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42] aggregate of subjects and objects of experience, as created in order to furnish finite souls with experiences in recompense of previous "works"; but the reason moving the Supreme Brahma to render himself an efficient and material cause of a universe distinct from himself, says S'ankara, can only be motiveless sport (see commentary on Brahma-sutra, II. i. 33). Brahma Knowledge, by L. D. Barnett, [1911], at sacred-texts.com section 18. ORGANISM OF SOUL.--I. Upanishads.--Every organic being is a soul, according to the Upanishads; and the degree of its organic development is directly proportioned to the merits of its former works. The highest therefore are the souls of gods and men. The soul in its human embodiment exercises three classes of functions: (1) the sense-organs (indriya), which in slumber or swoon become paralysed and merge themselves into (2) the organ of thought (manas), which converts the data of the sense-organs into conscious modes of thought and volition; and (3) the "breaths" (prana), a term originally denoting all the functions of physical life, then those higher functions upon which generally depends all life, whether conscious or unconscious, and into which during sleep or swoon are merged the manas and the sense-organs already absorbed in the latter. The name indriya for the sense-organs appears first in Kath. and Kau. Other texts usually call them prana (a collective term, from the supremacy of the prana, or breath), and comprise under the [p. 43] name ordinarily breath, speech, sight, hearing, and manas (e.g. B.A. I. iv. 7). The same ten indriyas as in the later system occur first in B.A. II. iv. 11, IV. v. 12, which adds manas and heart (cf. Pra. IV. 2). On manas as central function of cognition and action see B.A. I. v. 3, IV. i. 6, Ch. VII. iii f., Kath. VI. 7. The sense-organs are compared to horses drawing the car of the body, manas to their bridle, Kath. III. 3; in Maitr. II. 6 the organs of action are the horses, the organs of intelligence (see below) the reins, manas the driver. On the immersion of organs with manas in prana see especially B.A. IV. iii. 12, Ch. VI. viii. 2, Pra. IV. 2 f. The "breaths" are usually given as five, viz.: (1) prana in the strict sense, which in B.A. and Ch. denotes exspiration, and later exspiration and inspiration together; (2) apana, in B.A. and Ch. the inspiration, later the wind causing digestion in the bowels or evacuation; (3) vyana, respiratory action connecting prana and apana, variously conceived; (4) samana, sometimes the wind digesting food, sometimes connection between exspiration and inspiration; (5) udana, which carries food and drink up and down (Maitr. II. 6) and guides the soul to Brahma in death and sleep (Pra. III. 7, IV. 4). II. Later Vedanta.--In the system of S'ankara the gross body, subtle body ( section 19), karmas'raya ( section 20), and pranas are classed together as the "determinations" or upadhis by which the Self [p. 44] conceives itself as an individual soul (above, section 12). Whereas the gross body is abandoned on death, the other organisms travel in a potential form with the soul throughout all its births. By the term prana S'ankara, following the old Upanishadic usage, designates not only the unconscious "breaths," but also the conscious indriyas. The indriyas (the functional forces whence arise the material sense-organs) according to him comprise the five functions of action (viz. speech, grasp, locomotion, generation, and excretion) and the five of buddhi or intelligence (viz. sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell), with which is associated the manas as their centre. The pranas, or "breaths" in the strict sense are the five known in the Upanishads. S'ankara explains prana as exspiration, apana as inspiration, vyana as the force maintaining life when both exspiration and inspiration are checked, samana as the digestive force, and udana as the current leading the soul from the body on death (on II. iv. 8 f.). When death takes place, the indriyas sink into manas, this into the pranas, these into the individual soul (lodged in the heart), this into the "subtle body" ( section 19), which then starts on its wanderings. Thus S'ankara (on IV. ii. 1 f.) explains the statement of Ch. VI. viii. 6 that on death Speech is merged in manas, this into prana, this into Heat, this into the Higher Godhead. These words, he holds, mean that the potential functions of conscious sensation are [p. 45] merged into those of unconscious vitality, the latter into the individual soul, this again into the "Heat," i.e. the "subtle body," which conveys the soul through its wanderings. See also section section 12, 15. The later Vedanta (e.g. the Vedanta-sara and the Atma-viveka and Vakya-sudha ascribed to S'ankara) schematises the functions of empiric thought by dividing the antah-karana, its collective organisation, into chitta, manas (often loosely called antah-karana), buddhi, and aham-kara. To chitta it ascribes the function of passing notice, to manas that of deliberation, and to buddhi that of determination. Sometimes also it uses buddhi as a general term denoting both aham-kara, the conception of egoity, which is the agent in empiric mental action, and manas, the instrument of egoity; in the false identification of these functions with the Self or Spirit lies the root of phenomenal illusion. Brahma Knowledge, by L. D. Barnett, [1911], at sacred-texts.com section 19. THE SUBTLE BODY.--According to the later Vedanta, the Soul in its wanderings from birth to birth is accompanied by the sense-organs and "breaths" as sums of potential faculties, and has for its vehicle the "subtle body," sukshmas'arira. The latter consists of portions of the five elements in their higher suprasensual form, and thus is as it were a seed which on occasion grows by the accession of gross matter into a physical body. There is no clear evidence for the existence of [p. 46] this idea in the Upanishads until the mention of a linga (the term used in the Sankhya school for "subtle body") in B.A. IV. iv. 6; cf. Kath. VI. 8, S'vet. VI. 9, Maitr. VI. 10. For S'ankara's view see especially on Brahma-sutra, III. i. 1 f., IV. ii. 6 f. The "subtle body" adheres to the soul until it attains perfect enlightenment and release in Brahma; the souls which never reach this goal are always attended by it. Brahma Knowledge, by L. D. Barnett, [1911], at sacred-texts.com section 20. KARMA.--The propelling force which conducts the Soul with its potential functions through endless incarnations as man, god, beast, or vegetable, is the karmas'raya, the substrate of its karma or works. By "work" is understood not only every act of will, and of body in obedience to will, but also every act of ideation in which the subject of thought posits a non-self in opposition to itself, for in this false duality begins the Will, desire, attachment of the soul to its fetters of finitude, and therewith moral blindness. Every such act transforms itself into a positive force acting upon the soul, and demanding a corresponding requital of good for good and evil for evil in future experiences; and the sum of these forces at the end of each life determines the form of birth in the next incarnation. [*1] Footnotes ^46:1 See especially B.A. III. ii. 13 (probably the earliest assertion of this theory as a solution of the problem of moral character), IV. iv. 2-6, Ch. III. xiv. 1, S'ankara on Brahma-sutra, III, iv. 11, IV. ii, 6, and above, section 6, below, section 24. Brahma Knowledge, by L. D. Barnett, [1911], at sacred-texts.com [p. 47] section 21. FREEDOM OF WILL.--It follows that in so far as man shares in the empiric world his whole moral and physical life is at every instant strictly predestined. But at the same time his Self is implicitly free, inasmuch as in essence it is one with the Absolute Brahma, no matter how it be empirically sunk in the phenomenal world; and as soon as he attains the knowledge of this fundamental unity which is itself salvation, his freedom is complete; he is the One Absolute Brahma, and beside him there exists no empiric world. Brahma Knowledge, by L. D. Barnett, [1911], at sacred-texts.com section 22. GOD.--These two ideas, empiric servitude to Works and transcendental freedom, leave little room for a Supreme God or moral guide of the experiences of souls. The older texts practically ignore such a power; their polytheistic myths are merely echoes from the Veda, allegorically turned, and when they refer to a supreme deity they mean the higher Self within man. Later authors, however, began occasionally to set up in theistic fashion a distinction between the Self within and the Self without. This finally led to the conception of the later Vedanta, in which the Supreme Self, styled "the Lord" (Is'vara), is given the function of directing as efficient cause the course of "works," so that each comes to its [p. 48] requital in due season and form, while the direct responsibility for all man's experiences is thrown upon the inward Self. In other circles the same theistic current led to the identification of this Atma-God with one of the great popular deities, usually Vishnu or S'iva; and thus arose the great theologies, of which the most significant is the Bhagavad-gita, a compromise between Upanishadic idealism, Sankhya physics, and practical faith. The first definite theism is in Kath. II. 20 (?), 23, III. i., v. 13, Mund. III. ii. 3, Is'a 8, S'vet. III 20, IV.-VI., etc. Worship of Brahma-Atma is however frequently mentioned in the Upanishads. It is an adoration of the Self either in its unqualified absoluteness (cf. Ch. III. xiv. 1, "Brahma in sooth is this All; it hath therein its beginning, end, and breath; so one should worship it in stillness"), or as allegorically typified by some physical force (see section 5), or as represented by the sacred syllable Om or Aum, upon which see especially Mand. and Pra.