A Constructive Survey of Upanishadic Philosophy c6.s3.t2.5

c6.s3.t2.5

phists. Corresponding to these bodies, they have also recognised seven different planes, on which, according to them, the several bodies of man keep functioning. Thus, the various planes which they recognise may be said to be respectively the physical, the astral, the mental, the intuitional, the spiritual, the monadic, and the divine. Let us see what justification there can be for such a view in the light of the theory which the Upanishads advance. In fact, the only Upanishad where we find mention of a theory of this kind is the Taittirīya Upanishad. In the second chapter of this Upanishad, we are told that “ within this physical body which is made up of food, is another body which is made up of vital air ; the former is filled with the latter, which is also like the shape of man. More internal than the body which is made up of vital air is another body which consists of mind ; the former is filled with the latter, which is again like unto the shape of man. More internal still than the mental body is another body which is full of intelligence ; the former is filled with the latter, which is again like unto the shape of man. Finally, still more internal than this body of intelligence is another body consisting of bliss; the former is filled with the latter, which still is like the shape of man” (S. 20. a). Here we are told that various bodies are pent up within this physical body,—as if the physical body were like a Pandora’s box,—that the wise man is he who knows that there are what may be called by sufferance the physical, astral, mental, intuitional, and beatific “ bodies ” of man, that every internal body is enclosed within an external one, and, finally, that all these bodies have the shape of man. It was possibly such a passage as this which has been responsible for spreading such a notion as that of the “ pañcha-kośas ” or the five bodies of man.