In
her great work The Secret Doctrine,
Blavatsky explained that in India there are different classifications of the
man composition, but these different classifications are esoterically based on
the septenary classification.
« We give below in a tabular form the classifications adopted by the
Buddhist and Vedantic teachers of the principles of man:
|
Classification in Esoteric Buddhism |
Vedantic Classification |
Ranking in Taraka Raja Yoga |
||
|
7 |
Atma (Spirit) |
Atma |
Atma |
|
|
6 |
Buddhi (Soul) |
Anandamaya kosa |
Karanopâdhi |
|
|
5 |
Manas (Mind) |
a) higher |
Vijnanamaya kosa |
Sukshmopâdhi |
|
b) lower |
Manomaya kosa |
|||
|
4 |
Kama Rupa (Desire) |
|||
|
3 |
Linga Sarira (Astral) |
Pranamaya kosa |
Sthulopâdhi |
|
|
2 |
Prana (Vitality) |
|||
|
1 |
Sthula Sarira (Physical) |
Annamaya kosa |
||
a) Vigna nam.
b) Volitions
and feeling, etc.
From the foregoing table it will
be seen that the third principle in the Buddhist classification is not
separately mentioned in the Vedantic division, as it is merely the vehicle of
Prana. It will also be seen that the Fourth principle is included in the third
Kosa (Sheath), as the same principle is but the vehicle of will-power, which is
but an energy of the mind. It must also be noticed that the Vignanamaya Kosa is
considered to be distinct from the Manomaya Kosa, as a division is made after
death between the lower part of the mind, as it were, which has a closer
affinity with the fourth principle than with the sixth; and its higher part,
which attaches itself to the latter, and which is, in fact, the basis for the
higher spiritual individuality of man.
We may also here point out to our
readers that the classification mentioned in the last column is, for all
practical purposes, connected with Raja Yoga, the best and simplest. Though
there are seven principles in man, there are but three distinct Upadhis
(bases), in each of which his Atma may work independently of the rest. These
three Upadhis can be separated by an Adept without killing himself. He cannot
separate the seven principles from each other without destroying his
constitution.”
The student will now be better
prepared to see that between the three Upadhis of the Raja Yoga and its Atma,
and our three Upadhis, Atma, and the additional three divisions, there is in
reality but very little difference. Moreover, as every adept in cis-Himalayan
or trans-Himalayan India, of the Patanjali, the Aryasanga or the Mahayana
schools, has to become a Raja Yogi, he must, therefore, accept the Taraka Raja
classification in principle and theory whatever classification he resorts to
for practical and occult purposes. Thus, it matters very little whether one
speaks of the three Upadhis
with their three aspects and Atma, the eternal and immortal
synthesis, or calls them the “seven principles.” »
(SD
I, p.157)
The number seven in the composition of the
macrocosm
and of the man
And
in an article that Blavatsky wrote, she gave more details on this topic.
« It is in the Upanishads and
the Vedanta though, that we have to look for the best corroborations of
the occult teachings. In the mystical doctrine the Rahasya, or the Upanishads
— “the only Veda of all thoughtful Hindus in the present day,” as Monier
Williams is made to confess, every word, as its very name implies (3), has a secret meaning underlying
it. This meaning can be fully realized only by him who has a full knowledge of Prána,
the ONE LIFE, “the nave to which are attached the seven spokes of
the Universal Wheel.” (Hymn to Prána, Atharva-Veda, XI. 4.)
Even
European Orientalists agree that all the systems in India assign to the human
body: (a) an exterior or gross body (sthula-sarira); (b) an inner or
shadowy body (sukshma), or linga-sarira (the vehicle), the two
cemented with — (c), life (jiv or Karana sarira, “causal body”). (4)
These the
occult system or esotericism divides into seven, farther adding to these — kama,
manas, buddhi and atman.
The Nyaya
philosophy when treating of Prameyas (by which the objects and
subjects of Praman are to be correctly understood) includes among the 12 the seven
“root principles.” (see IXth Sutra), which are:
1, soul (atman),
and 2, its superior spirit Jivatman; 3, body (sarira); 4,
senses (indriya); 5, activity or will (pravritti); 6, mind (manas);
7, Intellection (Buddhi).
The seven Padarthas
(inquiries or predicates of existing things) of Kanada in the Vaiseshikas,
refer in the occult doctrine to the seven qualities or attributes of the
seven principles.
Thus: 1,
substance (dravya) refers to body or sthula-sarira, 2, quality
or property (guna) to the life principle, jiv; 3, action
or act (karman) to the Linga, sarira; 4, Community or commingling
of properties (Samanya) to Kamarupa; 5, personality or
conscious individuality (Visesha) to Manas; 6, co-inherence or
perpetual intimate relation (Samuvuya) to Buddhi, the
inseparable vehicle of Atman; 7, non-existence or non-being in
the sense of, and as separate from, objectivity or substance (abhava) —
to the highest monad or Atman.
Thus,
whether we view the ONE as the Vedic Purusha or Brahman (neuter) the
“all-expanding essence;” or as the universal spirit, the “light of lights” (jyotisham
jyotih) the TOTAL independent of all relation, of the Upanishads; or
as the Paramatman of the Vedanta; or again as Kanada’s Adrishta, “the
unseen Force,” or divine atom; or as Prakriti, the “eternally existing
essence,” of Kapila — we find in all these impersonal universal
Principles the latent capability of evolving out of themselves “six rays” (the
evolver being the seventh).
The third
aphorism of the Sankhya-Karika, which says of Prakriti that it is the
“root and substance of all things,” and no production, but itself a
producer of “seven things, which produced by it, become also producers,” has a
purely occult meaning.
What are the “producers” evoluted from this universal
root-principle, Mula-prakriti or undifferentiated primeval cosmic matter,
which evolves out of itself consciousness and mind, and is generally called
“Prakriti” and amulam mulam, “the rootless root,” and Avyakta, the
“unevolved evolver,” etc.?
This
primordial tattwa or “eternally existing ‘that,’” the unknown essence,
is said to produce as a first producer, 1, Buddhi —“intellect”— whether
we apply the latter to the 6th macrocosmic or microcosmic principle. This first
produced produces in its turn (or is the source of) Ahankara, “self-
consciousness” and manas “mind.”
The reader
will please always remember that the Mahat or great source of these two
internal faculties, “Buddhi” per se, can have neither self-consciousness
nor mind; viz., the 6th principle in man can preserve an essence of personal
self-consciousness or “personal individuality” only by absorbing within
itself its own waters, which have run through that finite faculty; for Ahankara,
that is the perception of “I,” or the sense of one’s personal
individuality, justly represented by the term “Ego-ism,” belongs to the second,
or rather the third, production out of the seven, viz., to the 5th
principle, or Manas.
It is the
latter which draws “as the web issues from the spider” along the thread of
Prakriti, the “root principle,” the four following subtle elementary principles
or particles — Tanmatras, out of which “third class,” the Mahabhutas or
the gross elementary principles, or rather sarira and rupas, are
evolved — the kama, linga, jiva and sthula-sarira.
The three gunas
of “Prakriti” —the Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas (purity,
passionate activity, and ignorance or darkness)— spun into a triple-stranded
cord or “rope,” pass through the seven, or rather six, human principles.
It depends
on the 5th —Manas or Ahankara, the “I”— to thin the guna, “rope,” into
one thread — the sattwa; and thus by becoming one with the “unevolved
evolver,” win immortality or eternal conscious existence. Otherwise it will be
again resolved into its Mahabhautic essence; so long as the
triple-stranded rope is left unstranded, the spirit (the divine monad) is bound
by the presence of the gunas in the principles “like an animal” (purusha
pasu).
The spirit, âtman
or jivatman (the 7th and 6th principles), whether of the macro or microcosm,
though bound by these gunas during the objective manifestation of universe
or man, is yet nirguna — i.e., entirely free from them. Out of the three
producers or evolvers, Prakriti, Buddhi and Ahankara, it is but
the latter that can be caught (when man is concerned) and destroyed when personal.
The “divine
monad” is aguna (devoid of qualities), while Prakriti, once that from
passive Mula-prakriti it has become avyakta (an active evolver) is gunavat
— endowed with qualities. With the latter, Purusha or Atman can have nought
to do (of course being unable to perceive it in its gunavatic state);
with the former —or Mula-prakriti or undifferentiated cosmic essence— it
has, since it is one with it and identical.
The Atma
Bodha, or “knowledge of soul,” a tract written by the great Sankaracharya,
speaks distinctly of the seven principles in man (see 14th verse). They
are called therein the five sheaths (panchakosa) in which is enclosed
the divine monad—the Atman, and Buddhi, the 7th and 6th
principles, or the individuated soul when made distinct (through avidya,
maya and the gunas) from the supreme soul — Parabrahm.
The 1st
sheath, called Ananda-maya —the “illusion of supreme bliss”— is the manas
or fifth principle of the occultists, when united with Buddhi; the
2nd sheath is Vjnana-maya-kosa, the case or “envelope of self-delusion,”
the manas when self-deluded into the belief of the personal “I,”
or ego, with its vehicle. The 3rd, the Mano-maya sheath, composed
of “illusionary mind” associated with the organs of action and will, is the Kamarupa
and Linga-sarira combined, producing an illusive “I” or Mayavi-rupa.
The 4th sheath is called Prana-maya, illusionary life,” our second
life principle or jiv, wherein resides life, the “breathing” sheath.
The 5th kosa is called Anna-maya, or the sheath supported by
food—our gross material body.
All these
sheaths produce other smaller sheaths, or six attributes or qualities each, the
seventh being always the root sheath; and the Atman or spirit passing
through all these subtle ethereal bodies like a thread, is called the
“thread-soul” or sutratman.
We may
conclude with the above demonstration. Verily the Esoteric doctrine may well be
called in its turn the “thread-doctrine,” since, like Sutratman or Pranatman,
it passes through and strings together all the ancient philosophical
religious systems, and, what is more, reconciles and explains them. For though
seeming so unlike externally, they have but one foundation, and of that the
extent, depth, breadth and nature are known to those who have become, like the
“Wise Men of the East,” adepts in Occult Science. »
(Theosophist,
July 1883, p.253-256)
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