Re: senses and elements in vedic philosophy
hariḥ oṁ
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namasté raincity (et.al)
Lets take a look at tattva-s. My view is predicated upon svāmī Lakṣman-jū's teaching of kaśmir śaivism. What does that imply? In the saṁkhya point of view there are 25 tattva found in prakṛiti (24) + puruṣa (1); in kaśmir śaivism there are 36. There are the same 25 in kaśmir śaivism, yet a few more are recognized, but that will not be the point of this post.
Lets first consider the definition of tattva ...this always helps to start at the beginning. Tattva is defined as true or real state , truth , reality; it is considered a true principle.
Some look at it this way, tata-tva. This tata is defined as covered over by, extended , stretched , spread , diffused , expanded . This tva can mean 'one' or 'several' ( such is the flexibility of saṃskṛt ). So this tata-tva can mean One extended, covering over, and imply brahman; or it can mean many covering over or extended and that infers the tattva-s or elements you have brought up in your post above.
Many see tattva as That-ness. This implies 'That' and infers brahman once again; the 'That' -ness of everything i.e. the Truth and Reality of everything. A beautiful and flexible word.
When we talk of tattva-s or these 36 elements ( again the kaśmir śaivism POV), we have them in groups:
- pañca mahābhūta-s -__5 (pañca) great (mahā) elements (bhūta-s)
- pañca tanmātra-s -___ 5 (pañca) merely that , only a trifle, ~subtle~ (tanmātra-s) elements
- pañca jñānendriya-s -_ 5 (pañca) organs of sense, of cognition (jñāna + indriya-s)
- pañca karmendriya-s - 5 (pañca) organs of action (karma + indriya-s)
- antaḥkaraṇa-s -______internal organs (antaḥ + karaṇa-s); this is mind, intellect and ego.
- ṣaṭ kañcuka-s - ______6 (ṣaṭ = ṣad = 6) coverings, husks, shells (kañcuka-s)
- śuddha tattva-s -_____ pure (śuddha) elements (tattva-s)
Your question regarding the senses resides in 3 places shown above in blue. These 3 areas work together to bring experience to the human being.
So to answer your question in a meaningful way we need to look at these 3 areas and see how they co-mingle together. We will take a look in the next post.
praṇām
Last edited by yajvan; 25 April 2010 at 09:46 PM.
यतस्त्वं शिवसमोऽसि
yatastvaṁ śivasamo'si
because you are identical with śiva
_
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