This is the unmanifest (Avyakta), the potentiality of natural power (natura naturans).{195} When, however, owing to the ripening of Karma, the time for creation takes place, there is a stirring of the Gunas (Gunakshobha) and an initial vibration (Spandana), known in the Tantras as Cosmic Sound (Shabdabrahman). The Gunas affect one another, and the universe made of these three Gunas is created. The products of Prakriti thus evolved are called Vikāra or Vikriti.{196} Vikriti is manifest (Vyakta) Prakriti (natura naturata). In the infinite and formless Prakriti there appears a strain or stress appearing as form. On the relaxation of this strain in dissolution forms disappear in formless Prakriti, who as power (Shakti) re-enters the Brahman-Consciousness. These Vikritis are the Tattvas issuing from Prakriti,{197} the Avidyā Shakti—namely, the different categories of mind, senses, and matter.
The bodies are threefold: causal (Kāranasharīra, or Parasharīra, as the Shaivas call it), subtle (Sūkshmasharīra), and gross (Sthūlasharīra). These bodies in which the Ātmā is enshrined are evolved from Prakriti Shakti, and are constituted of its various productions. They form the tabernacle of the Spirit (Ātmā), which as the Lord is “in all beings, and who from within all beings controls them.”{198} The body of the Lord (Īshvara) is pure Sattvaguna (Shuddhasattvagunapradhāna).{199} This is the aggregate Prakriti or Māyā of Him or Her as the Creator-Creatrix of all things. Jīva, as the Kulārnava Tantra{200} says, is bound by the bonds (Pāsha); Sadāshiva is free of them.{201} The former is Pashu, and the latter Pashupati, or Lord of Pashus (Jīvas). That is, Ishvarī{202} is not affected by Her own Māyā. She is all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful. Īshvara thus rules Māyā. Jīva is ruled by it. The body of the Mother and Her child the Jīva are not, thus, the same. For the latter is a limited consciousness subject to error, and governed by that Māyāshakti of Hers which makes the world seem to be different from what it in its essence is. The body of Jīva is therefore known as the individual Prakriti or Avidyā, in which there is impure Sattva, and Rajas and Tamas (Malinasattvagunapradhāna). But in the Mother are all creatures. And so in the Trishatī{203} the Devī is called “in the form of one and many letters” (Ēkānekāksharākritih). As Ekā She is the Ajnāna which is pure Sattva and attribute (Upādhi) of Īshvara; as Anekā She is Upādhi or vehicle of Jīva. Whilst Īshvara is one, Jīvas are many, according to the diversity in the nature of the individual Prakriti caused by the appearance of Rajas and Tamas in it in differing proportions. The Ātmā appears as Jīva in the various forms of the vegetable, animal, and human worlds.
The first or causal body of any particular Jīva, therefore, is that Prakriti (Avidyā Shakti) which is the cause of the subtle and gross bodies of this Jīva which are evolved from it. This body lasts until liberation, when the Jīvātmā ceases to be such and is the Paramātmā or bodiless Spirit (Videha Mukti). The Jīva exists in this body during dreamless sleep (Sushupti).
The second and third bodies are the differentiations through evolution of the causal body, from which first proceeds the subtle body, and from the latter is produced the gross body.
The subtle body, which is also called Linga Sharīra or Puryashtaka, is constituted of the first evolutes (Vikriti) from the causal Prakritic body—namely, the Mind (Antahkarana), the internal instrument, together with the external instruments (Bāhyakarana), or the Senses (Indriya), and their supersensible objects (Tanmātra). The third or gross body is the body of “matter” which is the gross particular object of the senses{204} derived from the supersensibles.
Shortly, this subtle body may be described as the mental body, as that which succeeds is called the gross body, of matter. Mind, which is called the “working within” or “internal instrument” (Antahkarana), is one only, but is given different names to denote the diversity of its functions.{205} The Sāngkhya thus speaks of Buddhi, Ahangkāra, Manas, to which the Vedānta adds Chitta, being different aspects or attributes (Dharma) of mind as displayed in the psychical processes by which the Jīva knows, feels, and wills.
These may be considered from the point of view of evolution—that is, according to the sequence in which the limited experience of the Jīva is evolved—or from that in which they are regarded after creation, when the experience of concrete sense objects has been had. According to the former aspect, Buddhi or Mahat Tattva is the state of mere presentation; consciousness of being only, without thought of “I” (Ahangkāra), and unaffected by sensations of particular objects (Manas and Indriyas). It is thus the impersonal Jīva Consciousness, a state of impersonal experience which, at least in some of its aspects, may be that which is spoken of as the subliminal consciousness.{206} Ahangkāra, of which Buddhi is the basis, is the personal consciousness which realizes itself as a particular “I,” the experiencer. The Jīva, in the order of creation, first experiences in a vague general way without consciousness of the self, like the experience which is had immediately on waking after sleep. It then refers this experience to the limited self, and has the consciousness “lam So-and-so.”
Manas is the desire which follows on such experience, and the senses and their objects are the means whereby that enjoyment is had which is the end of all will to life. Whilst, however, in the order of evolution Buddhi is the first principle, in the actual working of the Antahkarana after creation has taken place it comes last.
It is more convenient, therefore, to commence with the sense-objects and the sensations they evoke. Matter as the objective cause of perception is not in its character as such under the cognizance of the senses. All that can be predicated of it is its effect upon these senses, which is realized by the instrumentality of mind in its capacity as Manas. The experiencer is affected in five different ways, giving rise in him to the sensations of hearing, touch and feel,{207} color and form{208} and sight, taste, and smell.{209} But sensible perception exists only in respect of particular objects. Thus, sound as the gross object of the sense (Indriya) of hearing is either high, low, harsh, sweet, and so forth. Sound is thus perceived in its variations only. But there exist also general elements of the particulars of sense perception. That general ideas may be formed of particular sense objects indicates, it is said,{210} their existence in some parts of the Jīva’s nature as facts of experience; otherwise the generals could not be formed from the particulars given by the senses as the physical facts of experience. There is therefore an abstract quality by which sensible matter (Mahābhūta) is perceived. This abstract quality is called a Tanmātra, which means the “mere thatness,” or abstract quality, of an object. Thus, the Tanmātra of sound (Shabdatanmātra) is not any particular sensible form of it, but the “thatness” of sound—that is, sound as such apart from any of its particular variations stated. The Tanmātras have, therefore, aptly been called the “generals of the sense particulars”{211}—that is, the general elements of sense perception. These necessarily come into existence when the senses (Indriya) are produced; for a sense necessitates something which can be the object of sensation. These Sūkshma (subtle) Bhūta, as they are also called, are not ordinarily themselves perceived, for they are supersensible (Atīndriya). Their existence is only mediately perceived through the gross particular objects of which they are the generals, and which proceed from them. They can be the objects of immediate (Pratyaksha) perception only to Yogīs.{212} They are, like the gross sense objects derived from them, five in number—namely, sound as such (Shabdatanmātra), touch and feel as such{213} (Sparshatanmātra), color and form as such (Rūpatanmātra), flavor as such (Rasatanmātra), and odor as such (Gandhatanmātra). Each of these evolves from that which precedes it.{214}
Sensations aroused by sense objects are experienced by means of the outer instruments (Bāhyakarana) of the Lord of the body, or senses (Indriya), which are the gateways through which the Jīva receives worldly experience. These are ten in number, and are of two classes: viz., the five organs of sensation or perception (Jnanendriya), or ear (hearing), skin (feeling by touch), eye (sight), tongue (taste), and nose (smell); and the five organs of action (Karmendriya), which are the reactive response which the self makes to sensation—namely, mouth, hands, legs, anus, and genitals, whereby sneaking, grasping, walking, excretion, and procreation, are performed, and through which effect is given to the Jīva’s desires. These are afferent and efferent impulses respectively.
The Indriya, or sense, is not the physical organ, but the faculty of mind operating through that organ as its instrument. The outward sense organs are the usual means whereby on the physical plane the functions of hearing and so forth