Commentary on the Panchadasi

by Swami Krishnananda

Vāk-pāṇi-pāda-pāyūpasthair akṣais tat kriyājaniḥ, mukhādi-golakeṣv āste tat karmendriya pañcakam (11). The organs of action are located, as in the case of the senses of knowledge, in certain parts of the body. Grasping is of the hands, locomotion of the feet, speech of the tongue, and excretion and generation of the lower organs. They are forces in the same way as the senses of knowledge are forces, but lodged in certain parts of the body; that is the physiological system. The physiological system is the location for the action of both the senses of knowledge and the organs of action. They are all situated in the face, eye, etc., as it has been already described.

The mind is something very strange. It is different from the sense organs which give us knowledge and which also act. It is the king. It is Indra. Allegorically explained, the gods are actually the senses. Indra, the ruler of the gods, is the mind.

Mano daśendriyā dhyakṣaṁ hṛt-padme golake sthitam, taccāntaḥ karaṇaṁ bāhyeṣa svātantryāt vinen-driyaiḥ (12). The mind is the ruler of the ten senses. The senses of knowledge and the organs of action are ruled, controlled, directed by the mind: mano daśendriyā dhyakṣaṁ. And where is the mind situated, mostly? In the heart. It is actually pervading the whole body, as a light pervades the entire room here. Yet it has a location, as the light is the bulb. Though the bulb is the location of the light, it nevertheless pervades the entire room. So is the mind having a temporary location in the heart, but it actually pervades the entire body, as light does.

Hṛt-padme golake sthitam, taccāntaḥ karaṇaṁ: It is called ‘internal organ’. Bāhyeṣa svātantryāt vinen-driyaiḥ: As it cannot operate without the assistance of the senses in respect of objects outside – it cannot act directly in respect of objects without the help of the senses – it is called an internal organ. The senses are external organs; the mind is the internal organ. That is why it is called antahkarana.

Antahkarana, internal organ, generally known as mind or the psyche, has mostly four functions to perform, and it is called manas-buddhi-ahamkara-chitta. Thinking is a mental process. Intellection is the buddhi's. Arrogation, self-affirmation is the work of the ego, ahamkara. Chitta is doing the work of memory. Manas-buddhi-ahamkara-chitta: thinking, understanding, affirmation or arrogation, and remembering are the functions of these four aspects of the internal organ known as manas-buddhi-ahamkara-chitta.

Akṣeṣvarthār pite ṣvetad guṇa doṣa vicārakam, sattvaṁ rajas tamaś cāsya guṇā vikriyate hi taiḥ (13). When the mind is lodged in the sense organs and it operates through any particular sense at a particular time, it begins to judge the pros and cons of objects outside. “This is something; this is not something. This object is like this; this is not like this. This is the quality of this object; this is the quality of that object.” It begins to argue, ascertain and differentiate values associated with the various things in the world when it operates through the sense organs.

Internally the mind has the properties of sattva, rajas and tamas. Therefore, it modifies itself continuously. The mind is chanchala, as they say. It is very fickle. It is fickle because it is constituted of the gunas of prakriti – sattva, rajas and tamas. Sattva is very rarely experienced by the mind because if the sattva is really revealed, we will be happy. But how many times in the day are we happy? If we count the minutes of real happiness, we will find that it is so fragmentary, so negligible. Our moments of joy in this life on a particular day are so small that we may say that sattva is practically not operating at all in the mind. We are always distracted, worried, and thinking of something. That is the reason why it is said that mostly only rajas and tamas are operating in the mind, though sattva is also there. Sometimes when we are calm and quiet, we are philosophically-minded and very charitable, very good natured and dispassionate, and at that time we will feel happiness inside. So it is not that sattva is not there. But rarely is it manifest; mostly it is rajas and tamas. These qualities are sattva, rajas and tamas; with these it changes its condition moment to moment. It is fickle due to this reason.

Vairāgyaṁ kṣāntir-audāryam ityādyās-sattva-sambhavāḥ, kāma-krodhau lobha-yatnau vityādyāh rajaso-tthitāḥ (14). What are the characteristics of the sattva guna? Suppose we are endowed with sattva; how do we behave? Our behaviour under sattva is explained here: dispassion. The more are we sattvic in our mind, the less is the desire for things. Dispassion is vairagya. This is one quality that we will see as sattva predominates. And forbearance, tolerance and absence of a sudden reaction to things outside is the quality of sattva. There is large-heartedness, charitableness, compassion, and a feeling of goodness towards people. Many other qualities are also there. Ityādyās-sattva-sambhavāḥ: They are the qualities manifest in us on account of the preponderance of the sattva guna.

But if rajas is predominant, what happens to us? Kāma-krodhau: Suddenly some desire inside us erupts: “I want this.” And if we cannot get it, we are angry, krodha. First there is desire, and anger follows when there is no chance for the fulfilment of desire. Anger, desire and greed, lobha, are characteristics of rajas. Desire of a passionate nature is called kama. Irascibility, anger, is called krodha. Greed for material wealth, money, land, house, etc., is called lobha. Kama, krodha, lobha – these are the qualities that we reveal in ourselves when rajas predominates. Apart from this, we become very active. Vityādyāh rajaso-tthitāḥ: Very agitated, distracted – we cannot keep quiet even for one minute and are always running about here and there, and are tremendously excited. That is our nature when rajas is predominant.

Ālasyaṁ bhrānti tandrādyā vikārās tamasot thitāḥ, sāttvikaiḥ puṇya niṣpattiḥ pāpot pattiś ca rājasaiḥ (15). When tamas is there, alasyam, we think like this: “Meditating doesn't matter. Let us see tomorrow. What is the urgency about it? The day after tomorrow is all right. Why worry? Go slow, go slow.” We will be simply brooding. That is alasya, lethargy; and bhranti is not perceiving things properly, wrongly calculating things, misplacing facts, misjudgement. All these are qualities of tamas, in addition to actual sleep.

So here it is. He says how we will behave in this world when we are under the subjection of one or the other of these gunas, properties of prakriti – sattva, raja and tamas respectively. If we are sattvicly endowed, we will be a virtuous and righteous person: sāttvikaiḥ puṇya niṣpattiḥ. Good deeds are not possible when we are rajasic in nature. We will always do wrong things. When we are in the state of sattva, we have an inclination to do virtuous deeds; we become righteous in our behaviour. But if we are rajasic, we do sinful actions, erroneous deeds: pāpot pattiś ca rājasaiḥ.

Tāmasair-nobhayaṁ kintu vṛthāyuḥ kṣapaṇaṁ bhavet, atrāhaṁ pratyayī karteti evaṁ loke vyavasthitiḥ (16). But in tamas, we do no action. It is a waste of time: vṛthāyuḥ kṣapaṇaṁ bhavet. In rajas, we do something; in sattva, we do something greater. But in tamas, we do nothing, so the author says in the tamas condition we are really wasting our life.

Atrāhaṁ pratyayī karteti. In these characteristics mentioned, through the manifestation of sattva, rajas or tamas, there is a principle inside which says, “I am like this. I am happy. I am unhappy. I am full of desire. I am angry. I am torpid in my mind. I am righteous. I do this action. I do that action.” This principle of consciousness that is asserting these movements through the three qualities of sattva, rajas and tamas is called karta, or the doer of things, the agent of action, ahamkara, ego, intellect, reason, whatever we call it. Intellect, reason, ego all go together. And it is the knower, the doer, the assumer of everything into itself. The agency in action is attributable to this particular principle of egoism and its associated intellect. This is how we have to explain the nature of the sense functions, the organs of action, the properties of prakriti, sattva-rajas-tamas, how they act upon us and how they are all appropriated into our own personality by a principle in us called ego: kartritva bhavana.

Spaṣṭa śabdādi yukteṣu bhauti katva mati sphuṭam, akṣā dāvapi tat sāstra yukibhyām avadhāryatām (17). We know all the objects of the world are actually physical in their nature. There is no need to argue on this matter. How do we know that objects are material? We can touch them, see them, taste them, smell them, and the like. They are solid substances. That the world is made up of physical matter is something obvious. But how do we know that the sense organs are also made up of the same category of materiality?

As it was mentioned, we cannot actually perceive the materiality of the sense organs because here, in the case of the senses of knowledge at least, the materiality is of a sattvic nature – rarefied matter. Rarefied matter is sattva, distracted matter is rajas, and stable, fixed matter is tamas. Because of their internality and the constituency being totally inside, we are unable to know that they exist at all. But by inference, we can know that they do exist because if there is no correspondence between the sense of perception (sense of seeing) with colour or light, light would not be seen. Inasmuch as there is a possibility of coming in contact with the light, it is necessary to infer that there is something in us which is corresponding in frequency to the principle of light in our own selves.

So is the case with hearing. We cannot hear every kind of sound. Only a particular frequency of sound can be heard by the eardrums. Similarly, taste – our tongue cannot feel every kind of taste. We are placed in a particular frequency level of the world. High frequency actions cannot be contacted, and lower frequency actions also cannot be contacted. Neither can we see heaven, nor can we see hell. We can see only the earth, because heaven is a high-frequency existence. It is beyond the level of the frequency of our mind and intellect. And we don’t see hell, because we are superior to it. We see only the middle portion, which is corresponding to the frequency of the objects of the world, the world as a whole. By inference we can conclude that the senses of knowledge and the mind also are constituted of a similar material substance, because similars attract similars; dissimilars repel. The fact of there being such a thing called sensory perception should prove that the senses are also made up of the same categories as the objects themselves. By inference we can know it.

Ekādaśen driyair yuktyā śāstreṇā pyava gamyate, yāvat kiṁcit bhave detat idaṁ śabdo ditaṁ jagat (18). It was mentioned that Sage Uddalaka declared that all this was Pure Being alone. Idam – all this; what do we mean by all this? The word ‘this’ is explained in this eighteenth verse. Whatever is cognisable by the senses of knowledge, whatever is contactable through the five organs of action, whatever is conceivable by the mind, whatever can be known through scripture or instruction from a teacher – all this put together, this whole universe of perception and knowledge is called idam – this. The entire universe of cognition, perception and action – nama, rupa, kriya, prapancha – name, form, action, world, everything, whatever is conceivable, contactable, measurable or worth dealing with in any way whatsoever, is included within this vast inclusiveness, the whole world of jagat; and the term used to demonstrate this vast universe is idam. This wonderful thing, this whole thing that we see and we can conceive is Pure Existence. This is the instruction of Uddalaka to Svetaketu, the meaning of which is being studied further in the following verses.