Adi Shankara

appears to be diverse on account of its association with the various conditionings and becomes one on the destruction of these.

Because of its association with different conditionings, such ideas as caste, colour and position are superimposed upon the Atman, as flavour, colour and so on are superimposed on water.

determined for each individual by their own past actions and made up of the five elements that have gone through the process of five-fold self-division and mutual combination.

Aborn the gross body, the medium through which pleasure and pain are experienced.

The tent of experiences.

The five pranas, the ten organs and the mind and the intellect.

formed from the rudimentary elements before their five-fold division and mutual combination with one another.

And this is the subtle body, the instruments of experience.

Avijja, ignorance, which is indescribable and beginningless, is the causal body.

Know for certain that the Atman is other than these three conditioning bodies.

In its identification with the five sheaths, the immaculate Atman appears to have borrowed their qualities upon itself, as in the case of a crystal which appears to gather unto itself colour of its vicinity.

Through discriminative self-analysis and logical thinking, one should separate the pure self within from the sheaths as one separates the rice from the husk, the bran and so on that are covering it.

The Atman does not shine in everything, although it is all-pervading.

It is manifest only in the inner equipment, the intellect, buddhi, just as a reflection in a clean mirror.

One should understand that the Atman is always like the king, distinct from the body, senses, mind and intellect, all of which constitute the matter, Prakriti, and is the witness of their functions.

The moon appears to be running when the clouds move in the sky.

Likewise to the non-discriminating person, the Atman appears to be active when it is observed through the functions of the sense organs.

Depending upon the energy of vitality of consciousness, the body, senses, mind and intellect engage themselves in their respective activities.

Just as men work depending upon the light of the sun,

Fools, because they lack in their powers of discrimination, superimpose on the hatman, the absolute existence knowledge, all the varied functions of the body and the senses, just as they attribute blue colour and the like to the sky.