1-2. Although light rays falling on a dark wall with a mirror on it fall on the wall and the mirror equally, they are only reflected in the mirror. Similarly, awareness falls on the Gross Body and the Subtle Body equally but is only experienced in the Subtle Body.
1. Similarly awareness illumines the space between the thought modifications in the Subtle Body as well as the absence of thoughts in deep sleep, but it can only be recognized in the spaces between the thoughts because it is not absorbed by the vrittis…or by deep sleep.
Also because the deep sleeper has no intellect, only the ability to experience. When the Subtle Body is present, the intellect is active and can know awareness.
4. An external object is cognised through a thought that assumes the form of the object, but the knowledge “I know the pot’ comes directly from awareness.
5,6. Before the thought object arose, the Subtle Body lacked knowledge of the object, but after the thought appeared, knowledge of the object arose in the Subtle Body because it was illumined by awareness. Both the knowledge and ignorance of the object are due to the presence of reflected awareness.
7. Once a cognition is produced and knowledge takes place, the Subtle Body returns to an unmodified condition.
8. If the intellect is without reflected awareness, cognition of objects cannot take place because the intellect is insentient.
9. When an object only appears as a thought in the Subtle Body it cannot be said to be known because both the Subtle Body and the thought are insentient.
10. Therefore, object knowledge is the result of the blending of the thought and pure awareness. Pure
awareness cannot be its reflection in the thought because it is prior to the thought and the knowledge of the object.
I removed two verses explaining an apparent mistake on this topic by Shankara’s most famous disciple because they added nothing to the teaching.
13. Therefore the Subtle Body, reflected awareness, is the cause of knowledge and experience whereas pure awareness is free of knowledge and experience.
14. The thought of the object in the intellect and the reflection of awareness on the thought are revealed by pure awareness, but the external object is revealed by the reflection of awareness in the Intellect.
15. So the knowledge of an object involves both pure awareness and reflected awareness.
16. The cognition ‘This is a pot’ is due to the Subtle Body but the knowledge ‘I know the pot’ is derived from pure awareness.
17. Just as with reference to external objects reflected awareness is different from pure awareness, so with reference to the Subtle Body reflected awareness is different from pure awareness.
18. As fire pervades a red-hot piece of iron, so reflected awareness pervades I-awareness as well as lust, anger and other emotions.
19. Even as the fire in a red-hot piece of iron manifests only in itself and not in other objects, similarly the thoughts in the Subtle Body illumined by awareness reveal only themselves and not the thoughts in other Subtle Bodies.
The Subtle Body is the same in all beings but the thoughts belong to the individual’s karma. This verse also dispels the common doubt that when you know you the awareness in everything why can you not know other’s thoughts.
20. All modifications are produced serially with gaps between each thought. They become latent in deep sleep, states of swoon and in nirvikalpa samadhi.
21. That unmodifiable factor which witnesses the interval between the disappearance and the rise of successive thoughts and the time when they are not manifest is awareness.
22. Both pure awareness and reflected awareness are involved in the revelation of external and internal objects.
This is evident from the fact that there is apparently more awareness in the thoughts than in the intervals between them.
When someone says “I am aware of X,” it seems as if the Subtle Body is aware because awareness, under the spell of Maya, identifies with the Subtle Body. The Subtle Body is awareness but it is not aware.
23. Unlike an external object, which requires the intellect to reveal it, the intellect does not reveal itself because it is an inert object…but it is revealed in the light of awareness.
24. Since Jiva is a combination of pure awareness and reflected awareness, it is manifest and unmanifest.
Therefore it cannot be the immutable non-dual awareness.
It is unmanifest as pure awareness and manifest as reflected awareness. Because it is not always present, it is not real.
25. The ancient teachers made the nature of pure awareness clear in passages such as, “(It is) the witness of the Subtle Body and its functions.”
26. They have also declared that pure awareness, reflected awareness and the thoughts are related to each other like a face, its reflection in a mirror and the mirror are related. This relationship is revealed by scripture and reasoning. Thus Jiva has been described.
Pure awareness is the mirror, the Subtle Body is the reflection and the face are the thoughts.
Cut verses 27-45 p. 114
46. It is true that the author of the Vivarana commentary denies the Badha-Samanadhikaranya interpretation and accepts the Mukhya-Samanadhikaranya interpretation of the statement ‘I am Awareness’ because he takes the ‘I’ to be pure awareness and not the Subtle Body.
Panchadasi is considered an ‘advanced’ text because it involves very subtle arguments about the nature of awareness and its relationship to the objects appearing in it. For the purpose of moksa understanding these arguments is not necessary. Only discrimination of the awareness and the objects appearing in it is necessary.
Nonetheless, here is the explanation of this verse.
There are two main arguments in Vedanta about how to understand the appearance of the Jiva in awareness.
One argument (the Vivarana ‘school’) is the reflection theory. According to it, Jiva is a reflection of awareness when ignorance (Maya) is operating. And Isvara is also a reflection when Maya is operating.
Brahman and Jiva are two ‘faces’ of awareness appearing in the mirror of the Macrocosmic Subtle Body.
This idea is referred to as Mukhya (face) Samanadhikaranya.
The second argument is called the limitation theory. According to it, awareness becomes limited when ignorance causes Isvara and Jiva to appear. The example used by the proponents of this view (the Bhamati
‘school’) is pot space. They say that the space appearing inside a pot is actually limited by the pot. Swami Vidyaranya does not accept this argument. He says that if it is true that awareness becomes a limited individual (Jiva) then even a pot, which is pervaded by awareness, would become a Jiva. But it is clear that pots are not conscious beings. It also does not hold up because space is subtler than the objects in it and pervades them completely. So it is not limited by them.
He accepts a modified reflection theory, know as semblance theory (abhasa vada). The Vivarana theory says that the reflection is real and identical with awareness but the semblance theory says that the reflection is
‘seemingly’ or apparently real. The pure reflection theory says that Jiva and Brahman are identical but the semblance theory says that they seem to be identical. This ‘seeming’ is called sublation. The rope seems to be a snake. The snake is sublated into the rope when its perception is neutralized by knowledge. It means that an explanation for a phenomenon no longer makes sense when a different explanation makes more sense.
Are these arguments just hair splitting? Yes and no. In so far as moksa is concerned, yes, if the distinction between the subject, awareness and the objects appearing in it, is understood. In this case Isvara and Jiva are just thought objects appearing in awareness, even though from the apparent reality’s point of view they refer to actual objects. As objects of knowledge they can be dismissed as not-self. But, no, if the distinction between awareness and the objects is not clear because yogis, experientially oriented individuals, can realize their nature as awareness by identifying the thought ‘I am awareness’ as it arises in the Subtle Body. To do so they would have to take the reflection to be real. Because yogis are not mindful of the distinction between
awareness and the objects in awareness, they take themselves to be aware and see the self as an object, when it fact it is the other way around. However, it is rare that yogis become discriminating because they accept the reality of Jiva and conceive of moksa as an experience of samadhi. So the Vivarana idea is useful for them.
This argument can be traced back to the Upanishads, which present both Yoga and Vedanta as means for enlightenment. And it originates in the incestuous relationship between actionless experienceless awareness and the actions generated in it. There is actually no distinction because reality is non-dual. But there is a seeming distinction if one takes the world into account. And for lack of understanding this seeming distinction, Jivas remain bound by experience. The view that I endorse is that both Yoga and Vedanta are means of
knowledge. Yoga is an indirect means suitable for purifying the mind. Vedanta is the direct means because reality is non-dual. So the solution can only be knowledge, which is not action.
I mentioned above that I did not use the word ‘chidabasa’ to refer to Jiva but defined Jiva as awareness plus the Subtle Body (or the five sheaths) to simplify the terminology and bring it in line with the way I teach Vedanta. This is not to say the chidabasa, which is used almost exclusively by Vidyaranya, is not an excellent revealing word or that his self knowledge was in any way compromised. Texts like Panchadasi are not really for ordinary inquirers. They are for enlightened people interested in wielding the means of knowledge skilfully. The danger of presenting these arguments lies in the tendency of the mind to identify with a certain point of view and turn the means of knowledge into a doctrine. Much hot air was expended for many centuries in the Vedanta world by intellectuals who were looking for the ‘real’ teaching and perhaps bored Jivan muktas who find hair splitting amusing.
More details of these two ‘schools’ of Vedanta can be found in a short article from Dennis Waite at the end of this text
Cut verses 47-68 p.123 Jiva, Isvara, Maya
59. The Shiva Puranas describe awareness as non-dual, self-luminous and the highest good. It is beyond Isvara and Jiva.
60. The scripture declares that Jiva and Isvara are both reflections of Awareness in Maya. They are, however, different from gross objects in that they are reflective and reveal objects.
Because they are made of sattva, not tamas.
61. Though all objects are matter, the mind is subtler than the body. Similarly, Jiva and Isvara are luminous.
62. Because they reveal objects, for all intents and purposes Jiva and Isvara can be considered to be endowed with awareness.
63. If the Subtle Body can create Jiva and Isvara in the dream state, it is not difficult to imagine that Maya can create them in the waking state.
64. If Maya can create Isvara, how difficult is it to understand that it is the creator of Isvara’s qualities?
Isvara is endowed with the following qualities: all knowledge (jnana), total dispassion (vairagya), the capacity to create, sustain and resolve (virya), absolute fame (yasas), all wealth (sri), and overlordship (aisvarya). Whichever of these qualities a jiva possesses belong to Isvara, not to the jiva.
65. Don’t imagine, however, that Maya can create awareness. Awareness is unborn.
66. All Vedanta texts say awareness is non-dual and uncreated.
67. Logic does not apply to Maya.
It is counterintuitive and irrational.
68. An inquirer should base his or her knowledge on scripture.
Not on intuition or ignorance-inspired interpretation of personal experience or ignorance-inspired beliefs or opinions garnered from the words of enlightened or apparently-enlightened beings. Enlightenment does not scripture make.
69. Isvara creates the three bodies and the three states. Jiva creates the idea of bondage and liberation.
Jiva here means viswa, the waker, under the spell of avidya. When it does not know who it is it seeks liberation. Jiva’s creation is the projections that come as a result of its self ignorance.
70. Awareness is ever associationless. It does not change. One should meditate and reflect on it in this way.
71. For awareness there is no death and no birth, no bondage and no seeking liberation and no liberation. This is the truth.
72. Scripture indicates the reality beyond the subtle and gross body by using the ideas of Jiva, Isvara and Jagat.
73. Acharya Sureshvara says that any method that that removes ignorance about the nature of the self is approved by the tradition.
74. The dull-witted, ignorant of the real meaning of the scripture, wander here and there, whereas the wise, who understand the meaning abide in the ocean of bliss.
75. Like a cloud which pours out streams of rain, Maya creates the world. As space is not affected by rain, the pure awareness that I am suffers neither gain nor loss from anything in the phenomenal world. That is the conviction of the wise.
76. He who always reflects on this ‘Lamp of awareness’ ever abides as the self-revealing awareness.