CHAPTER V.

FALSE PERSONATIONS OF ATMAN.

Fifth Stanza of the Hymn.

Those who contend that the Ego is the body, or the vitality, or the sense-organs, or the fickle Buddhi, or the void, they are verily on the same level with women and children, with the blind and the possessed: they are quite deluded. To Him who destroys the mighty delusion set up by the play of Maya's power, to Him who is incarnate in the Teacher, to Him in the Effulgent Form Facing the South, to Him (Siva) be this bow!

Atman identified with the physical body.

1. Pratyaksha is the sole authority; the four bhutas (elements) are alone real. There is no moksha other than death; love and wealth comprise the end of man.

No anumana or inference can be relied on till it is confirmed by the senses. Such things as akasa which cannot be perceived by the senses do not exist. Carnal gratification is the primary end of man, while wealth, as conducing to this primary end, forms but a secondary end of man.

2. There is indeed no Isvara, the Creator; vain is all talk of the other world.

Things grow and change their form by svabhava, of their own accord; we see no agent at the back of every substance acting by way of changing its form; none, for instance, pushes an arrow forward once it has been discharged from the bow; once the seed is sown, none constantly helps it to grow into a tree. This is a fact of immediate experience. What need is there to postulate an Isvara? Again, variety in the amount of happiness found among

living beings can be traced to their own nature (svabhava); there is no need to suppose a super-sensuous cause such as Dharma.

2-3. If Atman exist apart from the body, let it be seen like a pot in front. It is the body that is perceived as short or tall, as a youth or a child.

All evidence goes to prove that the body is the Self, while there is none whatever pointing to the existence of a disembodied Self.

3-4. The six changes of phenomenal existence,--namely, being, birth, growth, change of form, diminution or decay, and death,--all these pertain to the body.

They are not spoken of as to an Atman distinct from the body. There is no need to suppose the existence of an Atman distinct from the body, as the subject of these changes.

4-5. Distinctions of caste and religious order are based on the bodies alone; such sacraments as jata-karma (the birth-ceremony) are enjoined with reference to the body alone. It is with reference to the body that they pronounce the benediction "may thou live a hundred years."

6. Thus does the small-witted Charvaka delude the world.

Atman identified with Prana.

6-7. I breathe, I am alive, I feel hungry, I feel thirsty: on the strength of these and other notions of the sort, some conclude that Prana is Atman.