Tattva Bodha – What is the Gross/Physical Body? (Sthula Sharira) (37)

Summary:

Lesson 37 answers (a) What is the material cause of the Physical body, and (b) What CAUSES your body to be born with certain attributes/parents/country/sex, etc? Point is, once we know what our Physical body is, it's much easier to negate it as NOT-I.

Source: Adi Shankara's Tattva Bodha

TERMS USED:

  • Sharira: body, that which decays
  • Sthula-sharira: Physical body, what can be perceived.

Tattva Bodha Teachings

  1. “I am not the body”. This modern spiritual statement does NOT work. Because person making the statement does NOT know (a) what “I am” is, and (b) what it means to say “body”.
  2. What is Gross Body (sthula sharira) made of? 
    • Material cause (upadana-karana). Such as 5 elements, bones, flesh, cells, atoms, etc.
  3. What is Gross Body CAUSED by? Made by WHOM?
    • Efficient or intelligent cause (nimitta-karana).
    •  What does “efficient” mean?  To “effect”, is to bring about or CAUSE something to happen. EG: Carpenter EFFECTS a table (meaning he brought it about, he created it, he is the cause for it's manifestation).
  4. What's the purpose of knowing about Material/Efficient cause of your body?  It helps you to objectify it with fresh eyes. As long as you don't know what is to be negated as not-I, it remains entangled in your identity. 
  5. Examples demonstrating Material/Efficient cause relationship:
    • Pot is made up of clay (material cause). And pot is effected by the potter (efficient cause).
    • Necklace is made of gold (material cause). And the goldsmith effected the necklace out of the material cause (gold).
    • Wave is made up of water (material cause). And moon/wind effects (or causes) the wave to gain certain attributes (like height/speed/strength.
  6. What is Body made of? (MATERIAL CAUSE)
    • 5 Elements (pañca-bhūta). Space (that which accommodates the next 4), Air, Fire, Water, Earth. Notice each succeeding gets more Gross.
  7. Choose any object, inert or sentient. Ask, what is this made of?
    • Answer: Permutations/combinations of 5 elements. 
  8. Efficient cause of of body is: karma-janyam  (born of past causes)
    • What principle determines (a) what kind of body will be born (b) in which country (c) with which siblings (d) with what kind of family: kind, loving, alcoholics, lower-upper, etc. (e) with amount of intellectual capacity, etc.
      • Answer is: karma-janyam (Born from one's past actions which are combinations of puṇya (meritorious actions), pāpa (adharmic, sinful, damaging actions), miśra (mixture between puṇya/pāpa).
      • This means, whatever type of body you have, with whichever kind of personality-complex… are result of PAST KARMA. You've earned it.
        • EG: Person is lazy and careless. Doesn't do anything about it in this life. Then dies. In next life, the personality will show traits of laziness and carelessness, and they'll be mixed with the traits learned from new parents.
    • Karma-janyam is CUMULATIVE KARMAS (Sañcita Karma) expressed as “one packet” assigned to just THIS PRESENT lifetime (prārabdha karma).
      • Your body-mind is an effect of previous unseen causes. By this logic, we can confidently assert bases of PAST-LIVES (or incarnation). This was, incarnation is NOT a belief, but has reasonable logic that any form expressed with certain attributes, is result of an unseen connection to something else that's not perceptible to us. 
  9. Two Types of Elements: 
    1. Gross 5 Elements: sthūla-bhūta (pañci-kṛtam): Perceivable grossness. Anything which can be perceived by senses, or instruments like microscope/telescope/etc. EG: body, tree, rock, cells, stars, etc.
    2. Subtle 5 Elements: sūkṣma-bhūta (apañci-kṛtam, tanmatras): Can't be seen/perceived. EG: memory, thoughts, emotions. One may say “I CAN perceive emotion!”, but that's incorrect because to perceive it, is for it to be concrete/tangible/graspable/sustainable. For example, you can't smell, touch, feel, see or taste anger. Emotion is abstract. This is why it's subtle.
  10. What is sthula-sharira?
    • ayatanam: Your home, your address where others can find you. Your body.
    • In a sense, we're all like gypsies, carrying our home with us everywhere.
    • It is staying in this home (body) where all sukha (joys) and duḥkha (suffering/sorrows) are experienced (bhoga).
    • Meaning, whether the home is pure (Sattva) or chaotic/messy (Rajas/Tamas) depends on proportion of sukha/duḥka. Entirely up to you how clean your home is.
  11. Body instrument (ayatanam: your home) goes through 6 modifications:
    1. asti: Can be interpreted three ways:
      1. Unmanifest: IS, but don't see it. It is in unmanifest. 
      2. Manifest but in zygote stage (single cell).
      3. Assuming it survives, the next stages follow… 
    2. jāyate: Baby is born. Meaning, it takes it's first breath of air.
    3. vardhate: Growth into infant. Limbs strengthen. Muscle develops. Mind absorbs environment. Language is learned. Self-consciousness is developed.
    4. viparīnamate: Maturity. Peak of growth (stage 3) is reached. Hair grows in sexual region, breasts develop, voice breaks, intellectual reasoning enjoyed. At this stage, male/female has grown to 95%+ of full growth capacity.
      • Any additional growth would be due to excess food or hormonal inconsistencies. This stage is like tree bearing maximum fruits. Any additional fruits would be like adding unnatural fertilizer to the tree. The tree will produce more, but the quality of fruit will suffer. 
    5. apakṣīyate: Slow decay of instrument. Like anything born, it exhibits stage of peak maturity, then begins gradual process of decay/weakness/loss.
    6. vinaśyati: Death. When decay of instrument reaches a point where it can't keep itself alive/functioning any longer. It goes back to 5 elements like anything else in Creation. Jiva takes a new body depending on it's karma-janyam.
  12. Function of body? Acts as home for individual.

Putting it all together….

Karma and Reincarnation: Understanding the Role of Karma-Janyam

  • Karma-Janyam (Efficient Cause):
    • Based on the experiences an individual (jīva) must go through.
    • Karma-janyam (efficient cause) shapes the five elements (material cause) which sculpts your physical body.
    • This shaping corresponds with the individual's sañcita-karma (accumulated karma from past lives).

Story of Reincarnation: The Cycle of Karma

  • Previous Life Actions:
    • Suppose in previous life, the jīva, out of retaliation, physically harmed someone. 
  • Death and Rebirth:
    • In the next life, due to karma-janyam (result of past causes), the jīva is reborn as a baby with a disability. This may be attributed by doctor to genes, to a “rare condition”, but Vedanta adds it might have also been contributed by past causes.
  • Parents’ Karma:
    • The parents of the disabled child, also need to experience the results of their past causes, thus assigned a child with such limitations. We're not saying it's like this with total certainty, but consider it.

Conclusion: The Role of Karma, Not Īśvara

  • Birth and Karma:
    • Your birth has nothing to do with Ishvara (God) and everything to do with karma-janyam.
  • Blaming God:
    • Any attempt to blame or be angry at God for your circumstances shows your neglect of how the cause-effect order operates.

The Power of Freewill and the Present Moment

  • What Matters:
    • It doesn’t matter what happened in the past.
    • It doesn’t matter how you are today.
    • It doesn’t matter what you don’t know.
    • It doesn’t matter what disadvantages you believe you have.
  • What Truly Matters:
    • What matters is what you do with what is present right now.
    • The ability to: Assess. Learn from experiences. Change the story.

 

sthula-sharira-tattva-bodha-gross-body
Tattva Bodha verse used in class to answer “What is the Gross body?”…
    •  

Keywords: anatma, anatman, mithya, atma kah, sthula sarira kim, vedanta, upadana , karana, karanam, samsara, pancha, panca, bhuta, guna, papa, punya, sancita, samcita, sanchita, panci krtam, kritam, apanci-kritam, panci-karana, moksha, sukha, duhkha, jayate, viparinamate, apaksiyate, apakshiyate, vinasyati, vinashyati, jivatma, jnani

Resources:

  • Class test to be completed in 1 hour, right after watching video above.

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Recorded 19 Feb, 2019

Lesson 36
Index
Lesson 38

 

4 Comments

  1. ❤🙏🙏❤…… Profoundly profound…. please explain can we be born as human beings or lower creatures (I know in the eyes of a “Jyani”…. all sentient beings are same) but only as our naam-roop….

    Again….. Can we have sex orientation from male to female???

    Can one be born in his own past family bondages (though all the bondages are with the sthul sarira and NOT with the ATMAN)….

    Can the ATMAN cause any harm to others after leaving or discarding a sthul sarira….???

    Reply

    1. In general, mechanics of karma is impossible to quantify accurately, in terms of what happens next life and what body is taken and where. We’ll only generalize and say, a “jiva” means anything that is living. Including plant/animal/bacteria/human.

      Per Vedas, jiva, having been since beginningless time (meaning was always available). Thus its not completely irrational to infer that jiva has undertaken countless subtle/physical bodies (whether male/female/plant/insect/human/deva/etc).

      ===========
      Can one be born in his own past family bondages
      ===========

      Highly unlikely, because each member of family undergoes significant changes while in a human body.

      By the time each one dies (physical body dies; subtle-body continues), their punya/papa (meaning combination of wise/unwise deeds, desires, habits, interests formed within their lifetime) is completely different.

      So it’s safer to say that jiva is always born to completely different members.

      And yes, I heard of the belief of husband/wife spending 7 lifetimes together. EG: In the Mahabharata, there is a story of Lord Krishna and Rukmini, his chief queen and consort. It is said that in a previous life, Rukmini performed intense penance to seek Lord Krishna as her husband. As a result of this devotion, it is believed that they were destined to be together for seven lifetimes.

      Of course there is no way to prove that. That’s why we generally won’t bring up parts we absolutely can’t prove.

      Reply

  2. 1. Purpose of tattva viveka : To distinguish unreality from reality to get clairty

    2. What is clarity: Differentiate is clarity.

    – How to gain CLARITY of something? : Clarity is established through process of definition and classification
    – Give examples : 1.Visitor has immediate clarity of library and directions – only because of it’s bookshelf . 2.Road rules (nothing but a system of classification of roads/signs/intersections/traffic lights) only provide spontaneity for drivers… thus CLARITY of where-I’m-going.
    3. What is satyam? : Atman is satyam. Abadita is satyam

    4. What is mithyā? : Anatman is mithya. Badita is mithya.

    5. Tattva (reality) at Microcosmic (individual) level, called: Atman

    6. Tattva (reality) at Macrocomics (world) level, called: Brahman

    7. Is there any difference between 5 & 6? Explain why : No. It is one and the same. Why because “Atma or Brahman is Sath Chit Ananda Swarupa San”.

    8. I AM the Body-Mind sitting and discussing this question with others in this group? : No. I am Atma.

    9. If above is False, explain why it’s False : Atma is behind or other than the 3 states of experiences (waking, dreaming, deep sleep states of experiences), Atma is other than the three bodies (gross, subtle, causal bodies), and Atma is other than the pancha koshas (food sheath, energy sheath or life force, mind sheath, intellect sheath and the bliss sheath).

    10. Alertness IS single-pointedness/focus? : It is Svarūpa-lakṣaṇa

    11. Alertness is when adrenalin rushes by the sight of my kitchen stove catching on fire? It is taṭastha-lakṣaṇa.

    12. Provide own example of svarūpa AND taṭastha-lakṣaṇa :
    Svarūpa-lakṣaṇa : Sugar is sweet.
    Taṭastha-lakṣaṇa : : Sugar is that which makes my tea worth drinking

    13. What is Gross Body? M___ cause AND E___ cause: Material cause AND Efficient cause.

    14. What is body made of? ? : Our Gross body is made of cells, muscles, bones, blood, and the 5 elements : Water, Air, Fire, Ether or Space, Earth.

    15. What is efficient cause of body? : Karma Phala or Sath karma Janyam is the cause of the birth of our Gross body. This is the Efficient cause of the Gross body birth.

    16. Give example of how karma-janyam (or karma-phala) transforms a person from X to Y, by his/her own
    decisions? :
    1. We have some set of photos when the adult is 20 years old when the body is fat, and another set of photos when the adult is 22 years old, when the body is slim. Here again the karma phala is responsible for the body to become thin. Some karma was done when the body was fat so that the body becomes slim.
    2. A person may be poor because he has no good job in the begining. However, he works hard to get promoted in his company and gets a better paid positon. Thus his karma phala helped him get a high paid salary.

    17. Body carried around is our home/address. If home is messy, experience is suffering. If home is clean,
    experience is peaceful : True

    a. Can I contemplate for long period of time in a messy home? : No

    b. Give some suggestions how to MAINTAIN a clean home (IE: body-mind)? : By changing our Tamasic and Rajasic tendencies into Satvic tendency we can maintain our home clean. Prayer, Contemplation, Meditation, Service to the poor. These activities will increase Sukha and decrease Dukha.

    18. “I am contemplating”. Is this “I”, aham kāra OR ātman? : AHAM KARA

    a. If said “ātman”, then ātman would be doer/enjoyer. Thus would be incorrect.

    b. If said aham kāra, then in which śarīra was “contemplation” present in? : SUBTLE/GROSS BODY. SUKSHAMA SHARIRA.

    c. Whichever śarīra was answered above, are you THAT śarīra? : NO

    d. What was “you” in above statement referring to? : NO. What was “you” not referring to? : ATMAN

    e. In WHOSE PRESENCE was above answer known to: Aham kāra OR Ātman? : ATMAN

    f. If Tattva-viveka is contemplation of difference between Ātman and Anātman, then WHO/WHAT is aware of the contemplation of Ātman and Anātman? : ATMAN

    g. If answer above was “I / Ātman / Brahman / Awareness”, then describe indirectly who/what “I” am
    (taṭastha-lakṣaṇa): Tat Tvam Asi or I am THAT.

    Also describe directly who/what “I” am? (svarūpa-lakṣaṇa) : Atma or Brahman is Sath Chit Ananda Swarupa San.

    h. Is there any REAL difference between Satya and Mithyā? : NO. Atma equals Satyam. Everything other than Satyam is Mithya. Therefore Anatma equals Mithya. Mithya is unreal, that which appears or that which is produced. Sathyam is Real, that which is always present or that which is not produced or that which does not change. Satya and Mithya co-exist.
    Mithya is an appearence in Sathya.

    i. If answered “Yes”, it’s incorrect. Explain why it’s incorrect. : ALL THIS IS BRAHMAN according to the Great Sayings.

    ii. If answered “No”, then what is the purpose of Satya/Mithyā (IE: Tattva-viveka)? : Purpose of tattva viveka= to define/clarify what is reality.

    Hi Andre,
    I answered the questions to the best of my knowledge after reading videos 36 and 37. I am not sure of the answer given to the question “what is the purpose of Sathya/Mithya”. Please let me know if my answers are correct, which would help me improve. Thank you.

    Reply

    1. ==============
      10. Alertness IS single-pointedness/focus? : It is Svarūpa-lakṣaṇa
      11. Alertness is when adrenalin rushes by the sight of my kitchen stove catching on fire? It is taṭastha-lakṣaṇa.
      ==============

      I’ve improved on the definition of those 2 words. See at: https://www.yesvedanta.com/bg/lesson-36/

      ==============
      b. Give some suggestions how to MAINTAIN a clean home (IE: body-mind)?
      ==============

      – Ability to see from all perspectives.
      – Accommodation: constantly attempting to control those who we love the most; thus letting them be themselves, and taking effort to understand where another is coming from. If need to stay away, do so, but take time to understand their POV.
      – Acknowledging helplessness: Then asking for help.
      – Authenticity: acknowledging what’s happening in you, and your words/thoughts/actions are congruent.
      – Compassion for self and others: not beating yourself up.
      – Connection to Ishvara
      – Conversion of ownership to trusteeship
      – Desires are mastered: non-binding desires.
      – Discerning power: what can I change and not change.
      – Emotional maturity
      – Following dharma: Doing what needs to be done in a way that enriches your/others life.
      – Healthy self-image: EG: Ability to feel cheer for someone’s success; non-envy. Next level is to use free will to enrich someone else’s life.
      – Lack of pretence
      – Open to change
      – Perseverance: as mind loses enthusiasm.
      – Reducing mechanical thinking > deliberate
      – Repairing your trust: Everyone is infallible. Ishvara’s compensation system alone is perfect. No other way to discover true trust. EG: If say, “What’s the point of doing, good people suffer, bad people get away”; shows your lack of trust.
      – Resilience
      – Taking responsibility for your actions

      ==============
      Mithya is an appearence in Sathya.
      ==============

      Just like table is appearance of wood. Table is mithya, because it depends on the wood. And wood is satyam, because it is independent of the table.

      So whereever there is table, that’s exactly where wood is.

      Wherever there is thought, that’s exactly where I am; giving that thought Awarenesss. So the content of any thought (mithya) is Awareness (satyam), just as content of table (mithya) is wood (satyam).

      Reply

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