[Advaita-l] Advaita vEdAnta - Unit (21)

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

>The constituents of the subtle body are (1) five sense organs - eyes, ears,
>nose, tongue and skin, (2) five organs of action - hands, legs, speech, and
>two lower organs,  (3) five vital airs - prANa, apAna, vyAna, udAna and
>samAna, and (4) antah-karaNa - the seat of thought and feeling consisting 
>of
>manas (mind), buddhi (intellect), chitta (memory bank) and ahankAra (ego).
>Thus the subtle body has a total of 19 constituents - These are the
>"panchIkrita" constituents - gross space formed by the combination

The number 19 for the constituents of the sUkshma SarIra is originally from 
the mANDUkya reference to ekonaviMSati-mukha.

Actually, there is another counting that is prevalent in the texts, adding 
to 17. Here, only manas and buddhi are counted separately. The prakaraNa 
text, pancIkaraNa, and madhusUdana sarasvatIpAda's siddhAntabindu use the 
term "saptadaSaka-linga" and do not count citta and ahaMkAra separately. The 
vedAntasAra of sadAnanda explains this difference by noting that citta and 
ahaMkAra arise as dimensions of the antaHkaraNa during the functioning of 
the manas and buddhi and are therefore only optionally listed apart.

In this context, I remember that there is also a reference to the number 17 
in the bRhadAraNyaka bhAshya. If I can find again the exact place where it 
occurs, I will post it to the list.

Best regards,
Vidyasankar

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