Live long, my child.. you have my full blessings..!" You see, the SRthi reveals that we are not separate from brmhan and everything else is only to help us assimilate that fact.. We have Qs on vyAvahArkam.. it iwll be glad to give us a resonable answer.. The SRthi uses multiple teaching methodologies to help us understand the essence.. so far the three-body explanantion is given to understand mithA and three state explanation to show that all of these are ever-changing, so that when we are exposed to the teaching, we have NO choice but to see with clarity.. Now we will proceed to the five koSAs! That is about it so far.!

The five koSAs.. TB-33 and TB-34 : ? |TB-33| panca koSA: kE? annamaya prANa maya manomaya vignAna maya Anandha maya: ca ithi |TB-33| here the student who has a good memory (unlike most of us ) remembers the original definiton given "panca koSa athItha: san"..! So After having explained the 3 body teaching methodolgy, and 3 state prakriyA, the guru moves onto the 5 koSa prakriya. A doubt here may arise in one's mind as to why the 5 koSAs after the 3 bodies? The answer is quite simple.. different people commit different grades of different mistakes either at the bodies level and/or states level and/or koSAs level..! So when the stuedent asks "waht aret he 5 koSAs?" the guru says "theses are food-koSa, air-koSA, mind-koSA, egokoSA, and happiness-koSA.." I am purposefully not using hte MOST COMMON TRANSLATION OF koSA as SHEATH..! Why are they called koSAs? koSavath AcCAdhaniyathvAth" as it hides the true nature of humans just like a sheath covers a sword..! The most important word here is "JUST LIKE" which is often mistaken by mpst teachers as JUST EXACTLY AS..! So SDS is even very careful in preventing us from going on a spiritual trip to remove the 5 koSAs.. Another mistake usually committed is the translation of anadha as Bliss with a capital "B"..! Thus we make sure that no ower case bliss is acceptable to me but ONLY the upper case B....liss..!! Once we accept the sheath definition EVEN by error, we will immediately think that I HAVE TO TRANSCEND THE food sheath to air sheath.. from air sheath to mind sheath.. from mind sheath to ego sheath.. then from ego sheath to Bliss sheath.

I am translating anadha maya koSA as happiness sheath.. though I am not happy with it ( Bliss Sheath.

). that is far better than

This sheath definiton makes us feel like "brmhan" who is in Alaska during winter months.. brmhan is first wearing a cotton tee shirt inside; 2nd, a flannel shirt; 3rd, a wool sweater; 4th, a wind breaker; and 5th, a woolen long jacket..! get it?!!

The five koSas.. TB-33 and TB-34 : :? : |TB-34|

annamaya: ka:? anna rasEna Eva BUthvA anna rasEna Eva vRdhDhim prApya anna rUpa pRtivyAm yath vilIyathE thath anna maya koSa: sThUla SarIram |TB-34| As errors are committed by us uniformly on several fronts.. (the 3 bodies, the 3 avasthAs, the five koSas.. ) the scriptures and the guru are compassionate enough to provide us with some acceptable explanations.. and more often than not it passes.. if it does not, we can always rely on karma theory to the rescue..! So the student now is asking the guru what he means by the food sheath.. "annamaya: ka:? I mean koSa.. !! The guru's answer is directly based on thaithrIya panishath Anandha valli and the very first manthram.. I am saying this mere to show that it is SO IMPORTANT to accept SRthi as an absolute pramANam and not keep on questioning its answers..! It will get us nowhere except to NOWHERE LAND..! BUthvA: BORN anna rasEna Eva JUST BY THE ESSENCE OF FOOD vRdhDhim: GROWTH prApya: BEING OBTAINED anna rasEna Eva JUST BY THE ESSENCE OF FOOD yath: THAT WHICH vilIyathE: PERISHES INTO pRtivyAm: THE EARTH anna rUpa: WHICH ITSELF IS IN THE VERY FORM OF FOOD thath: THAT IS CALLED anna maya koSa: FOOD KOSHA sThUla: (IT IS SIMPLY) THE GROSS SarIram: BODY If we look at the careful choice of words in decribing the annamaya kOSa, we begin to appreciate the nonnegatability of this description. "maya" itself is a samskRtham suffix that has two meanings.. one is "modification" and the other is "predominance".. As the second meaning is meaningless, and the body itself is a modification of the food we eat, anna maya koSa really means "that aspect of the jIva whose "external" hardware is made up by the food we eat that gets continuously modified to make us look the way we are Of course the natural Q ought to be "what about the software?" and the "firmware?" TB and the guru both are ready!

The five koSAs.. TB-35

: :? prANamaya: ka:? The student asks "What is prANa maya koSa:?" and the guru replies as follows: : : :|TB-35| prANAdhyA: pancavAyava: vAgAdhIndhriya pancakam prANamaya koSa: |TB-35| prANamaya koSa: - The vital air layer is that which combines the following.. prANAdhyA: - prANan etc pancavAyava: - that represents the five vital airs in our body which combines and moves pancakam - the five karmendhriyAs (organs of action), such as vAgAdhIndhriya - Speech, etc.. A careful observation will show that the organs of knowledge are EXCLUDED from this prANamaya koSAm.. as it is to be explained as a part of the subsequent koSAs.. The five organs of action have been explained already (speech, hands, feet, organs of evacuation, and organ of procreation).. The five vital airs are prANan, apAnan, udhAnan, vyAnan, and samAnan.. prANan is responsible for keeping us alive.. This is the primal air we breath in. apAnan is that clasification of the primal air which takes care of what is thrown out of our body.. udhAnan is that clasification of the primal air which leaves our our body when the body is not capable of sustaining the sUkshma SarIram.. vyAnan is that clasification of the primal air which is responsible for the circulatory system of the body.. samAnan is that clasification of the primal air which is responsible for the digestive system of the body.. Thus the SAsthram divides the prAnamaya koSa as the physical functioning of the human body with the help of five classes of the air we breath in.. And this is not an exact modern science as we know today, but it is an amazing representation of the human boldily functions that requires oxygen at various levels, all the way from the volumetric inhalation to the dissolved oxygen carried to each cell of the body via the red blood cells.. That is exactly the reason why this TB explanation is reasonable, yet we don't check this model against modern science..!!

The five koSAs.. TB-36 : ? manomayakoSa: ka:? What is the mind koSam? is the the Q by the student.. The teacher then replies: : : |TB-36| manaSca gnAnEndhriya pancakam milithvA yo Bavathi sa: manomaya koSa: |TB-36| manaSca = mind and gnAnEndhriya pancakam = the five organs of knowledge milithvA = mix together yo Bavathi = and forms (a koSam) sa: = that koSam is (known as) manomaya = mind koSa: = koSam.

I am very carefully avoiding the use of the word "sheath" here, because the word koSam can drive us into a frenzied activity of "SHEATH REMOVAL". Then along comes a modern guru who quotes this thatithrIya SRthi.. and sounds almost acceptable, and charges the wealthy among us hefty sums of money where these sheaths can be removed one after the other systematically and then assures us the experience of the "inexplicable" AthmA bliss.. shining inside these five sheaths like a shining star.. You see.. our indian scriptures is a GOLD MINE for those who want to mint money in teaching (cheating?) us how to experience AthmA! In TB, the SAsthram is very deliberate.. in the prANamaya kOSam it explained ONLY the prANic activities and the five vital airs associated with the the karmEndhriyAs activity, even while asleep.! HERE THE GURU TAKES US IFROM THE MOST GROSS KOSAM (PHYSICAL BODY) to the next subtler kOSam (prANamaya) to the next subtler koSam called manomayam.. As the subtlty increases, gross-ness decreases.. and the permeation (vyApakathvam) increases. That is how it is.! So the organs of knowledge (which are subtler than the organs of action) "Party" together with the mind.. and forms an universe called manomaya koSam. Actions can be seen.. but thoughts can NOT be seen.. hence the higher level of subtlety. What does the mind itself do with the information provided by the organs of knowledge? TB is not that quick in giving the answer.. as it is to be unfolded after how mind itself if formed and what are the qualities of mind.. that comes later.!

The vignanamaya koSa: - TB-36 : :? What is vignAnamaya koSam? : = (Our) intellect and = five organs of knowledge = mix together and = (thus) which is produced : = that (is known as) : = Intellect koSam.

Here the guru goes to explain further subdivisions of our internal organs known as "antha:karaNam" with which the jIva happily interacts with the entire universe around us.. The primary orgnas of knowledge will always be ears, skin, eyes, nose, and tongue with which we experience the universe and gather "data" for investigation.. This data set is really sounds, feel, forms/colors, smells, and tastes RESPECTIVELY as explained earlier.. These organs of knowledge do not tell us if these experience universe if good, bad, or indifferent.. THAT IS THE JOB OF THE JIVA..! Then by ISvara's order, all these organs of knowledge ARE outwardly.. So there is no way they will report the truth about ourselves.. This is quite important because, we always think that we can pick up any book, read about ourselves, and know precisely who and what we are (AS EVIDENCED BY COUNTLESS COMMUNITIES IN THIS ORKUT MEDIUM..!!) There are actually four internal organs as defined by the scriptures.. Only two are EXPLICITELY mentioned in the

five-koSa analysis.. The other tow come much later.. That is the beauty of TB as well as the difficulty in defining complex entities like humans, god, creation, gnAnam, karma, mukthi, etc.. So at his point the guru says we operate at the manomaya level identifying ourselves with the mind koSam. We also operate at the vignAna maya koSam level identifying ourselves with the intellect we all possess. So the readers at this point must merely be satisfied with the fact that a human being was explained at the three states of existence namely waking, dream, and deep sleep. Now the same human being can be explained also fromt he view point of the five koSa level that we all operate from.. More explanations to follow .!

A brief interlude..! In SarIra thrya prakriyA (three body model) the physical body was well explained.. So it is easy to get into annamaya koSAm explanation.. but when it comes to the other 4 koSa, TB has not explained it yet. So I also have not explained it so far fully. Those of you who catch this point, are making me immensely happy (The dream of a Tutor..!).. So I ma planning to revisit this topic later.. sort of tying the various ends together. That is why TB is to be remembered from the first aksharam or letter to the last conluding aksharam..! It willb e a ggggg..rrrr...eeee...aaaa..ttttt help to you if you can memorize the whole text.. TB is a complete text.. and many of our Qs can be answered by TB itself.. What it can not, we have to go to other prakaraNa grnathAs, gIthA, upanishaths, and brmha sUthra BAshyam (if needed..!!) affly, M

Anandha maya koSam.. TB - 37 : :? Anandha maya: ka:? What is the Anandha maya koSam.. This is really a critical question.. I may dwell a bit longer on this.. This is ALWAYS defined in most ranslations I have seen as "Bliss", with an upper case" B.. so as to differentiate from "bliss", wiht a lower case" b.. The key difference here most authors and explainers STRESS is that 'Bliss" is the eternal AthmAnandha Bliss (as this is carefully hidden in the Anandhamaya sheath..!) as opposed to ordinary dosai bliss.. ice cream bliss, movie bliss.. experiential bliss which is really the sAmsAric or worldly bliss.. Perhaps the worst description that flows around is this wonderful "Bliss" to be experienced.. and experiential "bliss".. So we need to EXPERIENCE this AthmA Bliss? Who would not? hmm? But just wait.!

EvamEva = In this manner kAraNa SarIra BUtha = that which is responsible for the formation of causal body.. avidhyAsTha = that find is basis is ignorance malina sathva = having very yath asthi thath = that which remainls (as explained here) : Anandha maya koSa = Anandha maya koSam..|TB-37| little sathva guNam sahitham sath = having priyAdhi vRththi = very desirable feelings, etc..

A lot has been said here about Anandha maya koSam.. First and foremost is that it is from which the kAraNa SarIram is born. Understanding this correctly sets us in the path of avidhyA removal.. not knowing this properly keeps us bound to "bliss", believe itor not..! Causal body survives even the mahApralayam.. or the ultimate dissolution at the end of the kalpam.. where even brmhAji the SRshti karthA of the creation himself is dissolved in to brmhan.. that causal body ties each of of the agnAni jiva's sUskhma SarIram and allows it to enter another sthUla SarIram upon the next cycle of creation, and then several bodies to work out the puNya pApam from his own SK.! (to be cont'd)

Anandha maya koSam.. TB - 37 (cont'd) Next of course is the dependence on avidhyA.. When guru says Anandha maya koSam is established in avidhyA.. it helps us focus on the fact that "this Anandha I derive from this worldly experiences is really ginding e.." and that is really waht the scriptures have been saying all along.. Accept avidhyA as normal.. we are samsAri for ever.. Then how to remove this avidhyA? we have two clearly defined routes to safety.. This means that we need to go to a guru who knows how to handle the scriptures as a pramANam or means of knowledge and thus remove our avidhyA and make us UNDERSTAND the true essence of Anandha maya koSam.. Now the guru moves on to the malina sathvam aspect of Anandha maya koSam.. Why only a little bit of sathvam? and why not a lot more..? sathvam is explained by scriptures to be synonimous with knowledge, seeking knowledge, and appraoching a guru with an attitude of servitude.. helping fellow being out of their suffering.. follow Dharmam NATURALLY. AND SO ON AND SO FORTH.. now we can see why this sathva guNam is malinam or NOT SO MUCH in its abundance in Anandha maya koSAm.. Though each jiva has this Anadha may koSa experience , if the understanding that "I am that" is missing, then the sathvam will be present to some extent only.. So when we are awake and experienceing Anadha we will take tht mithyA experience to be the "truthful" experience only. now why the priyAdhi vRththi..? None of us can deny that IN SPITE OF all the miseries in the world, there is something or other in our life that makes us peaceful.. or laugh at a joke.. or smile at someone.. or recall a previous pleasurable experience (even if it ends up in a "lover's quarrel.. ) and so on and so forth. This experience is called the vaishIyika suKam or a pleasure based on the external objexts.. but even this is a pleasure because IT MAKE ME HAPPY.. it is the experience of Athma suKam only but manifests itself in our search for pleasure in external objects. It is like a dog chewing on a bone tasting its own blood!

TB-38 Why the five koSas are NOT AthmA.. | Ethath koSa pancakam |

madhIyam [my] SarIram [body] : madhIyA: [my] : prANA: [five vital airs] madhIyam [my] manaSca [mind] madhIyA [my] : budhDhi: [intellect] madhIyam my gnAnam [knowledge] ithi [in this manner] svEnaiava [how by oneself] gnayathE [it is known] thath

[that] yathA [just as] madhIyathvEna [by the feeling of ownership] gnAtham [it is known] kataka [my katakam] kuNdala [my kundalam] gRhAdhikam [my house] svasmAth [from me] Binnam [they are all different] thaThA [in that very same manner] pancakoSAdhikam mine"] gnAtham [known in that manner. period.] na [They are NOT] AthmA [my AthmA] Bavathi [at ANYTIME..!!] |TB-39|

[these five koSAs] svasmAth [from myself] Binnam [different] madhIyathvEna ["this is

Okay, this is a mouthful to say.. or a handful to write.. and no matter how I tried to split the words, they were not yielding satisfactory ENGLISH sentences.. WHEREAS as samskRtham words they all made beautiful sense.. So I decided to keep the original order and I will try to justice to the orignal thaThparyam (essence) of what the guru has succinctly said.. Initially we described gorss body.. that which is most evident to us.. that should be understood as anAthmA or not the caithanyam.. Same is true for the subtle body and causal body.. We are able to observe at least two of the three bodies and causal body is TOTALLY NON-OBSERVABLE DIRECTLY, but accepted as declared by SRthi.. Then the guru went into the explanations of the waking state.. dream state and deep sleep state.. We witness the two states and deep sleep is inferred by us upon waking and as SDS puts it, it is directly "heard" by others nearby.. Following that description, our guru told the Sishya about the five koSas "we" all possess. The bold red word is vital

TB-38 Why the five koSas are NOT AthmA..(Cont'd) I concluded the last post by saying that "we" all possess" are very important wrods. Let us analyze this a bit more.. We start by saying that I am short, or tall, or dark, or fair, or blind, or deaf.. etc.. In reality we are truly saying MY body height is not much.. or above average.. or skin color is dark.. or skin color is fair, or eyes do not see.. or ears do not hear.. etc.. etc.. Our language orientation is such that the "MY" is absent from our budhDhi most of the times.. except on occasion.. when a doctor asks "where does it hurt" we reply "MY" stomoch hurts..! Similary when we say "I breath smoothly.. thanks to MY prANAyAmam practice, we really are saying.. "MY lungs inhale and exhale the air smoothly" Also when we say that " I am quiet, happy, I am sad, etc.." we clearly are operating at the mind level, and are really saying "MY" mind is still, is happy, is sad" etc. Same goes when we declare that "I decided to go to USA" or "I decided to accept the job in Infosys".. we are also really saying "MY" budhDhi decided to go to USA or accept the job in Infosys.. Then we clearly say ithout even batting an eye lid,"I know what needs to be done" we are really exhibiting "MY" knowledge. Soo here the guru makes us think a little bit.. if I use the word "I" all the time and in every instance it really means "MY" followed by some verbs and nouns, THEN THIS POSSESSIVE PRONOUN CAN BE FORMED ONLY AFTER THE OWNER BEING THE "I"

In that case, everything we think, speak, act, and act upon.. all of them are known to the "karthA" In the same manner, the five annamaya koSa is "seen" by me with MY eyes.. the prANa maya koSa is "seen" by MY sense organ called "skin".MY mind koSa is also seen by ME through what is called MY "SAkshi prathyaksham" or witness peception. Same witness perception see MY vignAna maya koSAm also. Ahh. finally the Anandha maya koSam.. simply exquisite.. it could be as simple as eating yogurt rice or..my lover says YES! madhIyathvEna gnAtham

TB-38 Why the five koSas are NOT AthmA..(Cont'd) Now having proved that this INTIMATELY known five koSas are suddenly compared by the guru to a whole bunch of unexpected objects.. ALL INERT..! First I know that I have "MY" ear rings and ankle rings.. (yes.. any one of us who has seen old Indian movies where the rAjA and his men wore all kinds of jewelry..) And certainly I am the proud owner of a house.. sometimes, a one room flat in mumbai.. or a 19 room mansion on the banks of a Swiss lake in Geneva.. I proudly tell my friends.."this is MY house..!" (please notice the upper case my.. bold and red and so proud..!!) So now the teacher asks one simple Q to the student.. "hey, you see your panca koSa and say this is MY body etc.. then you also say that this is MY possesion.. so if YOU are the owner of these INERT objects, YOU are ALSO the owner of these 5 koSas.. can you not see.. ? the owner of an object is DIFFERENT always from the objects OWNED..! "In the same manner (as the OWENER is different from the OWNED), AthmA is ALSO different than the five koSAs you mistake yourself to be.." This is how the guru teaches.. Mistakes are made at teh avasThA thrayam level.. or the SarIrathryam level.. or the panca koSa level.. So teh guru takes all the pains in the world to explain to the SishyA as questions arise in the student's mind. Once I asked SDS anonymously what is the defintion of a guru.. And I though I had asked him an excellent question for which he will give a one-hour lecture and still admire the alertness of the student who had asked such a brillliant Q. He read the question out aloud in the mike.. and answered the shortest possible answer that can ever be given in couple of seconds.! He read the Q aloud:"Who is a guru?" His answer was: ONE WHO MAKES YOU SEE! What else needs to be said about a guru? (of course, if TB were to be given in the Q&A format, nobody including me would understand a single word ) Now we will move onto EVEN more interesting aspects!

TB-39 Athma lakshaNam..|TB-39| :? AthmA tharhi ka:? |TB-39| Finally.. after all these strenous inroductions to.. four-fold ualifactions.. a mumukshu.. gross body definitions.. subtle body definitions.. causal body definitions.. the waking state.. the dream state.. the deep sleep state.. Then food koSA.. vital air koSa.. mind koSa.. intellect koSa.. "happiness" koSa.. Then the introduction of the OWNER.. "aham" or I.. Then the introduction of the OWNED or "MY" and "MINE". At last the casting aside of all aof the above as the "owned" states or owned objects.. Thus the student is correctly confused.. and asks this million dollar question.. What then is this AthmA?"

Here it is important ot know why the guru (and the SAstrhra as unfolded by him) has waited this far before answering this question.. I also want to stress the importance of why a clarity here will go a long way.. Most people either define AthmA as existence knowledge bliss.. and this puts us on a trip.. there are several Orkut communities dedicated to analyzing this without any basic understanding of the importance of SAsthram. Or.. The reader gets bored with study and goes on his merry way accepting that "it is good to be a materialist.. and not worry about AthmA, after all when I am gone, who knows I even came?" Then there are any number of paliative paths available.. starting from "pleasure" yoga..to rAja yoga.. or worship through any number of ways I think is right.. or why worship at all? or the whole thing is a humbug. or.. I see misery & this is what I have to do to set it right. Or a "serious mumukshu" hangs in there and wants to go further This is what kRshNa says in BG very effectively. manushyANAm sahasrEshu (among thousands of people) kaSchith yathati sidhDhayE (very few try for "knowing" me) yathathAm api sidhDhAnAm (among those few who even try to remove avidhyA) kaScith (some "lucky"guy") vEththi mAm (gets to understand me) thathvatha: (in the "correct" way I should be undertsood)

Athma lakshaNam..in |TB-40| And so the uththama aDhikAri (which every one reading this TB explanation is lakshaNam of AthmA by the guru.. : sath chith Anandha svarUpa: |TB-40| ) is told in very precise words the

Here a small diversion into how our ancestors have taken the pains to distinguish TWO types of adjectives.. The word "adjective" means one that distinguishes.. then the Q is distinguishes what from what? When we say he is a smart boy or a handsome fellow.. we are really describing a human being as compared to another human being..

When a washerman compliments hRthik roShan as a handsome fellow he is definitely NOT comparing him with his donkey.. (UNLESS he is madly fond of his donkey.!) Similarly when we say a horse is looking regal, we do not compare it whith a hyena..or even a donkey.. Our SAsthrakAras have defined this type of adjective description as "viSEshaNAni" Now I will write the SDS definition of a viSEshaNa adjective.. sva jAthIyEBya: anyEBya: vishyEBya: vyAvarThakAni viSEshaNAni.. now this is how SDS explains it.. "vyAvarThakAni" means that (attribute) which distinguishes.. BUT the Q is what from what..? "sva jAthIyEBya:" means belonging to the same order of spieces.. be it inanimate or animate.. thus a chair is compared only with a chair.. or the wood it is made of can be compared to the wood of the support beam. but the chair itself can not be compared to the support beam.. "anyEBya: vishyEBya:" means other objects or life forms belonging to the same type. So rearranged.. the viSEshaNa type of objective is use for comparing objects or life forms belonging to the same class.. and thus distinguishing one from the other. WE DO IT 24 7 WHEN WE SAY THAT THE COFFEE FROM MAVALLI TIFFIN ROOM IS BETTER THAN THE COFFEE FROM CHENNAI SARAVANA BAVAN.. or when we say Elizabeth Taylor's eyes are the most beautiful, etc.. We do not even think that we are using viSEshaNa adjectives. But this is all we MOSTLY know.. is there any other type? Of course! Let us move on..!

Athma lakshaNam in TB-40 (cont'd) Having described adjectives, I will now move on to a very unique adjective that is used in scriptures.. this is known as lakshaNam.. sarvEBya: anyEBya: vishyEBya: vyAvarThakAni lakshaNAni.. now this is how SDS explains it.. as based on scriptures and Sankara BAshyam.. The most of the common place adjectives compare the objects belonging to the same species.. or you can compare a person to a lion if he is stong powerful and courageous.. these type of adjectives are called "gauNa" words.. then we move on to the next type of adjectives called the "lakshaNam".. Again the definition of lakshaNa adjective is: (lakshaNAni..) These are the group of words (vyAvarThakAni) that describe and distinguish an object from (sarvEBya:) ALL anyEBya: OTHER.. vishyEBya: OBJECTS BELONGING TO ANY CLASS.!! So the lakshaNa words no longer worry if I am compared to a donkey or a monkey is compared to a tree, etc, etc.. It simply defines an object in a way that there can be no further doubts in our minds.. SDS's classic example of such lakshAna padham is the definition of space.. There is not a second space to compare

it with.. There is nothing else like space.. and within space there are NO differences (though room space, pot space etc can be seen, it is the same space which is within and without..!) So how will we be able to define space? is it blue? wrong.. is it polluted? wrong? is it big? wrong? is it small? wrong.. is it cold? wrong? is it hot? wrong..! You see all the known words we know can not "define" space.. this is the key difference between "adjectives" or viSEshaNam words and "definition" or lakshaNam words. The spece is defined in samskRtham as "avakASa pradhAthR".. the straight forward meaning is "space is defined as the one which accommodates" Now let us try to shake this definition.. WE CAN NOT.. WE WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO.. So the indescribable AthmA is defined.. and NEVER described by SRthi. MEGA MEGA POINT..!

Athma lakshaNam in TB-40 (cont'd) (Explained on Sep 13 in TB Q&A Forum) Almost many words will have even opposite as well as multiple meanings.. examples: I say "bring me water".. straight forward.. this is known as prime meaning of muKya vRththi. Then I say "I went to school with veng. He was a lion".. you neither have a mane, nor walk on fource, nor pounced on animals.. you were an idli sambar guy.. here I am perhaps referring to the fearless guNam of the lion exhibited by you in facing touch situations.. This is known as gauNa vRththi Now to more complicated vRththis known as 5 types of lakaNa vRththi, namely jagath lakshaNam, ajagath lakshaNam, and jagath ajagath lakshaNam We are leaving the house with your assistant.. You say "door".. the assistance understands you and he knows that you want him to lock the door. Then both of you return.. and you again say ["door" and your assisant knows to open the door.. here door meant both open and close.. This is known as jallakshaNam, in which the said word is replaced entirely with another.. BTW, Most comedians and philosophers use this effectively Now a classic pancaparakriyA example. we are all standing at the race course.. your friend says "look.. white runs.." you understand EVEN WITHOUT LOOKING UP that the white horse running.. he said white and you understood as white horse.. here he said "white" and you bring in your budhdhi