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The Philosophy of the Upanishads c11.s2.t5: 5. The subtle Body and its ethical Qualification

The Philosophy of the Upanishads c11.s2.t5

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5. The subtle Body and its ethical Qualification

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As further companions of the soul on its wanderings together with the indriyas, manas, and the prâṇas, the later Vedânta reckons “the primitive substance” (*bhûta-âs'raya*), *i.e.* the subtle body, and “the foundation of works” (*karma-âs'raya*), *i.e.* the moral qualification which conditions the future life. On both we are able to adduce but little from the Upanishads.

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In Chând. 6. 8. 6² it is said of the dying man :—“In the case of this man, my dear sir, when he dies, his speech enters into the manas, manas into the prâṇa, prâṇa into the heat, heat into the supreme godhead.” Here, according to S'aṅkara,³ as by speech the indriyas as a whole are to be understood, so by heat (*tejas*) the elements as a whole, as they constitute the subtle body in their character of vehicles of the organs on the departure of the soul. According to the words of the text however nothing further is implied here than the thought that the organs, manas, prâṇa and speech, as they have been derived according to Chând. 6. 5 by means of food, water, and heat from the “one being without a second,” so in a similar way at death they are again resolved into it as the supreme godhead.

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² cp. 6. 15. 2.

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³ Sûtra 4. 2. 8.

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We may recognise a trace of the later theory of the subtle body more clearly in the great transmigration text Chând. 5. 3–10,¹ where a description is given how the waters, having been five times in succession offered in sacrifice as faith, soma, rain, food and seed, in the sacrificial fires of the heavenly world, of rain, the earth, man and woman, “at the fifth sacrifice became endowed with human voice.”² Here by the “waters” which were offered as faith, etc., may certainly be understood the still undivided unity of the two companions of the soul, which later were distinguished from one another as the subtle body and the ethical qualification.³

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¹ Bṛih. 6. 2.

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² Chând. 5. 3. 3, 5. 9. 1.

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³ cp. below, Chap. XIV. 5.

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The same is true of the leading passage for both doctrines,⁴ where it is said of the soul as it departs and hastens to a new birth :—“In truth, this self is Brahman, consisting of knowledge, manas, life, eye and ear, consisting of earth, water, wind and ether, consisting of fire and not of fire, of desire and not of desire, of anger and not of anger, of justice and not of justice, consisting of all. Exactly as a man in this life consists of this or of that, exactly as he acts, exactly as he moves, so will he be born ; he who does good will be born good, he who does evil will be born evil, he becomes holy by holy deeds, evil by evil.” If we leave out of consideration the addition “and not by fire” which is wanting in the Mâdhyandina recension, and from which a satisfactory meaning can only with difficulty be extracted, the passage enumerates as permanent companions of the soul the organs and five elements, as changing factors the moral qualities. We see here the theories of the subtle body and the ethical qualification growing up side by side. The following verse is appended :—

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⁴ Bṛih. 4. 4. 5.

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To this he clings, after this he aspires by his actions,
Whereby his inner man (lingam) and his desire (manas) abide.

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Here we meet, apparently already a technical term, the word *lingam*, by which the adherents of the Sâṅkhya were accustomed later to denote the subtle body.¹ It is perhaps to be taken in the same meaning further on in Kâṭh. 6. 8 and S'vet. 6. 9; where moreover the âtman is described as "lord of the lord of the senses," *i.e.* lord of the subtle body. A similar conception may underlie the description of the âtman as "higher than this highest complex of life."² The *lingam* makes its appearance precisely as in the later Sâṅkhya in Maitr. 6. 10, especially if we read³ *mahad-âdi-avis'esha-antam lingam*, removing the anusvâra point, since the subtle body extends from the *mahân* to the subtle elements (*avis'esha*), not to the gross (*vis'esha*).⁴ The *lingas'arîram* is described in Sarvopanishats. 16 as the vehicle of the organs, the prâṇas, the guṇas, and the ethical qualification, and accordingly is identified with the bands of the heart, of which we have put forward another explanation (*sup.* p. 270), referring to Bṛih. 3. 2. 1–9.

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¹ *sup.* p. 242.

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² Pras'na 5. 5.

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³ As suggested, Deussen, *Upan.*, p. 337.

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⁴ Sâṅkhya-kârikâ 38–40.

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That finally the actions of the soul (the later *karma-âs'raya*) accompany it in the other world, and determine the formation of the next life, is often emphasized in the Upanishads, and will demand fuller consideration hereafter. The principal passages for this doctrine are Bṛih. 3. 2. 13, 4. 4. 5–6, Chând. 3. 14. 1, Kâṭh. 5. 7, Îs'â 17, etc.; above all Bṛih. 4. 4. 3:—"Then knowledge and actions take it by the hand, and its earlier formed experience." According to later belief also⁵ the thoughts which occupy a man in the hour of death are of especial significance. This idea is found suggested in Pras'na 3. 10.⁶

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⁵ Bhag. G. 8. 6.

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⁶ *cp.* also Chând. 3. 14. 1, Bṛih. 4. 4. 5, and the prayer of the dying man in Îs'â 15–17 = Bṛih. 5. 15.

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