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anadyanirvacyampiha karanam mayapradhanam tu param sarirakam upadhibhedattu yatah prthak sthitam svatmanamatmanyavadharayetkramat
The timeless and indescribable Maya product body constitutes the third equipment of the Self, which is declared by the rishis as the causal body. Since the Self is separate from these different equipments, let the seeker learn to recognize his true Self in the heart (negating the equipments) in stages.
In his dissection of the human personality – while trying to point out tous the Self, which is beyond the personality – Sri Rama describes the third and last of the equipments, the causal body (karana sarira). Because it consists of vasanas, we are justified in calling it the casual body, since vasanas determine the nature and the quality of the individual’s gross and subtle bodies, as well as the environments and circumstances that those bodies confront in the form of objects, emotions, and thoughts. This subtlest of equipments functions in one’s body in deep sleep; it is pure state of nonapprehension, because of which all misapprehensions arise. Therefore, it is right to name it the causal body.
The nonapprehension of Reality and the consequent misapprehensions are together called ignorance (avidya or Maya). Thus, even though the three bodies are all together expressions of the same avidya, for purposes of analytical study, they have been depicted as three distinct entities, Essentially separate (prthak stitha) from these three is the pure Self, which enlivens them all by its mere presence (sannidhimatrena).
Sri Ramacandra wants Laksmana to grasp this idea and firmly make it his own personal knowledge. The Self is the Consciousness that illumines our equipments, they being nothing but Consciousness itself grossified, just as the objects in our dream are projections of our mind stuff.
English Wording:
kosesvayam tesu tu tattadakrtir – vibhati sangatsphatikopalo yatha asangarupo yamajo yato ‘dvayo vijnayate ‘sminparito vicarite.
Just as by the contact of a red flower, a crystal glass looks apparently red, so too, this Self, unattached and unborn, when in contact with the five kosas (sheaths), appears to be of their characteristic individual nature. But when one discriminate intelligently and thoroughly, then one realizes that the Self is unborn and not attached to anything, since it is nondual.
If Atman, the Self, is unborn and not attached to anything, how is it that it appears to have no existence other than in the form of gross, subtle, and causal bodies ? Such a question would be natural in the mind of Laksmana. Anticipating such a doubt, Sri Ramacandra explains this phenomenon of delusion-superimposition.
A crystal glass is spotless and colorless; but when we place a red flower near it, the glass appears to have red color. Against a blue background it appears blue. When it tests upon a yellow tablecloth, it appears yellow. These colors are not its own. It has no color in itself. Yet, it reflects whatever color is in contract with it.
In the same way, while functioning through the five kosas, the Self, Consciousness, appears to have gathered to itself all the properties of the kosas. This apparent illusion created upon a substratum is called superimposition. The Self is ever unattached. That which is unattached can never get contaminated by anything; yet, the Self appears to be of the nature of the kosas (personality sheaths), in which, at any given time, it happens to function. When it is playing in the gross body, it appears to have for itself all the properties of the gross body – the body appears fat, lean, black, white, healthy, and so on. This gross body is called annamayakosa (the food sheath).
The subtle body consists of the pranamayakosa (vital air sheath), the manomayakosa (mental sheath), and the vijnanamayakosa (intellectual sheath). The causal body is called anandamayakosa (bliss sheath). In whichever kosa Consciousness functions, it temporarily appears to be entirely of the nature of that particular kosa. When we intelligently reconsider this situation in all its total implications, we can distinguish the Self from the not-Self. Discarding the not-Self, the seeker can realize his own ego as nothing other than the pure Self, ever unattached and nondual. This is accomplished by intelligent contemplation upon the great statement (mahavakya) “That thou art.”
This Self is unborn, ever present, and uncontaminated by anything that exists in it. Therefore, it is advaya; the Chandogya Upanisad confidently proclaims that the Self is one without a second. Only when it functions through the equipments does it appear to be many. This is to be rightly realized.
