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Adi Sankaracharya’s
Panchikaranam
A small treatise on Vedanta
1. AUM. . The VIRAT is said to be the sum total of all the
quintuplicated[1] five elements and their effects. This is called
the gross body of the Atman (soul).
Waking is that state, where the senses give rise to the knowledge of
objects. The Atman, which identifies Itself with both the waking
state and the gross body, is known as the VISHVA
These three (the gross body, the waking state and the VISHVA)
together are represented by the first letter ‘A’ in the syllable ‘AUM’.
2. The five unquintuplicated rudimentary elements and their effect,
the subtle body, both together constitute what is called the
HIRANYAGARBHA. The material subtle body has seventeen parts, viz.
the five vital forces, the ten organs of perception and action, the
mind and the intellect. This is said to be the subtle body of the
Atman (soul).
3. When the sense-organs are quiescent or withdrawn, the knowledge
arising out of impressions of the waking state and the imaginary
objects there perceived, are together called the dream state. The
TAIJASA is the Atman which identifies Itself with both the dream
state and the subtle body. These three, i.e. &endash; the subtle
body, the dream state and the TAIJASA &endash; are represented by
the second letter ‘U’ in ‘AUM’.
4. Bound up with reflection of Pure-consciousness, the Nescience,
which hides the Atman and is the cause of both the gross and the
subtle bodies, is called the ‘AVYAAKRTA’ or undifferentiated. This
is the causal body of the Atman. This is neither existent nor
non-existent, nor even both existent and non-existent; neither
different from, nor identical with, nor both different from and
identical with, the Atman. This Nescience is neither composite, nor
non-composite, nor both composite and non- composite, but removable
by the knowledge of the identity of Brahman and the Atman alone.
When all thoughts cease and the determinative intellect, too, lapses
into its causal condition, the state of deep-sleep appears. The
personality appropriating these two, i.e., the causal-body and the
deep- sleep state is described as ‘PRAJNA’.
These three (the causal-body Nescience, the deep-sleep state and the
PRAJNA) are symbolised by the last letter ‘M’ in ‘AUM’.
Now, ‘A’ the waking-personality, should be resolved into ‘U’, the
dream-personality, and the ‘U’ into ‘M’ i.e., the deep-sleep
personality. Again, the ‘M’ should be reduced into ‘AUM’ and the
‘AUM’ into ‘I’. I am, the Atman, the Witness of all, the absolute of
the nature of Pure Consciousness; I am neither Nescience nor even
its effect but I am Brahman alone, Eternally Pure, Ever Enlightened,
Eternally Free and Existence Absolute. I am the Bliss Absolute, One
without a second and the Innermost Consciousness.
Remaining in this state of absolute identification is what is called
‘SAMADHI’ or the Super-conscious state.
‘Thou art That’, ‘I am Brahman’, ‘Consciousness-Bliss is Brahman’,
‘This Self is Brahman’, etc. &endash; all these Srutis, i.e., the
Upanisadic sayings (known as Mahavakyas or the great dictum) are
direct evidences to the identity of the Atman, the individual soul,
and Brahman. This is what is called ‘PANCHKARANAM’ or
quintuplication.
Here ends the small treatise named ‘PANCHIKARANAM’ by Bhagavan Sri
Sankaracharya.
[1][Note: ‘Quintuplicated’: A particular process by which the five
elementary constituents of the universe are said to be compounded
with one another to form grosser entities that serve as units in the
composition of the physical universe.
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