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Tattva Bodhaतत्त्वबोधः
Tattva Bodha · passage 16

The subtle body

सूक्ष्मशरीरं किम्? अपञ्चीकृतपञ्चमहाभूतैः कृतं सत्कर्मजन्यं सुखदुःखादिभोगसाधनं पञ्चज्ञानेन्द्रियाणि पञ्चकर्मेन्द्रियाणि पञ्चप्राणादयः मनश्चैकं बुद्धिश्चैका एवं सप्तदशाकलाभिः सह यत्तिष्ठति तत्सूक्ष्मशरीरम् । श्रोत्रं त्वक् चक्षुः रसना घ्राणम् इति पञ्च ज्ञानेन्द्रियाणि । श्रोत्रस्य दिग्देवता । त्वचो वायुः । चक्षुषः सूर्यः । रसनाया वरुणः । घ्राणस्य अश्विनौ । इति ज्ञानेन्द्रियदेवताः । श्रोत्रस्य विषयः शब्दग्रहणम् । त्वचो विषयः स्पर्शग्रहणम् । चक्षुषो विषयः रूपग्रहणम् । रसनाया विषयः रसग्रहणम् । घ्राणस्य विषयः गन्धग्रहणम् इति । वाक्पाणिपादपायूपस्थानीति पञ्चकर्मेन्द्रियाणि । वाचो देवता वह्निः । हस्तयोरिन्द्रः । पादयोर्विष्णुः । पायोर्मृत्युः । उपस्थस्य प्रजापतिः । इति कर्मेन्द्रियदेवताः । वाचो विषयः भाषणम् । पाण्योर्विषयः वस्तुग्रहणम् । पादयोर्विषयः गमनम् । पायोर्विषयः मलत्यागः । उपस्थस्य विषयः आनन्द इति ।
In transliteration
sūkṣmaśarīraṃ kim? apañcīkṛtapañcamahābhūtaiḥ kṛtaṃ satkarmajanyaṃ sukhaduḥkhādibhogasādhanaṃ pañcajñānendriyāṇi pañcakarmendriyāṇi pañcaprāṇādayaḥ manaścaikaṃ buddhiścaikā evaṃ saptadaśākalābhiḥ saha yattiṣṭhati tatsūkṣmaśarīram | śrotraṃ tvak cakṣuḥ rasanā ghrāṇam iti pañca jñānendriyāṇi | śrotrasya digdevatā | tvaco vāyuḥ | cakṣuṣaḥ sūryaḥ | rasanāyā varuṇaḥ | ghrāṇasya aśvinau | iti jñānendriyadevatāḥ | śrotrasya viṣayaḥ śabdagrahaṇam | tvaco viṣayaḥ sparśagrahaṇam | cakṣuṣo viṣayaḥ rūpagrahaṇam | rasanāyā viṣayaḥ rasagrahaṇam | ghrāṇasya viṣayaḥ gandhagrahaṇam iti | vākpāṇipādapāyūpasthānīti pañcakarmendriyāṇi | vāco devatā vahniḥ | hastayorindraḥ | pādayorviṣṇuḥ | pāyormṛtyuḥ | upasthasya prajāpatiḥ | iti karmendriyadevatāḥ | vāco viṣayaḥ bhāṣaṇam | pāṇyorviṣayaḥ vastugrahaṇam | pādayorviṣayaḥ gamanam | pāyorviṣayaḥ malatyāgaḥ | upasthasya viṣayaḥ ānanda iti |
In English

What is the subtle body? It is made from the five great elements before they are fivefold-compounded, born of past action, the instrument by which pleasure and pain are met. It is the five organs of knowing, the five organs of action, the five vital breaths, the mind as one and the intellect as one. That which abides with these seventeen parts is the subtle body. The ear, the skin, the eye, the tongue, the nose: these are the five organs of knowing. The deity of the ear is the quarters of space; of the skin, the wind; of the eye, the sun; of the tongue, Varuṇa; of the nose, the Aśvins. These are the deities of the organs of knowing. The work of the ear is the receiving of sound; of the skin, the receiving of touch; of the eye, the receiving of form; of the tongue, the receiving of taste; of the nose, the receiving of smell. Speech, the hands, the feet, the organ of excretion, the organ of generation: these are the five organs of action. The deity of speech is Fire; of the hands, Indra; of the feet, Viṣṇu; of the organ of excretion, Death; of the organ of generation, Prajāpati. These are the deities of the organs of action. The work of speech is speaking; of the hands, the holding of things; of the feet, going; of the organ of excretion, the letting go of waste; of the organ of generation, delight.

In plain words

What is the subtle body (sūkṣma-śarīra)? It is made from the five great elements before they are quintuplicated, is produced by past karma, and is the instrument for experiencing pleasure and pain. It consists of the five organs of knowledge, the five organs of action, the five vital airs, the mind, and the intellect. That which abides with these seventeen parts is the subtle body. The five organs of knowledge are the ear, skin, eye, tongue, and nose. Their presiding deities are: the directions of space for the ear, the wind for the skin, the sun for the eye, Varuṇa for the tongue, the Aśvins for the nose. Their objects are: sound for the ear, touch for the skin, form for the eye, taste for the tongue, smell for the nose. The five organs of action are speech, the hands, the feet, the organ of excretion, and the organ of generation. Their presiding deities are: Fire for speech, Indra for the hands, Viṣṇu for the feet, Death for the organ of excretion, Prajāpati for the organ of generation. Their functions are: speaking for speech, grasping for the hands, walking for the feet, excretion for the organ of excretion, and pleasure for the organ of generation.

The terms set down here
  • sūkṣma-śarīra

In the commentaries

Sri SankaraAdvaita

The gross body was the dwelling where pleasure and pain are met; the subtle body is the instrument by which they are met, and the whole apparatus of experiencing is gathered here under one name. Its elements are not yet quintuplicated, not yet coarsened into the stuff the eye can see, so it is too fine to be grasped by the senses it makes possible, yet it is no less material than the gross. Counted out, it is seventeen: the five powers of knowing that take in sound, touch, form, taste, and smell; the five powers of acting that speak, handle, walk, release, and beget; the five breaths that keep the living frame at work; and over them the mind that wavers and weighs and the intellect that settles and decides. This is the linga, the mark that travels: in Sankara's reading it is what migrates from body to body, carrying the impressions of past action, while the Self it serves does not stir and is not any part of it. The teaching counts the seventeen not to enlarge the seeker but to narrow him, for what can be numbered and laid out as an instrument is exactly what the witness is not.

Sri Sankara's framework for the subtle body (linga-sarira) as the transmigrating instrument, from his Upanisad and Gita bhasyas and the Vivekacudamani; with the standard Tattvabodha expositions of Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Swami Paramarthananda, and Swami Chinmayananda.
The crux
If the powers of seeing, doing, breathing, and thinking can all be counted as instruments you possess, who is the one that possesses them?

The gross body and the subtle body both serve pleasure and pain. How does the subtle body's role differ?

  • The gross body is the dwelling where experience happens, while the subtle body is the instrument through which it happens
  • The subtle body feels pleasure and pain, while the gross body only stores them
  • The gross body belongs to the Self, while the subtle body belongs to the world
  • The subtle body is unreal, while the gross body is real
Show the answer
The gross body is the dwelling where experience happens, while the subtle body is the instrument through which it happens. The gross body is named the abode of experience and the subtle body the instrument of it: the senses, breaths, mind, and intellect are the means by which pleasure and pain are taken in. Neither is the one who experiences; both are counted out so you can tell them apart from the witness.

The instrument of seventeen parts

If the gross body is where you meet pleasure and pain, the subtle body is what you meet them with. The same five elements are at work, but here they are not yet quintuplicated, not yet coarsened into the stuff the eye can see, so this body is finer than sight and finer than touch, present in every act of perceiving and never itself perceived. It is no less made of matter for being unseen. It is the working part of you, the apparatus through which a world arrives and a will goes out.

Counted, it comes to seventeen parts. Five powers of knowing, hearing, feeling, seeing, tasting, smelling, each set to one kind of object and presided over by its own deity. Five powers of acting, to speak, to handle, to walk, to release, to beget. Five breaths that keep the living frame in motion. And above these, two more: the mind that takes things in and turns them over without resting, and the intellect that weighs and decides. That which abides together with these seventeen is the subtle body.

In the way Sankara teaches it, this is the linga, the mark that travels. When the gross body falls away, the subtle body does not; it carries the impressions of what was done and known into the next body, the thread on which lives are strung. It is intimate, it is yours, it follows you across death. And still it is counted, still it is laid out as an instrument with parts and deities and tasks, because everything that can be set down in a list this way is on one side of a line, and you are on the other.

So the counting does the work of separating. You can name the senses, so you are not the senses. You can watch the mind waver and the intellect settle, so you are neither the wavering nor the settling. One by one the seventeen are handed to you as things you have, and what is left when the having is done, the one to whom they all belong and who is none of them, is what the inquiry is quietly clearing the ground to see.

Today, can you catch the moment a sense reports and the mind takes it up, and notice that something steady is there to receive the whole report?

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