"Description of Manomaya kośa and its negation (verses 167-183)" :

 

 

Description of Manomaya kośa and its negation (verses 167-183) :
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167. The organs of perception along with the mind form the mental-sheath which is the sole cause of the "I" and "mine" sense and of the diversity of things. It is powerful and is endowed with the essential faculty of creating differences of names etc. It pervades the vital-air-sheath preceding it.

 

168. The five sense-organs act as sacrificial priests who feed the fuel of numerous desires into the mental-sheath, which is the sacrificial fire. This fire (mental-sheath), brings about and maintains the entire phenomenal world when it is set ablaze by the sense-objects which act as a continuous stream of oblations.

 

169. Apart from the mind there is no ignorance (avidya). The mind itself is the ignorance which is the cause for the bondage of conditioned existence. When the mind is destroyed, everything else is destroyed. When the mind manifests, everything else manifests.

 

170. In the dream state, even though there is no contact with the external world, the mind alone projects the entire dream-universe of enjoyer etc. Similarly, the waking-state is no different. All this (world of myriad phenomena), is but a projection of the mind.

 

171. In deep-sleep, the mind is reduced to its casual-state and nothing perceivable exists, as is proved by the universal experience of all people. Hence, the relative world is just a creation of the mind and has no objective reality.

 

172. The wind gathers the clouds together and the wind itself scatters them. So too, the mind creates bondage and also creates liberation.

 

173. The mind causes attachment for the body and the sense-objects. These attachments bind one like an animal that is bound by ropes. Thereafter, the same mind creates a distaste for these sense-objects as though they were poison, and liberates one from bondage.

 

174. Therefore, the mind is the cause for both liberation as well as bondage. When tainted by the effects of rajas, it causes bondage. When it is free from the rajas and tamas qualities, it paves the way to liberation.

 

175. When the mind has been made pure through the cultivation of discrimination and dispassion, it turns towards liberation. Hence the wise seeker of liberation must first strengthen these two qualities.

 

176. huge tiger called "mind" prowls in the thick jungles of sense-pleasures. Let not those virtuous people who have a deep aspiration for liberation ever wander therein.

177. The mind continuously delivers for the experiencer, (1) all sense-objects, gross or subtle, without exception, (2) distinctions based upon the body, caste, order-of-life and creed, as well as, (3) the difference of qualities, actions‘ motive and results.

 

178. Unattached Pure Intelligence is the essence of the individual, but the mind beguiles it and binds it by ties of body, sense-organs, and pranas. It causes the individual to wander with the idea of "I" and "mine" in the myriad experiences of "results" gathered by itself.

 

179. The defect of superimposition causes transmigration and mind alone is responsible for the bondage of superimposition. For a person who is tainted with rajas and tamas and who lacks discrimination, this alone causes birth, suffering etc.

 

180. Hence the wise who know the Truth declare the mind itself as ignorance (avidya). By this alone the universe of experience is tossed around like the clouds before the wind.

 

181. Therefore, the mind must be diligently purified by one who seeks liberation. When the mind has been purified, liberation becomes readily available like a fruit in the palm of one‘s hand.

 

182. With single-pointed devotion to liberation, one who roots out attachments for sense-objects, renounces all actions and with faith in Truth, constantly hears (the Truth) etc., succeeds in purging the rajasic nature of the mind.

 

183. The mental-sheath cannot be the Supreme Self either, for it has a beginning and an end. It is subject to modifications; pain and suffering characterize it and it is an "object" of cognition. The "subject" can never be the "object" of knowledge. [Or the seer (subject) can never become the seen (object)].