in his subtle or mental body alone when in the dreaming (Svapna) state. For the outside world of objects (Mahābhūta) is then shut out, and the consciousness wanders in the world of ideas. The subtle body or soul is imperishable until liberation is attained, when the Jīvātmā, or seemingly conditioned consciousness, ceases to be such, and is the Supreme Consciousness or Paramātmā Nirguna Shiva. The subtle body thus survives the dissolution of the gross body of matter, from which it goes forth (utkraman), and reincarnates{235} until liberation (Mukti). The Lingasharīra is not all-pervading (Vibhu), for in that case it would be eternal (Nitya), and could not act (Kriyā). But it moves and goes (gati). Since it is not Vibhu, it must be limited (parichinna) and of atomic dimension (anuparimānam). It is indirectly dependent on food. For though the material body is the food-body (annamaya), mind is dependent on it when associated with the gross body. Mind in the subtle body bears the Sangskāras which are the result of past actions. This subtle body is the cause of the third or gross body.
The whole process of evolution is due to the presence of the will to life and enjoyment, which is a result of Vāsanā, or world-desire, carried from life to life in the Sangskāras, or impressions made on the subtle body by Karma, which is guided by Īshvara. In its reaching forth to the world, the Self is not only endowed with the faculties of the subtle body, but with the gross objects of enjoyment on which those faculties feed. There therefore comes into being, as a projection of the Power (Shakti) of Consciousness, the gross body of matter called Sthūla Sharīra.
The word Sharīra comes from the root “Shri,” to decay; for the gross body is at every moment undergoing molecular birth and death until Prāna, or vitality, leaves, the organism, which as such is dissolved. The soul (Jīvātmā) is, when it leaves the body, no longer concerned therewith. There is no such thing as the resurrection of the body. It returns to dust, and the Jīva when it reincarnates does so in a new body, which is nevertheless, like the last, suited to give effect to its Karma.
The Sthūla Sharīra, with its three Doshas, six Koshas, seven Dhatus, ten Fires, and so forth,{236} is the perishable body composed of compounds of five forms of gross sensible matter (Mahābhūta), which is ever decaying, and is at the end dissolved into its constituents at death.{237} This is the Vedāntik body of food (Annamaya Kosha), so called because it is maintained by food which is converted into chyle (Rasa), blood, and the other material components of the gross organism. The Jīva lives in this body when in the waking (Jāgrat) state.
The human, physical, or gross body is, according to Western science, composed of certain compounds, of which the chief are water, gelatin, fat, phosphate of lime, albumen, and fibrin, and of these water constitutes some two-thirds of the total weight. These substances are composed of simpler non-metallic and metallic elements, of which the chief are oxygen (to the extent of about two-thirds), hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. Again, to go one step farther back, though the alleged indestructibility of the elements and their atoms is still said by some to present the character of a “practical truth,” well-known recent experiments go to re-establish the ancient hypothesis of a single primordial substance to which these various forms of matter may be reduced, with the resultant of the possible and hitherto derided transmutation of one element into another; since each is but one of the plural manifestations of the same underlying unity.
Recent scientific research has shown that this original substance cannot be scientific “matter”—that is, that which has mass, weight, and inertia. Matter has been dematerialized and reduced, according to current hypotheses, to something which differs profoundly from “matter” as known by the senses. This ultimate substance is stated to be Ether in a state of motion. The present scientific hypothesis would appear to be as follows: There is no such thing as scientific “Matter.” If there seems to be such, this is due to the action of Shakti as Māyā. The ultimate and simplest physical factor from which the universe has arisen is motion of and in a substance called “ether,” which is not scientific “matter.” The motions of this substance give rise from the realistic point of view to the notion of “matter.” Matter is thus at base one, notwithstanding the diversity of its forms. Its ultimate element is on the final analysis of one kind, and the differences in the various kinds of matter depend on the various movements of the ultimate particle and its succeeding combinations. Given such unity of base, it is possible that one form of matter may pass into another.
The Indian theory here described agrees with the Western speculations to which we have referred, that what the latter calls “scientific matter” does not really—that is, permanently—exist, but says that there are certain motions or forces (five in number) which produce the appearance of “matter,” and which are ultimately reducible to ether (Ākāsha). Ākāsha, however, and scientific “ether” are not in all respects the same. The latter is an ultimate physical substance, not “matter,” having vibratory movements and affording the medium for the transmission of light. Ākāsha is one of the gross forces into which the Primordial Power (Prakriti Shakti) differentiates itself. Objectively considered it is a vibration{238} which produces the psychical experience of space in which the other forces are observed to be operating. Lastly, Ākāsha is not an ultimate, but is itself derived from the supersensible Tanmātra, with its quality (Guna) whereby Ākāsha affects the senses; and this Tanmatra is itself derived from the mental I-making principle (Ahangkāra), or personal consciousness produced from the super-personal Jīva-consciousness as such (Buddhi), emanating from the root-energy, or Prakriti, the cause and basis of all forms of “material” force or substance. At the back of “matter” there is mind, and at the back of mind the creative energy (Shakti) of the Supreme who is the cause of the universe and Consciousness itself.
Matter affects the Jīva in five different ways, giving rise in him to the sensations of smell, taste, sight, touch and feel, and hearing.
As already explained, the Tanmātra are supersensible, being abstract qualities, whilst the senses perceive their variations in particular objects only. These sense-particulars are produced from the generals.
From the Shabda Tanmātra and from the combinations of the latter with the other Tanmātras are produced the gross Bhūtas (Mahābhūta), which as things of physical magnitude perceivable by the senses approach the Western definition of discrete sensible “matter.” These five Mahābhūta are Ākāsha (Ether), Vāyu (Air), Tejas (Fire), Apas (Water), and Prithivi (Earth). Their development takes place from the Tanmātra, from one unit of that which is known in sensible matter as mass (Tamas), charged with energy (Rajas) by the gradual accretion of mass and redistribution of energy. The result of this is that each Bhūta is more gross than that which precedes it until “Earth” is reached. These five Bhūtas have no connection with the English “elements” so called, nor, indeed, are they elements at all, being derived from the Tanmātra. Dynamically and objectively considered they are (proceeding from Ākāsha) said to be five forms of motion, into which Prakriti differentiates itself: viz., non-obstructive, all-directed motion radiating lines of force in all directions, symbolized as the “Hairs of Shiva,”{239} affording the space (Ākāsha) in which the other forces operate; transverse motion{240} and locomotion in space (Vāyu); upward motion giving rise to expansion (Tejas); downward motion giving rise to contraction (Apas); and that motion which produces cohesion, its characteristic of obstruction being the opposite of the non-obstructive ether in which it exists and from which it and the other Tattvas spring. The first is sensed by hearing through its quality (Guna) of sound (Shabda);{241} the second by touch through resistance and feeling;{242} the third by sight as color;{243} the fourth by taste through flavor; and the fifth by the sense of smell through its odor, which is produced by matter only in so far as it partakes of the solid state.{244}
The hard and stable obstructive “earth” is that which is smelt, tasted, seen, and touched, and which exists in space which is known by hearing—that is, the sounds in it. The smooth “water” is that which is tasted, seen, and touched, in space. “Fire” is what is seen and touched—that is, felt as temperature—in space. “Air” is what is so felt in space. And sound which is heard is that by which the existence of the “Ether” is known. These Bhūtas when compounded make up the material universe. Each thing therein being thus made of all the Bhūtas, we find in the Tantra that form, color, and sound, are related, a truth which is of deep ritual significance. Thus, each of the sounds of speech or music