Vedanta Philosophy

Śaṅkara

Annamaya kośa
Prāṇamaya kośa

Manomaya kośa
Ātman Vijñānamaya kośa

Ānandamaya kośa

Philosophy and Critical Thinking

Śaṅkara

Annamaya kośa
Prāṇamaya kośa

Manomaya kośa
Ātman Vijñānamaya kośa

Ānandamaya kośa

• This body of ours is the product of food and comprises the material
sheath.

Philosophy and Critical Thinking

Śaṅkara

Annamaya kośa
Prāṇamaya kośa

Manomaya kośa
Ātman Vijñānamaya kośa

Ānandamaya kośa

• The Prāṇa coupled with the five organs of action and it is modification of life-force.

• Perception (Prāṇa), Excretion (Apāna), Digestion (Vyāna), Circulation (Samāna) and the
thinking of thoughts (Udāna).

Philosophy and Critical Thinking

Śaṅkara

Annamaya kośa
Prāṇamaya kośa

Manomaya kośa
Ātman Vijñānamaya kośa

Ānandamaya kośa

• The mental sheath is the fire which, fed with the fuel of numerous
desires by the five sense-organs which serve as priests, and set ablaze
by the sense-objects which act as the stream of oblations, brings about
this phenomenal universe.

Philosophy and Critical Thinking

Śaṅkara

• There is no ignorance (avidyā) outside the mind. The mind alone is avidyā, the cause of the
bondage of transmigration.

• In dreams, when there is no actual contact with the external world, the mind alone creates
the whole universe consisting of the experiencer and the like. Similarly in the waking state also;
there is difference. Therefore all this is the projection of mind.

• In dreamless sleep, when the mind is reduced to its causal state, there exists nothing as is
evident from universal experience.

Philosophy and Critical Thinking

Śaṅkara

Annamaya kośa
Prāṇamaya kośa

Manomaya kośa
Ātman Vijñānamaya kośa

Ānandamaya kośa

• The buddhi with its modifications and the organs of knowledge, forms
the Vijñānamaya kośa or knowledge sheath, of the agent.

Philosophy and Critical Thinking

Śaṅkara

Annamaya kośa
Prāṇamaya kośa

Manomaya kośa
Ātman Vijñānamaya kośa

Ānandamaya kośa

• The blissful sheath is that modification of nescience which manifests itself catching a reflection of the
Ātman which is bliss absolute; whose attributes are pleasure and the rest; and which appears in view when
some object agreeable to oneself presents itself.

Philosophy and Critical Thinking

Śaṅkara

• The five organs of action such as speech, the five organ of

knowledge such as the ear, the group of five Prāṇas, the five elements
ending with ether, together with buddhi and the rest as also nescience,
desire and action-these eight things make up what is called the subtle
body.

• Ignorance of our real nature as the blissful Self leads to desire which
in its turn impels us to action, entailing countless sufferings.

Philosophy and Critical Thinking

Śaṅkara

• This subtle body is also called the liṅga body which is produced out of the elements before
their subdividing and combining with each other, is possessed of latent impressions and causes
the soul to experience the fruits of its past actions.

• Subtle body is the instrument for all activities of the Ātman.

• Avidyā or māyā: This is the power of Lord. She is without beginning, is made up of the three
guṇas and is superior to the effects. She is to be inferred by one of clear intellect only form the
effects She produces. It is She who brings forth this whole universe.

Philosophy and Critical Thinking

Śaṅkara

• She is neither existent nor non-existent nor partaking of both characters; neither same nor
different nor both; neither composed of parts nor an indivisible whole nor both. She is most
wonderful and cannot be described in words.

• Rajas has its Vikṣepa-śakti or projecting power, which is of the nature of an activity, and
from which the primeval flow of activity has emanated. From this also, mental modification
such as attachment and grief are continually produced.

Philosophy and Critical Thinking

Śaṅkara

• Āvṛti or the veiling power is the power of tamas, which makes things appear other than they
are.

• The traits of pure sattva are cheerfulness, the realization of one’s own Self, supreme peace,
contentment, bliss, and steady devotion of the Ātman by which the aspirant enjoys bliss
everlasting.

• The stupid man, through delusion, identifies himself with the reflection of the cit caught in
the buddhi, which Its superimposition.

Philosophy and Critical Thinking

Śaṅkara

• Bondage is the superimposing of notion of Self on the non-self, and this is due to ignorance.

• Jīva is the individual self and the Ātman is the transcendental self.

• Jīva is a construction of māya or avidyā

• Jīva has a gross body, a subtle body, and a causal body.

Philosophy and Critical Thinking