Formed of the substances they call marrow, bone, fat, flesh, blood, skin, and over-skin; fitted with greater and lesser limbs, feet, breast, trunk, arms, back, head; this is called the physical vesture by the wise—the vesture whose authority, as "I" and "my" is declared to be a delusion.
Then these are the refined elements: the ethereal, the upper air, the flaming, water, and earth.
These when mingled one with another become the physical elements, that are the causes of the physical vesture. The materials of them become the five sensuous things that are for the delight of the enjoyer—sounds and other things of sense.
They who, fooled in these sensuous things, are bound by the wide noose of lust, hard to break asunder—they come and go, downwards and upwards on high, led by the swift messenger, their works.
Through the five sensuous things, five creatures find dissolution to the five elements, each one bound by his own character: the deer, the elephant, the moth, the fish, the bee; what then of man, who is snared by all the five?
Sensuous things are keener to injure than the black snake's venom; poison slays only him who eats it, but these things slay only him who beholds them with his eyes.
He who is free from the great snare, so hard to be rid of, of longing after sensuous things, he indeed builds for Freedom, and not another, even though knowing the six philosophies.
Those who, only for a little while rid of lust, long to be free, and struggle to reach the shore of the world-ocean—the toothed beast of longing lust makes them sink halfway, seizing them by the throat, and swiftly carrying them away.
By whom this toothed beast called sensuous things is slain by the sharp sword of true turning away from lust, he reaches the world-sea's shore without hindrance. He who, soul-destroyed, treads the rough path of sensuous things, death is his reward, like him who goes out on a luckless day. But he who goes onward, through the word of the good Teacher who is friendly to all beings, and himself well-controlled, he gains the fruit and the reward, and his reward is the Real.
If the love of Freedom is yours, then put sensuous things far away from you, like poison. But love, as the food of the gods, serenity, pity, pardon, rectitude, peacefulness, and self-control; love them and honor them forever.
He who every moment leaving undone what should be done—the freeing of himself from the bonds of beginningless unwisdom—devotes himself to the fattening of his body, that rightly exists for the good of the other powers, such a one thereby destroys himself.
He who seeks to behold the Self, although living to fatten his body, is going to cross the river, holding to a toothed beast, while thinking it a tree.
For this delusion for the body and its delights is a great death for him who longs for Freedom; the delusion by the overcoming of which he grows worthy of the dwelling-place of the free.
Destroy this great death, this infatuation for the body, wives, and sons; conquering it, the pure ones reach the Pervader's supreme abode.
This faulty form, built up of skin and flesh, of blood and sinews, fat and marrow and bones, gross and full of impure elements;
Born of the fivefold physical elements through deeds done before, the physical place of enjoyment of the Self; its mode is waking life, whereby there arises experience of physical things.
Subservient to physical objects through the outer powers, with its various joys—flower-chaplets, sandal, lovers—the Life makes itself like this through the power of the Self; therefore this form is pre-eminent in waking life.
But know that this physical body, wherein the whole circling life of the Spirit adheres, is but as the dwelling of the lord of the dwelling.
Birth and age and death are the fate of the physical and all the physical changes from childhood onward; of the physical body only are caste and grade with their many homes, and differences of worship and dishonor and great honor belong to it alone.
The powers of knowing—hearing, touch, sight, smell, taste—for apprehending sensuous things; the powers of doing—voice, hands, feet, the powers that put forth and generate—to effect deeds.
Then the inward activity: mind, soul, self-assertion, imagination, with their proper powers; mind, ever intending and doubting; soul, with its character of certainty as to things; self-assertion, that falsely attributes the notion of "I"; imagination, with its power of gathering itself together, and directing itself to its object.
These also are the life-breaths: the forward-life, the downward-life, the distributing-life, the uniting-life; their activities and forms are different, as gold and water are different.
The subtle vesture they call the eightfold inner being made up thus: voice and the other four, hearing and the other four, ether and the other four, the forward life and the other four, soul and the other inward activities, unwisdom, desire, and action.
Hear now about this subtle vesture or form vesture, born of elements not five-folded; it is the place of gratification, the enjoyer of the fruits of deeds, the beginningless disguise of the Self, through lack of self-knowledge.
Dream-life is the mode of its expansion, where it shines with reflected light, through the traces of its own impressions; for in dream-life the knowing soul shines of itself through the many and varied mind-pictures made during waking-life.
Here the higher self shines of itself and rules, taking on the condition of doer, with pure thought as its disguise, an unaffected witness, nor is it stained by the actions, there done, as it is not attached to them, therefore it is not stained by actions, whatever they be, done by its disguise; let this form-vesture be the minister, doing the work of the conscious self, the real man, just as the tools do the carpenter's work; thus this self remains unattached.
Blindness or slowness or skill come from the goodness or badness of the eye; deafness and dumbness are of the ear and not of the Knower, the Self.
Up-breathing, down-breathing, yawning, sneezing, the forward moving of breath, and the outward moving—these are the doings of the life-breaths, say those who know these things; of the life-breaths, also, hunger and thirst are properties.
The inner activity dwells and shines in sight and the other powers in the body, through the false attribution of selfhood, as cause.
Self-assertion is to be known as the cause of this false attribution of selfhood, as doer and enjoyer; and through substance and the other two potencies, it reaches expansion in the three modes.
When sensuous things have affinity with it, it is happy; when the contrary, unhappy. So happiness and unhappiness are properties of this, and not of the Self which is perpetual bliss.
Sensuous things are dear for the sake of the self, and not for their own sake; and therefore the Self itself is dearest of all.
By whom this toothed beast called sensuous things is slain by the sharp sword of true turning away from lust, he reaches the world-sea's shore without hindrance. He who, soul-destroyed, treads the rough path of sensuous things, death is his reward, like him who goes out on a luckless day. But he who goes onward, through the word of the good Teacher who is friendly to all beings, and himself well-controlled, he gains the fruit and the reward, and his reward is the Real.
If the love of Freedom is yours, then put sensuous things far away from you, like poison. But love, as the food of the gods, serenity, pity, pardon, rectitude, peacefulness, and self-control; love them and honor them forever.
He who every moment leaving undone what should be done—the freeing of himself from the bonds of beginningless unwisdom—devotes himself to the fattening of his body, that rightly exists for the good of the other powers, such a one thereby destroys himself.
He who seeks to behold the Self, although living to fatten his body, is going to cross the river, holding to a toothed beast, while thinking it a tree.
For this delusion for the body and its delights is a great death for him who longs for Freedom; the delusion by the overcoming of which he grows worthy of the dwelling-place of the free.
Destroy this great death, this infatuation for the body, wives, and sons; conquering it, the pure ones reach the Pervader's supreme abode.
This faulty form, built up of skin and flesh, of blood and sinews, fat and marrow and bones, gross and full of impure elements;
Born of the fivefold physical elements through deeds done before, the physical place of enjoyment of the Self; its mode is waking life, whereby there arises experience of physical things.
Subservient to physical objects through the outer powers, with its various joys—flower-chaplets, sandal, lovers—the Life makes itself like this through the power of the Self; therefore this form is pre-eminent in waking life.
But know that this physical body, wherein the whole circling life of the Spirit adheres, is but as the dwelling of the lord of the dwelling.
Birth and age and death are the fate of the physical and all the physical changes from childhood onward; of the physical body only are caste and grade with their many homes, and differences of worship and dishonor and great honor belong to it alone.
The powers of knowing—hearing, touch, sight, smell, taste—for apprehending sensuous things; the powers of doing—voice, hands, feet, the powers that put forth and generate—to effect deeds.
Then the inward activity: mind, soul, self-assertion, imagination, with their proper powers; mind, ever intending and doubting; soul, with its character of certainty as to things; self-assertion, that falsely attributes the notion of "I"; imagination, with its power of gathering itself together, and directing itself to its object.
These also are the life-breaths: the forward-life, the downward-life, the distributing-life, the uniting-life; their activities and forms are different, as gold and water are different.
The subtle vesture they call the eightfold inner being made up thus: voice and the other four, hearing and the other four, ether and the other four, the forward life and the other four, soul and the other inward activities, unwisdom, desire, and action.
Hear now about this subtle vesture or form vesture, born of elements not five-folded; it is the place of gratification, the enjoyer of the fruits of deeds, the beginningless disguise of the Self, through lack of self-knowledge.
Dream-life is the mode of its expansion, where it shines with reflected light, through the traces of its own impressions; for in dream-life the knowing soul shines of itself through the many and varied mind-pictures made during waking-life.
Here the higher self shines of itself and rules, taking on the condition of doer, with pure thought as its disguise, an unaffected witness, nor is it stained by the actions, there done, as it is not attached to them, therefore it is not stained by actions, whatever they be, done by its disguise; let this form-vesture be the minister, doing the work of the conscious self, the real man, just as the tools do the carpenter's work; thus this self remains unattached.
Blindness or slowness or skill come from the goodness or badness of the eye; deafness and dumbness are of the ear and not of the Knower, the Self.
Up-breathing, down-breathing, yawning, sneezing, the forward moving of breath, and the outward moving—these are the doings of the life-breaths, say those who know these things; of the life-breaths, also, hunger and thirst are properties.
The inner activity dwells and shines in sight and the other powers in the body, through the false attribution of selfhood, as cause.
Self-assertion is to be known as the cause of this false attribution of selfhood, as doer and enjoyer; and through substance and the other two potencies, it reaches expansion in the three modes.
When sensuous things have affinity with it, it is happy; when the contrary, unhappy. So happiness and unhappiness are properties of this, and not of the Self which is perpetual bliss.
Sensuous things are dear for the sake of the self, and not for their own sake; and therefore the Self itself is dearest of all.
Hence the Self itself is perpetual bliss—not for it are happiness and unhappiness; as in dreamless life, where are no sensuous things, the Self that is bliss—is enjoyed, so in waking-life it is enjoyed through the word, through intuition, teaching, and deduction.
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