The Serpent Power — Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe) (1924)
2 This is transmigration or pretyabhāva, which means “the arising again” (and again)—punarutpattih pretyabhāvah, as Gautama says. Pretya=having died, and Bhāva=“the becoming (born into the world) again”. “Again” implies habitualness: birth, then death, then birth, and so on, until final emancipation, which is Moksha, or Apavarga (release), as the Nyāya calls it.
of the subtle body, but with the gross objects of enjoyment on which those faculties feed. There therefore comes into being, as a projection of the Power (Shakti) of Consciousness, the gross body of matter called Sthūla Sharīra.
The word Sharīra comes from the root “Shri,” to decay; for the gross body is at every moment undergoing molecular birth and death until Prāna, or vitality, leaves the organism, which, as such, is dissolved. The Soul (Jīvātmā) is, when it leaves the body, no longer concerned therewith. There is no such thing as the resurrection of the same body. It returns to dust, and the Jīva when it reincarnates does so in a new body, which is nevertheless, like the last, suited to give effect to its Karma.
The Sthūla Sharīra, with its three Doshas, six Koshas, seven Dhātus, ten Fires, and so forth,¹ is the perishable body composed of compounds of five forms of gross sensible matter (Mahābhūta), which is ever decaying, and is at the end dissolved into its constituents at death.² This is the Vedāntik body of food (Annamaya Kosha), so called because it is maintained by food which is converted into chyle (Rasa), blood, flesh, fat in bone, marrow and seed-components of the gross organism. The Jīva lives in this body when in the waking (Jāgrat) state.
The human, physical, or gross body is, according to Western science, composed of certain compounds, of which the chief are water, gelatine, fat, phosphate of lime, albumen, and fibrine, and of these water constitutes some two-thirds of the total weight. These substances are composed of simpler non-metallic and metallic elements, of which the chief are oxygen (to the extent of about two-thirds),
1 See Introduction to my edition of Prapanchasāra Tantra, Vol. III,
“Tantrik Texts”.
2 Decay and death are two of the six Ūrmis which, with hunger and thirst, grief and ignorance, are characteristics of the body (Dehadharma): Prapanchasāra Tantra, II.
hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. Again, to go one step farther back, though the alleged indestructibility of the elements and their atoms is still said by some to present the character of a “practical truth,” well-known recent experiments go to re-establish the ancient hypothesis of a single Primordial Substance to which these various forms of matter may be reduced, with the resultant of the possible and hitherto derided transmutation of one element into another; since each is but one of the plural manifestations of the same underlying unity.
Recent scientific research has shown that this original substance cannot be scientific “matter”—that is, that which has mass, weight, and inertia. Matter has been dematerialised and reduced, according to current hypotheses, to something which differs profoundly from “matter” as known by the senses. This ultimate substance is stated to be Ether in a state of motion. The present scientific hypothesis would appear to be as follows: The ultimate and simplest physical factor from which the universe has arisen is motion of and in a substance called “ether,” which is not scientific “matter”. The motions of this substance give rise from the realistic point of view to the notion of “matter”. Matter is thus at base one, notwithstanding the diversity of its forms. Its ultimate element is on the final analysis of one kind, and the differences in the various kinds of matter depend on the various movements of the ultimate particle and its succeeding combinations. Given such unity of base, it is possible that one form of matter may pass into another.
The Indian theory here described agrees with the Western speculations to which we have referred, that what the latter calls scientific or ponderable matter does not permanently exist, but says that there are certain motions or forces (five in number) which produce solid matter, and
2 This is transmigration or pretyabhāva, which means “the arising again” (and again)—punarutpattih pretyabhāvah, as Gautama says. Pretya=having died, and Bhāva=“the becoming (born into the world) again”. “Again” implies habitualness: birth, then death, then birth, and so on, until final emancipation, which is Moksha, or Apavarga (release), as the Nyāya calls it.
of the subtle body, but with the gross objects of enjoyment on which those faculties feed. There therefore comes into being, as a projection of the Power (Shakti) of Consciousness, the gross body of matter called Sthūla Sharīra.
The word Sharīra comes from the root “Shri,” to decay; for the gross body is at every moment undergoing molecular birth and death until Prāna, or vitality, leaves the organism, which, as such, is dissolved. The Soul (Jīvātmā) is, when it leaves the body, no longer concerned therewith. There is no such thing as the resurrection of the same body. It returns to dust, and the Jīva when it reincarnates does so in a new body, which is nevertheless, like the last, suited to give effect to its Karma.
The Sthūla Sharīra, with its three Doshas, six Koshas, seven Dhātus, ten Fires, and so forth,¹ is the perishable body composed of compounds of five forms of gross sensible matter (Mahābhūta), which is ever decaying, and is at the end dissolved into its constituents at death.² This is the Vedāntik body of food (Annamaya Kosha), so called because it is maintained by food which is converted into chyle (Rasa), blood, flesh, fat in bone, marrow and seed-components of the gross organism. The Jīva lives in this body when in the waking (Jāgrat) state.
The human, physical, or gross body is, according to Western science, composed of certain compounds, of which the chief are water, gelatine, fat, phosphate of lime, albumen, and fibrine, and of these water constitutes some two-thirds of the total weight. These substances are composed of simpler non-metallic and metallic elements, of which the chief are oxygen (to the extent of about two-thirds),
1 See Introduction to my edition of Prapanchasāra Tantra, Vol. III,
“Tantrik Texts”.
2 Decay and death are two of the six Ūrmis which, with hunger and thirst, grief and ignorance, are characteristics of the body (Dehadharma): Prapanchasāra Tantra, II.
hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. Again, to go one step farther back, though the alleged indestructibility of the elements and their atoms is still said by some to present the character of a “practical truth,” well-known recent experiments go to re-establish the ancient hypothesis of a single Primordial Substance to which these various forms of matter may be reduced, with the resultant of the possible and hitherto derided transmutation of one element into another; since each is but one of the plural manifestations of the same underlying unity.
Recent scientific research has shown that this original substance cannot be scientific “matter”—that is, that which has mass, weight, and inertia. Matter has been dematerialised and reduced, according to current hypotheses, to something which differs profoundly from “matter” as known by the senses. This ultimate substance is stated to be Ether in a state of motion. The present scientific hypothesis would appear to be as follows: The ultimate and simplest physical factor from which the universe has arisen is motion of and in a substance called “ether,” which is not scientific “matter”. The motions of this substance give rise from the realistic point of view to the notion of “matter”. Matter is thus at base one, notwithstanding the diversity of its forms. Its ultimate element is on the final analysis of one kind, and the differences in the various kinds of matter depend on the various movements of the ultimate particle and its succeeding combinations. Given such unity of base, it is possible that one form of matter may pass into another.
The Indian theory here described agrees with the Western speculations to which we have referred, that what the latter calls scientific or ponderable matter does not permanently exist, but says that there are certain motions or forces (five in number) which produce solid matter, and
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