The Upanishads

SHARIRAKA UPANISHAD

Krishnayajurveda
a group of Upanishads – pure Vedanta

So, the body is a combination of five elements, such as earth [etc.]. Solid is earth, liquid is water, hot is fire, moving is air, porous and empty is space.

The sense organs are the ear, etc. The ear is in the sky (space), touch (skin) is in the air, the eye is in fire, the tongue is in water, the smell is in the earth. Thus for the senses, sound (shabda), tactile sensation (sparsa), visual form (rupa), taste (rasa) and smell (gandha) are the objects (spheres of action, vishaya).

The organs of action (karmendriyani) are the tongue (vak), hands (pani), feet (pada), anus and genitals (payu-pastha). Their spheres/objects (vishaya) are speech (vacana), grasping (adana), walking (gamana), excretion (visarga) and bliss (ananda). These originate from the earth etc. respectively.

Mind (manas), intelligence (buddhi), ego (ahamkara, the ego as the principle of separate self-perception) and self-awareness (chitta, the substance of consciousness) are the four internal senses (antahkarana, the internal instrument). Their spheres are volition (sankalpa) and doubt (vikalpa), decision-making (adhyavasaya, "comprehension", "awareness" of the perceived), attachment (abhimana, "self-interest"), clear decision (avadharana-svarupa). The mind (manas) resides in the upper point of the neck (gala-anta), intelligence (buddhi) – in the face (vadana), ego (ahamkara) – in the heart (hridaya), self-awareness (chitta) – in the navel.

Bone, skin, nerves, hair, flesh are parts of the earth; urine, phlegm (phlegm), blood, semen – from water; hunger, thirst, laziness, delusion (ignorance) and sex – from fire; blood circulation, pressure, eye movement, etc. – from air; lust, anger, greed, delusion and fear – from space (ether).

The qualities of earth are sound, touch, form, taste and smell; the qualities of water are sound, touch, form and taste; the qualities of fire are sound, touch and form; the qualities of air are sound and touch; the qualities of ether are sound only.

Sattvic, rajasic and tamasic – these are the qualities (lakshana) of the three gunas (trayo-guna, sattva, rajas and tamas).

Non-violence (ahimsa), truthfulness (satya), non-stealing (asteya), abstinence (brahmacharya) and non-appropriation of others' property (aparigraha, "non-acceptance"), absence of anger (akrodha), service to the teacher (guru-shushrusha), external and internal purity (saucha), contentment (santosha) and honesty (arjava), modesty and humility (amanitva), sincerity (adambhitva), faith (astika) and non-harming (ahimsra) – all (sarva) these (ete) qualities (guna) are known (jneya) as belonging exclusively (visheshata) to the sattvic (sattvika).

"I am the doer", "I am the enjoyer", "I am the speaker", vanity (abhimana) – these are the rajasic qualities known from the scriptures. Sleep (nidra), laziness (alasya), delusion/ignorance (moha), attachment (raga), sex (maithuna) and stealing (chaurya) – these are the tamasic qualities known from the scriptures. Sattvic [consciousness] is above (urdhva), rajasic is in the middle (madhya), and tamasic is below (adhas). True knowledge (satya-jnana) is sattvic; knowledge from rituals (dharma-jnana) is rajasic; impenetrable darkness (timira-andha) is tamasic.

Wakefulness (jagrat), dreaming sleep (svapna), deep dreamless sleep (sushupti) and turiya (the "fourth", the transcendental) – these are the four types (chatur-vidha) of state (avastha) [of consciousness]. Wakefulness relies (yukta) on the [five] organs of comprehension (jnanendriya), the [five] organs of action (karmendriya) and [the activity of] the four internal senses (mind, intelligence, ego and self-awareness). Dreaming sleep depends only on the four internal senses; the means of action (karana) of deep dreamless sleep is only self-awareness (chitta, "I"); the soul (jiva) is the only (kevala) support of the fourth state.

The Knower is the perceiver "I", different from the Supreme Self, located between awareness [of the object] and indifference [to it] (lit.: "The individual soul (jiva) has a half-closed vision ("the middle between (madhyastha) open eyes (unmilita) [and] closed (nimilita)"), and this jiva is different from ("but" – not) the Supreme "I" (Paramatman); this jiva-Atma resides between (madhya) the perceiver (kshetrajna) and the perceived (vijnyaya).

The five sense organs and the five organs of action with the five vital currents (pranas), the mind and the intelligence (buddhi) – these seventeen form the linga-sharira (the sheath of the lingam, "manifested"). Mind, intelligence, ego (ahamkara) together with earth, water, fire, etc. – these are the eight prakriti (elements of nature). There are sixteen other modifications (vikara); ear, skin, eye, tongue (jihva), and nose; anus and genitals (payu-pastha), hands (kara), feet (pada), tongue (vak); sound, touch, visual form, taste and smell. [Thus, there are] twenty-three tattvas (eternal realities, principles) pertaining to prakriti.

The twenty-fourth is avyakta (the unmanifested, inconceivable, supreme Self), the chief [tattva]. And presiding over all these (pradhana) is Purusha (the Absolute, the absolute Self), [the twenty-fifth tattva].

Thus ends the Sariraka Upanishad Krishnayajurveda.