The one with 17 parts - Chapter 24

सूक्ष्मशरीरं किम् ?

अपञ्चीकृतपञ्चमहाभूतैः कृतं सत्कर्मजन्यं

सुखदुःखादिभोगसाधनं

पञ्चज्ञानेन्द्रियाणि  पञ्चकर्मेन्द्रियाणि पञ्चप्राणादयः

मनश्चैकं बुद्धिश्चैका

एवं सप्तदशाकलाभिः सह यत्तिष्ठति तत्सूक्ष्मशरीरम् ।

What is the subtle body?

That which is made up of the five great elements which have not undergone grossification, that which is born of the good actions of the past, that which is the instrument for the experience of joy, sorrow, etc, and that which remains with 17 parts (the five sense organs, the five organs of action, the five pranas, the mind and the intellect) is the subtle body.

The physical body has a gross and a subtle component. We had seen previously that the aspect of the physical body that can be perceived by sense organs is the gross body. The subtle body on the other hand is not available for perception through any of the sense organs. Even while one is intimately aware of one’s subtle body (and that of others) it cannot be seen, touched or heard unlike the gross body. The subtle body too is made up of the five great elements but unlike the gross body, the subtle body is made up of the subtle form of these elements. Matter is inert and by extension anything that is made up of matter must be lifeless too. That being the case what makes a physical body that is made up of elements conscious, sentient and throbbing with life and vitality?

In vedantic philosophy, Self or atman (आत्मन्) is manifested in the gross body with the subtle body serving as a medium for this manifestation. Consider this to be similar to the phenomenon of light being reflected through the water in a container. When the reflection of consciousness is received by the subtle body, it becomes conscious and the gross body remains sentient until such time that it is associated with a subtle body. When the reflection of consciousness ceases, the gross body comprised of matter becomes inert. Even while it is the instrument through which one experiences life, the experiences themselves are limited by one’s karma, for the subtle body itself is born of one’s accumulated punyam (पुण्यं) and paapam (पापं).

A total of 17 parts are said to make up the subtle body namely the five organs of perception (which bring inputs from the external world in the form of voice, touch, form, taste and smell), the five organs of action (through which we respond to the external world), the five pranas that energize various systems in the body, the mind (which manifests as thoughts and emotions) and the intellect (which manifests as will and ascertainment). We shall now take up these 17 parts for a detailed discussion.

That which eventually dies - Chapter 23

Of everything that is in the realm of anatma (अनात्मा) and is confused for the Self or atman (आत्मन्) it is the gross body that is most the conspicuous.  It is referred to as the gross body because it is available for perception by the sense organs. The grossness of an entity is determined by the number of sense organs that can perceive it and the gross body being available for perception by all the sense organs is the grossest. When one identifies very strongly with the attributes of the gross body (gender, complexion, sturdiness or the lack of it, health or the lack of it) one is mistaking the gross body for the Self or atman (आत्मन्). To be able to cognitively separate the attributes of the gross body from the attribute-less atman (आत्मन्) one needs to understand the constituents and composition of the gross body and its attributes and it is for this reason that the student now asks of the teacher that he elaborate on the gross body.

स्थूलशरीरं किम् ?

पञ्चीकृतपञ्चमहाभूतैः कृतं सत्कर्मजन्यं

सुखदुःखादिभोगायतनं शरीरम्

अस्ति जायते वर्धते विपरिणमते अपक्षीयते विनश्यतीति

षड्विकारवदेतत्स्थूलशरीरम् ।

What is the gross body?

That which is made up of the five great elements that have undergone the process of grossification, that which is born as a result of the good actions of the past, that which is the abode of our experiences of happiness, sadness, etc, and that which is subject to six modifications namely; to exist, to be born, to grow, to mature to decay and to die – is the gross body.

Air, water, fire, earth, sky are the five great elements accordingly to the creation models given in the shastras. Here the learned teacher says that these five great elements go through a process of grossification (that shall be explained in detail later in the text) and it the grossified five great elements that the gross body is made up of. We can look at this as the general cause or the samanya karanam (सामान्य करणं). Now if all gross bodies were made up of the five great elements what determines the specific attributes such as gender, species, physical features etc? Shastras seek to explain this using the karma model where in a perpetual cycle all living beings accumulate punyam (पुण्यं) and paapam (पापं) through their actions and the same then guided by the laws of karma results in births and also in all the favourable and unfavourable circumstances one finds oneself in. It is thus that ones satkarma (सत्कर्म) or good deeds becomes the visesha karanam (विशेष करणं) or the special cause of the gross body. The function of this gross body thus born is to act as an ayatanam (आयतनम्) or abode for all the experiences of a living being that come in pairs of opposites.

The gross body is further described as that which goes through 6 modifications - comes into existence as a foetus in a womb, is born and comes into the outer world, grows nourished by food, matures and attains physical vitality, decays with time and dies eventually. ‘I’ the pure Self am a witness to all the modifications that the gross body goes through. ‘I’ am neither born and nor do ‘I’ die. Seeing the gross body thus as merely a medium that one uses to transact with the world and not identifying with it as ‘I’ is the cognitive discrimination one needs to foster.