The Compendium of Caraka 4.1: prathamo 'adhyāyaḥ/

Now we shall expound the anatomical [chapter] on “How Many Components Make Up the Person.”

Thus spoke the venerable Ātreya:

“O wise one! In how many ways is a person divided according to the classification of elements? / Why is the person the cause, and what is the origin of the person?

Is he non-conscious or conscious? Has he been shown to be eternal or non-eternal? / What is original nature, what are modifications, and what is the characteristic mark of the person?

Those who know the self speak of the self as inactive, independent, / self-controlled, all-pervading, omnipresent, knower of the field, and witness.

How, O venerable one, can there be action for that which is inactive? / If he is independent, how is he born in undesirable wombs?

If he is self-controlled, why is he forcibly overcome by disagreeable states? / And because he is all-pervading, does he not experience all sensations?

Why does the omnipresent one not see what is concealed behind a rock or a wall? / Moreover, there is doubt: which is prior, the knower of the field or the field?

For without the knowable field existing first, the knower of the field is not possible; / and if the field were prior, the knower of the field would be non-eternal.

And of what is he a witness, when indeed no other agent exists? / And how can there be a distinction produced by sensation in that which is devoid of modification?

Moreover, O venerable one, which of the three [sensations] of the afflicted person does the physician treat: / past sensation, present sensation, or future sensation?

The future one has not arrived; the past one does not return; / and even of the present one there is no duration for the affliction: hence indeed arises doubt.

What is the cause of sensations, and what is declared to be their substratum? / And where do all these sensations cease without remainder?

All-knowing, renouncer of everything, freed from all conjunction, / solitary, tranquil—by what marks is the individual self perceived?”

Having heard this statement of Agniveśa, Punarvasu, the best of the wise, / whose self is tranquil, spoke everything in accordance with reality:

“The person is considered to consist of elements beginning with ether and having consciousness as the sixth; / the consciousness element alone is also considered to be termed the person.

And again, by classification of elements, he is considered twenty-four-fold: / the mind, the ten sense organs, the sense objects, and the eightfold original nature.

The characteristic mark of the mind is the absence or presence of cognition; / for even when the contact of the self, sense organs, and objects exists, cognition does not take place

owing to the distraction of the mind, and it does take place owing to its presence. / Subtlety and singularity are considered the two qualities of the mind.

That which is to be thought, investigated, reasoned about, meditated upon, and intended— / whatever is cognizable by the mind is called its object.

The function of the mind is the directing of the senses, self-restraint, / reasoning, and deliberation; after that, intellect proceeds.

For an object of the senses is grasped by a sense organ accompanied by the mind; / subsequently it is conceptualized by the mind as possessing merit or defect.

Whatever intellect of a determinative nature is born regarding that object, / by means of that one resolves to speak or to act with deliberation.

The five sense organs of ether and the others, each endowed with one predominant [quality], / are inferred from their actions; from them intellect proceeds.

The two hands, the two feet, the anus, the genitals, and the organ of speech— / these are the five organs of action: the two feet are for the action of walking,

the anus and genitals for excretion, the two hands for grasping and holding; / the tongue is the organ of speech, and speech that is truthful is light, while untruthful speech is darkness.

The great elements are ether, wind, fire, water, and earth; / sound, touch, form, taste, and smell are their qualities.

Among them, the first has one quality; each subsequent one has an increase of qualities; / each preceding quality is remembered in succession in the bearers of qualities.

Roughness, liquidity, mobility, and heat are seen in order as the characteristic marks / of earth, water, wind, and fire; non-resistance is seen as that of ether.

All these characteristic marks fall within the domain of the tactile sense organ; / for touch, along with its contrary [qualities], is knowable by the tactile sense organ.

The qualities in the body are pointed out as the marks of the possessors of qualities; / the objects such as sound are known as sensory fields, objects, and qualities.

Whatever intellect of a creature arises based on whichever sense organ / is designated by that [organ], and that born of the mind [is designated] by the mind.

Because of the division of actions, sense organs, and objects, cognitions are indeed considered many; / each one arises from the contact of the self, the sense organ, the mind, and the object.

Just as sound is seen to arise from the finger, thumb, palm, string, vīṇā, and fingernail, / so cognition is seen to arise from combination.

One should know the supreme [self] as the holder of the conjunction of intellect, sense organs, mind, and objects; / for this aggregate of twenty-four components is designated as the person.

For one connected with rajas and tamas, this conjunction is endless; / but when those two are dispelled by the increase of sattva, it ceases.

Here action is established, and here its fruit, and here knowledge; / here are delusion, pleasure, pain, life, death, and possessiveness.

He who knows this in accordance with reality knows dissolution and origination, / succession, medical treatment, and whatever is to be known.

Light, darkness, truth, falsehood, the Vedas, auspicious and inauspicious action / would not exist if the person were not both agent and knower.

There would be no substratum, no pleasure, no suffering, no departure, no arrival, no speech, / no discernment, no authoritative texts, no birth, and no death,

nor would there be bondage or liberation, if the person did not exist. / Therefore, the person is declared as the cause by those who know causes.

If the self were not the cause, light and the other [entities] would be without cause; / nor could knowledge arise in them, nor could there be any purpose fulfilled by them.

[Whoever asserts that] a pot is made by clay, a stick, and a wheel without a potter, / or a house is made by clay, grass, and wood without a builder,

that person would assert, out of ignorance, that the body is made by instruments combining together / without an agent—being excluded from reasoning and authoritative tradition.

The person is apprehended as the cause by all means of knowledge, / [and] from all authoritative traditions from which the object of knowledge is cognized.

"They are not identical, but are others arising in succession; / yet, because of similarity, these continually new [states] are indicated as being just those [same entities]."

"Entities are an aggregation of these, devoid of a lord, designated as a living being; / he is neither agent nor experiencer, nor is he a person"—thus some hold.

For them, by whom no self is taught, / other new, similar entities experience the result of an action done by other entities.

Otherness is observed among instruments, but the agent of the action remains the same; / for the agent, conjoined with instruments, is the cause of all actions.

The time of destruction of entities is swifter than a twinkling of the eye; / once broken, there is no recurring existence, nor does what is done accrue to another.

Because this is the opinion of knowers of reality, therefore he is the cause; / in the undertaking and enjoyment of living beings, the eternal [entity] is designated as the person.

Egoism, fruit, action, transmigration to another body, and memory / exist when there is a cause of living beings within the body.

For there is no origin of the supreme self, because of beginninglessness; / but the person designated as an aggregate is born of delusion, desire, hatred, and action.

The self is the knower; its knowledge proceeds from conjunction with the instruments; / but it does not proceed due to impurity of the instruments or absence of conjunction.

Just as there is no true vision for one looking into a soiled mirror / or into turbid water, so it is when the mind is impaired.

The instruments are the mind, the intellect, the cognitive senses, and the organs of action; / action, sensation, and intellect arise from conjunction with the agent.

Alone, the individual self does not set out to act, nor does it enjoy the fruit; / everything proceeds from conjunction; without it, nothing exists.

For no single entity exists, nor does anything exist without a cause; / nor, due to swift motion and nature, does non-existence turn back.

The person is beginningless and eternal; but what is born of a cause is the opposite; / that which is eternal is seen to be real and uncaused, [whereas] what is born of a cause is otherwise.

That which is not graspable from an entity, its eternality cannot be known from anything; / the unmanifest is to be known from the entity, being unthinkable; otherwise it is manifest.

The unmanifest is the self, the knower of the field, constant, all-pervading, and imperishable; / whatever is other than that is manifest, and another pair will also be explained.

The manifest is sensible, and is that which is grasped by the senses; / but the unmanifest is other than this, graspable by inference, and beyond the senses.

Space and the other [elements], intellect, the unmanifest, and egoism as the eighth / are declared as the primordial nature of beings; and the modifications are sixteen.

The five cognitive senses, the five organs of action, / and the five sense-objects together with the mind are designated as modifications.

Thus the entire field is declared, excluding the unmanifest; / the sages know the unmanifest of this field to be the knower of the field.

From the unmanifest, intellect is born; through intellect, one thinks 'I am'; / thereafter, space and the other [elements] are produced in order from egoism.

Then, complete with all limbs, born, he is said to be arisen; / at dissolution, the person is separated again from the active entities.

From the unmanifest he goes to manifestness, and from the manifest back to unmanifestness; / pervaded by passion and darkness, he revolves like a wheel.

Those who have supreme attachment to duality and who are devoted to egoism / have arising and dissolution; but those who are otherwise do not.

Inspiration and expiration, blinking and the like, life, the movement of the mind, / wandering to other sense-organs, impulsion, and restraint,

going to another place in dreams, also the taking on of death, / and the apprehension with the left eye of what was seen with the right,

desire, hatred, pleasure, pain, effort, consciousness, resolve, / intellect, memory, and egoism are the marks of the supreme self.

Because these marks are observed in a living person, / and are not marks of the self in a dead person, the great sages have therefore declared [them].

For when that [self] has departed, the body is an empty dwelling, devoid of consciousness; / remaining only as the five elements, it is said to have gone to fivefoldness.

The mind is devoid of consciousness and possessed of action; the supreme one is the conscious agent; / the actions of that all-pervading [self] conjoined with the mind are indicated.

Because the self is conscious, it is therefore called the agent; / and because of being devoid of consciousness, the mind, although possessed of action, is not so called.

Just as every living being, by its own self, governs itself / through the vital breaths in all wombs; for there is no other ruler of it.

As the master, he performs that action having done which he experiences the fruit; / as the master, he concentrates the mind; as the master, he casts aside everything.

Although the embodied self is all-pervading, it is in its own respective sense of touch; / therefore, the self does not perceive all sensations located in all substrata.

Pervasiveness belongs to it precisely because it is all-pervading and great; / and through concentration of the mind, the self sees what is concealed.

One should know that, through its constant connection with the mind which pursues the deeds of the body, / it reaches all wombs, even while standing in a single womb.

The self has no beginning; the succession of fields is beginningless; / therefore, because both are beginningless, it is not stated which was prior.

The knower is called the witness, not the non-knower, since the self is remembered as the witness; / for all states of all beings have the self as their witness.

The individual self is never perceived alone by its characteristics; / no distinction exists for that imperceptible, single [self].

A distinction made by sensation is accepted for the composite person; / where sensation is fixed, there distinction is produced by it.

"A physician treats all sensations pertaining to the three times"— / let the reasoning by which some assert this be grasped:

"Again that headache has come, that fever has returned, / again that cough is severe, that vomiting has returned."

By these well-known expressions, the return of past [states] is recognized; / and this time of past sufferings has returned.

The medicine that is administered having aimed at that time of suffering / is called the alleviation of past sensations.

"Lest those waters return by which the crops were previously destroyed"— / just as a dam is constructed [for this], so is counter-action in the substratum.

Having observed the prodromal symptom of impending disorders, / the action that is taken destroys sensation that has not yet come; / but the continuous succession of sufferings ceases, / and happiness also begins, through treatment with the causes of happiness.

Balanced [elements] do not fall into imbalance, nor do imbalanced ones attain balance; / bodily elements are constantly produced similar to their causes.

Placing this reasoning foremost, the physician destroys sensation / belonging to the three times: this is stated; but definitive therapy is that which is free from grasping attachment. / For grasping attachment is the supreme cause that grants suffering and the substratum of suffering; / and abandonment of all grasping attachments removes all suffering.

For just as the silkworm produces threads that bring about its own death, / so the ignorant person, being perpetually afflicted, produces craving from sense-objects.

The wise person, however, knowing sense-objects to be like fire, turns away from them; / through non-undertaking and non-contact, suffering does not attend him.

Derangement of intellect, resolve, and memory, the fruition of time and karma, / and contact with unwholesome objects: these are to be known as the causes of suffering.

Faulty conviction regarding the eternal and the transient, the beneficial and the harmful, / is to be known as derangement of intellect; for the intellect sees truly.

Because of derangement of resolve, the mind, which is inclined toward sense-objects, / cannot be restrained from harmful objects; for resolve has the nature of restraint.

When, for one whose self is veiled by rajas and moha, memory regarding the knowledge of truth / fails, that is derangement of memory; for what is to be remembered rests in memory. / What unwholesome action one does whose intellect, resolve, and memory are deranged: / one should know that as cognitive error, the provoker of all doṣas.

Forcing [the urges] that have motion, and suppression of those that have arisen; / engagement in rash acts, and excessive indulgence in women;

transgression of the time for actions, improper initiation of actions, / breach of modesty and conduct, and affront toward those worthy of reverence;

indulgence in objects known by oneself to be harmful, / and indulgence in causes that are supremely productive of insanity;

movement at improper times and in improper places, friendship with those of contaminated actions, / and avoidance of good conduct as described in the regimen of the sense organs;

envy, pride, fear, anger, greed, delusion, intoxication, and bewilderment, / or the contaminated action born of them, and contaminated action of the body;

and whatever other action of this kind arises from rajas and moha: / the cultured call that cognitive error, the cause of disease.

Faulty understanding by the intellect and faulty activity: / one should know this as cognitive error, for that is within the realm of the mind.

The temporal maturation of diseases has been specified in the enumeration of diseases, / as previously [explained]: the accumulation, provocation, and pacification of pitta and the others.

The end of the rainy season and so on, characterized by improper, excessive, and deficient [manifestations], are causes of disease; / and the periods of time and non-time [concerning] food digested, being eaten, or thoroughly digested;

and morning, midday, afternoon, and the three watches of the night: / the diseases fixed to these times are born of time.

The quotidian, the two-day seizing [tertian], the tertian, and the quartan [fevers] / appear at their respective times; for at [that] time comes their strength.

These and whatever other various illnesses are born of time / are to be treated before they arrive by one who understands strength and time.

Through the transformation of time, diseases born of the causes of old age and death / are seen to be natural; nature admits of no counter-action. / What karma from a previous body is designated by the word 'destiny': / that too is observed over time to be a cause of diseases.

For there is no great karma whose fruit is not experienced; / diseases born of karma, defying therapy, reach pacification upon its exhaustion. / From hearing an excessively harsh sound, from not hearing at all, / and from hearing exceedingly faint sounds, men become deaf.

Contact of hearing with sounds that are harsh, terrifying, inauspicious, / disagreeable, and indicative of calamity is called improper contact.

Non-contact, excessive contact, and deficient contact / of tangible things are stated in brief as harming the sense of touch.

Contact with evil spirits, poisons, and winds, and contact with unctuousness, cold, and heat / arriving out of season: that is called improper contact. / Sight is ruined by excessive gazing at radiant forms, / and by gazing at extremely subtle ones, and also by not looking at all;

from seeing forms that are hated, terrifying, repulsive, too far, or too close, / and dark forms, improper contact is spoken of. / Excessive intake, non-intake, and, with respect to habituation and the like, / irregular intake and deficient intake of tastes are vitiating.

Resorting to excessively faint or excessively sharp smells, / and not resorting [to them] at all, destroys the organ of smell.

Smells that are putrid, spirit-bearing, poisonous, repugnant, and unseasonal: / contact of smell with those odors is called improper contact.

Thus the three-fold unwholesome contact with sense-objects provokes the doṣas; / one should know as unwholesome that which does not assimilate with the self. / The disease that arises from the improper, excessive, and deficient contacts / of sound and the others is to be known by the wise as a sensory disease.

These are remembered as the causes of unpacified sensations; / the cause of happiness, however, is a single balanced one: balanced contact, which is very difficult to attain.

Neither the senses nor the objects are the causes of pleasure and pain; / but the cause of pleasure and pain is seen to be fourfold contact.

The senses exist, the objects exist; yet if there is no contact, there is no pain, / nor pleasure; therefore contact alone, which is fourfold, is the cause.

There is no pleasure or pain without the self, the senses, the mind, the intellect, / the object, or karma; how and which [is the cause], that is explained as it is to be understood:

Contact with the sense organ of touch and mental contact: / this two-fold [contact] is the instigator of the sensations of pleasure and pain.

Craving, consisting of desire and aversion, arises from pleasure and pain; / and craving is again said to be the cause of pleasure and pain.

For it grasps the states termed the substrata of sensation; / when there is no grasping, one is not touched, and untouched, one does not experience sensations.

The substratum of sensations is the mind and the body along with the senses, / with the exception of the hair of the head and body, the tips of the nails, ingested food, excreta, and the fluid qualities.

In yoga and in liberation there is no occurrence of any sensations; / in liberation the cessation is without remainder; yoga is the promoter of liberation.

Pleasure and pain arise from the conjunction of the self, the senses, the mind, and the objects; / from non-initiation, when the mind is steady, abiding in the self,

both of those cease, and mastery arises / for the embodied person: the seers who know yoga know that as yoga.

Entering into another’s mind, knowledge of objects, action at will, / clairvoyance, clairaudience, memory, radiance, and invisibility at wish:

Thus the eightfold lordly power of yogins is declared; / it all arises from the concentration of the pure sattva.

Liberation is from the absence of rajas and tamas, and from the exhaustion of potent karma; / non-rebirth is said to be disjunction from all conjunctions.

Proper attendance upon the virtuous and complete avoidance of the wicked; / observance of vows, fasting, and various kinds of restrictions;

Retention of treatises on dharma, higher knowledge, delight in solitude, / aversion to sense objects, decisive judgment directed toward liberation, supreme steadfastness;

Non-undertaking of actions, and the exhaustion of those already done; / renunciation of action, absence of egoism, seeing fear in attachment;

Concentration of mind and intellect, examination of the true nature of things— / all this proceeds from the presence of the memory of reality.

Memory is produced by service of the virtuous and the rest, ending with steadfastness; / having recalled the intrinsic nature of things, one who remembers is freed from suffering. / The eight causes through which memory is produced will be stated: / from apprehension of a cause or form, from similarity, from contrast,

from application of the mind, from practice, from the discipline of knowledge, from hearing again, / and from recollection of things seen, heard, or experienced—memory is said [to arise].

This has been shown by the liberated as the sole path to liberation: / the power of the memory of reality, by which those who have gone do not return again.

This again is declared by yogins as the path of yoga, / and by the Sāṃkhyas who have enumerated the principles and attained liberation, as the path to liberation.

Everything that has a cause is suffering, not one's own, and truly impermanent; / for it is not produced by the self, and yet ownership arises therein,

so long as the true intellect does not arise, by which [one knows] 'this is not I'; / knowing 'this is not mine', the knower transcends everything.

In that final renunciation, all sensations along with their roots, / accompanied by consciousness, knowledge, and discriminative cognition, completely cease without remainder.

Beyond this, the individual self, having become Brahman, is not apprehended; / it has emerged from all states of existence, and no mark of it is found. / [The goal of the knowers of Brahman is Brahman, and that is imperishable and without mark;] / and the knowledge of the knowers of Brahman is here: an ignorant person is not fit to know it.

Here is a verse: / Twenty-three excellent questions concerning the person / were determined in this [chapter on] 'How Many [Kinds of] Person' by the seer of reality.

Thus ends the first chapter, called 'How Many [Kinds of] Person', in the section on the body of the treatise composed by Agniveśa and redacted by Caraka. //1