Tattvabodha

Having saluted Shri Vasudevendra, the king of yogis, the guru who is the bestower of knowledge, Tattvabodha is expounded for the benefit of the seekers. This opening shloka is in the nature of an invocation or mangalacharya to the Guru. The rest of the text is in prose.

We shall explain to those who are endowed with the four-fold qualifications, the mode of discrimination which is the means of liberation.

What are the four-fold qualifications?
The capacity to discriminate between the permanent and the impermanent, dispassion to the enjoyment of the fruits of one’s actions here and hereafter, the group of six accomplishments {inner wealth} beginning with shama and the yearning for liberation.

What is meant by discrimination between the permanent and the impermanent?
The reality alone is eternal; everything else is ephemeral. This conviction alone is the discrimination between the permanent and the impermanent.

What is dispassion?
The absence of the desire for the enjoyments {of the fruits of one’s actions} in this world and in heaven.

What is the inner wealth starting with Sama?
They are sama, dhama, uparama, titiksha, shraddha and samadhana.

What is sama?
It is control or mastery over the mind.

What is dhama?
It is the control of the external sense organs such as the eyes etc.

What is uparama or uparati?
It is the strict observance of one own’s dharma {duty).

What is titiksha?
It is endurance of heat and cold, pleasure and pain etc.

What is the nature of shraddha?
Faith in the words etc., of the guru and Vedanta {scriptures) is shraddha.

What is samadhana?
It is the single pointedness of the mind.

What is mumukṣutvam?
Let me attain liberation. This intense desire is mumuksutvam.

This is the four-fold qualification. Thereafter, they become fit for the enquiry into the Truth.

What is enquiry into the truth?
It is the firm conviction that the self is real and all, other than that is unreal.

What is the self?
That which is other than the gross, subtle and causal bodies, beyond the five sheaths, the witness of the three states of consciousness and of the nature of existence-consciousness-bliss is the self.

What is the Gross Body?
That which is made up of the five great elements that have undergone the process of panchikarana, born as a result of the good actions of the past, the counter of experiences like joy, sorrow etc., and subject to the six modifications namely, to potentially exist, to be born, to grow, to mature, to decay and to die is the gross body.

What is the subtle body?
That which is composed of the five great elements which have not undergone grossification, born of the good actions of the past, the instrument for the experience of joy, sorrow etc., constituted of seventeen items, namely, the five sense organs of perception, the five sense organs of action, five pranas, the mind and the intellect is the subtle body.

The five sense organs of perception are the ears, skin, eyes, tongue and nose. The presiding deities of the sense organs of perception are space of the ears, air of the skin, the sun of the eyes, water of the tongue and the Ashvini kumaras of the nose. The field of experience of the sense organs of perception are-cognition of sound for the ear; cognition of touch for the skin; cognition of sight for the eyes; cognition of taste for the tongue and cognition of smell for the nose.

The five sense organs of action are - speech, the hands, the legs, the anus and the genitals. The presiding deities of the organs of action are - Agni (fire) of speech, Indra of the hands, Vishnu of the legs, Yama of the anus and Prajapati of the genitals. The function of speech is to speak, that of the hands to grasp things, of the leg's locomotion, of the anus elimination of waste and the genitals, pleasure {procreation}.

That which is inexplicable, beginning-less, in the form of ignorance, the sole cause of the two bodies (gross and subtle), ignorant of one’s own true nature, free from duality - is the causal body.

What are the three states?
They are the waking, dream and deep sleep states.

What is the waking state?
The state of experience in which the sense objects like sound are perceived through the sense organs like the ears, is the waking state. The self, identified with the gross body, is then
called vishva.

For the question, what is the dream state, the explanation is - The word that is projected while in sleep from the impressions born of what was seen and heard in the waking state is called the dream state. The self-identified with the subtle body is called Taijas (endowed with light).

Then what is the deep sleep state?
That state about which one says later "I did not know anything; I enjoyed a good sleep" is the deep sleep state. The self-identified with the causal body is called Prajna (the state of wisdom which is higher than the knowledge obtained by reasoning and inference).

What are the five sheaths?
They are Annamaya, Pranamaya, Manomaya, Vijnanamaya and Anandamaya.

What is annamaya kośā?
That which is born from the essence of food, grows by the essence of food and merges into the earth, which is of the nature of food is called the food sheath or the gross body.

What is Prāṇamayaḥ kośaḥ?
The five physiological functions like prana, etc., and the five organs of action like speech etc., together form the vital air sheath.

What is Manomayaḥ kośaḥ?
The mind and the five sense organs of perception together form the mental sheath.

What is Vijñānamayaḥ kośaḥ?
The intellect and the five sense organs of perception together is the intellectual sheath. It is subtle, and pervades the former three sheaths. It controls the other three. It constitutes the intellect and the five sense organs or perception. The five senses are common to both the mental and intellectual sheaths as perception involves both the mind and the intellect.

What is Anandamaya kośaḥ?
Established in ignorance, which is of the form of the causal body, of impure nature, united with thoughts like priya etc., is the bliss sheath. These are the five sheaths.

Just as bangles, earrings, house etc., known as ‘mine are all other than knower ‘me’, so too, the five sheaths etc., are known by the self as my body, my pranas, my mind, my intellect, and my knowledge and are therefore not the self.

Then what is the self?
It is of the nature of existence, consciousness, bliss.

What is existence?
That which remains unchanged in the three periods of time {past, present and future} is existence.

What is consciousness?
It is of the nature of absolute knowledge.

What is bliss?
It is of the nature of absolute happiness.

Thus one should know oneself to be of the nature of existence-consciousnes-bliss.

Now we shall explain the evolution of the twenty-four factors.

Depending on Brahman, maya (unreality) exists, which is of the nature of the three qualities of sattva, rajas and tamas.

From that (maya), space was born.
From space, air.
From air, fire.
From fire, water.
From water, earth.

Among these five great elements -
out of the sattvic aspect of space, the organ of hearing, the ear, evolved.
From the sattvic aspect of air, the organ of touch, the skin, evolved.
From the sattvic aspect of fire, the organ of sight, the eye, evolved.
From the sattvic aspect of water, the organ of taste, the tongue evolved.
From the sattvic aspect of earth, the organ of smell, the nose, evolved.

From the total sattvic aspect of these five elements -
The inner instrument of the mind, intellect, ego and memory are formed.
The mind is of the nature of indecision.
The intellect is of the nature of decision.
The ego is of the nature of the notion of doership.
Memory is of the nature of thinking or recollection.
The presiding deity of the mind is the moon,
Of the intellect, Brahma,
Of the ego, Rudra
and of memory, Vasudeva.

Among these five elements -
from the rajas aspect of space, the organ of speech is formed.
From the rajas aspect of air, the organ of grasping, the hands are formed.
From the rajas aspect of fire, the organ of locomotion, the legs are formed.
From the rajas aspect of water, the organ of procreation is formed.
From the rajasic aspect of earth, the anus is formed.
From the total rajas aspect of these five elements, the five vital airs, pranas are formed.

From the tamas aspect of these five elements, the grossified five elements are born.
If it is asked how this panchikarana (the creation of the elements by a process in which subtle matter or the prior stage of matter transforms itself into gross matter) takes place, it is as follows -
– The tamas aspect of each of the five elements divides into two equal parts.
– One half of each remains intact.
– The other half of each gets divided into four equal parts.
– Then to the intact half of one element, one-eight portion from each of the other four elements gets joined.
– Then panchikarana is completed.
– From these five grossified elements, the gross body is formed.
Thus, there is identity between the microcosm and the macrocosm.

The reflection of Brahman, which identifies itself with the gross body, is called the Jiva (individual soul). This Jiva by nature takes Ishwara (Supreme Self) to be different from himself or herself. The self-conditioned by ignorance (maya) is called Ishwara. So long as the notion that the Jiva and Ishwara are different remains, which is due to the difference in the conditioning, till then, there is no redemption from samsara which is of the form of repeated birth, death etc. Due to that reason, the notion that the Jiva is different from Ishwara should not be accepted.

But the Jiva (individual soul) is endowed with ego and his knowledge is limited, whereas Ishwara (supreme self) is without ego and is omniscient. Then how can there be identity, as stated in the Mahavakya, “You are that’, between these two who are possessed of contradictory characteristics? If there is such a doubt, no (it is not so). That literal meaning of the word ‘You’ is the one identified with the gross and subtle bodies. The implied meaning of the word ‘You’ is pure awareness which is free from all conditionings, and which is appreciated in the state of samadhi (a state of intense concentration). So also, the literal meaning of the word ‘That is Ishwara' having omniscience etc.; the implied meaning of the word that is the pure awareness, free from all conditionings. Thus, there is no contradiction regarding the identity between the Jiva and Ishwara from the standpoint of awareness.

Thus, by the words of Vedanta and the teachings of the satguru, those in whom the vision of the truth is born in all beings, are liberated while living (jīvanmuktah).

Then who is a Jīvanmuktah?
Just as one has firm belief ‘I am the body’; ‘I am a man’; ‘I am a Brahmin’; ‘I am Shudra’, in the same way one who by his immediate knowledge (aparoksha jnana) has firmly ascertained, ‘I am not a Brahmin’; ‘I am not a Shudra’; I am not a man’ but ‘I am unattached’ and of the nature of existence-consciousness-bliss, effulgent, the in-dweller of all and the formless awareness is a Jīvanmuktah. By immediate knowledge that I am Brahman alone, one becomes free from bondage of all karmas.

If one is asked-how many kinds of karmas are there, (the reply is) there are three kinds of karmas, viz., Agami, Sanchita and Prarabdha.

The results of actions, good or bad performed by the body of the realised soul (jnani) after the dawn of knowledge is known as Agami karma.

The result of actions performed in (all) previous births which are in seed form to give rise to endless crores of births in future is called Sanchita (accumulated) karma.

Having given birth to this body, the actions which give result in this very world, in the form of happiness or misery and which can be destroyed only by enjoying or suffering them is called Prarabdha karma.

Sanchita karma is destroyed by the firm knowledge, ‘I am Brahman’ alone. The agami karma is also destroyed by knowledge and the wise man is not affected by it - as a lotus leaf is not affected by the water on it (padma patram ivambhasa).

Further, to those who praise, serve and worship the wise man, go the results of the actions done by the wise man. To those who criticise, hate or cause pain to the wise man go the results of all unpraiseworthy and sinful actions done by the wise man.

Thus the knower of the self, having crossed samsara, attains supreme bliss here itself. The shruti affirms-the knower of the self goes beyond all sorrow. Let the wise man cast off his body in Kashi or in the house of a dog-eater {it is immaterial} because at the time of gaining knowledge {itself} he is liberated, being freed from all the results of his actions. So assert the smritis too.