Gita Rahasya -Tilak
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CHAPTER X
THE EFFECT OF KARMA AND FREEDOM OF WILL
As this Name-d and Form-ed covering is dense in some cases and thin in other eases, the objects in the visible world fall, according to Vedanta, into the two classes of sacetana ( Activated) and acetana ( Non- Activated ), and even the Activated are again sub-divided into animals, birds, men, gods, gandharvas, and demons etc. There is no place where the Brahman in the shape of Atman does not exist. It is in the stone, and It is in the human being. But, as there is a difference according to whether a light is put into an iron box, or in a lantern with more or less clean glasses, though it may be one and the same light, so also, although the Atman-Element is everywhere the same, the different divisions of Activated and Non-Activated arise, as a result of the difference in density of the clothing of Names and forms in each case. Nay, that is the reason why, even among the Activated, the power of acquiring Knowledge is not the same in the case of men and beasts. It is true that the Atman is the same everywhere ; yet, as it is fundamentally qualityless and apathetic, it cannot by itself do anything, without some Name-d and Form-ed means like the Mind, Reason etc.; and, as these means are not fully available to the Atman except in the human birth, such birth is considered to be the most superior of all. When the Atman has got this human birth, this its Name-d and Form-ed clothing falls into the two divisions of Gross and Subtle. According to Vedanta, this gross clothing is the embodiment of the mixture of blood and semen ; and whereas, muscles, bones, and nerves grow from the semen, skin, flesh, hair etc. grow from the sonita, that is, from the blood ; and all this is referred to as the 'annamaya-kosa ( covering made up of food ). When we pass this covering and go further inside, we come across Life in the shape of breath, that is, the ' pranamaya-kosa'; the Mind, that is, the manomaya- kosa; Reason, that is, the jnanamaya-kosa ; and ultimately, the anandamaya-kosa. The Atman is beyond all these ; and there- fore, in the Taittiriyopanisad, Varuna has acquainted Bhrgu with the various forms of the Atman by describing to him the various envelopes (kosa) rising from the annamaya-kosa to the anandamaya-kosa [1]. Vedantists refer to these envelopes ( kosa ), except the Gross Body, such as the Prana- covering etc., together with the subtle organs and the five Fine Elements ( Tanmatras ) aa the 'linga or the 'suksma sarira' ( the Subtle Body ). But, instead of explaining the fact of the Atman taking births in various species of life (yoni) by imagining the existence of diverse ' Bhavas ' of the Reason [2] as is done by the Samkhyas, they say that that is the result of Karma-Vipaka, or the fruit of Action. It has been clearly stated in the Gita, the Upanisads, and the Vedanta-Sutras, that this Karma clings to the support of the Subtle Body, and when the Atman leaves the Gross Body, this Karma accompanies the Atman, embodied in the Subtle Body, and compels it to take birth after birth. |
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