Man and His Becoming According to the Vedanta (Rene Guenon Works) by Rene Guenon

Author:Rene Guenon [Guenon, Rene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780900588617
Amazon: 0900588616
Publisher: Sophia Perennis
Published: 2004-06-24T22:00:00+00:00

13

THE DREAM STATE OR CONDITION OF TAIJASA

THE second condition is Taijasa [the ‘Luminous’, a word derived from Tejas, the igneous element], whose seat is in the dream state [svapna-sthāna], which has knowledge of inward [mental] objects, which has seven members and nineteen mouths and whose domain is the world of subtle manifestation.1

In this state the outward faculties, while existing all the time potentially, are reabsorbed into the inward sense (manas), which is at the same time their common source, their support, and their immediate end, and which resides in the luminous arteries (nādīs) of the subtle form, where it is distributed without any division of its nature in the manner of a diffused heat. The igneous element in itself, considered in its essential properties, is indeed at one and the same time light and heat; and, as the very name Taijasa applied to the subtle state indicates, these two aspects, suitably transposed (since there is no longer any question here of sensible qualities) must be found in that state also. As we have already had occasion to remark elsewhere, everything belonging to the subtle state is very closely connected with the nature of life itself, which is inseparable from heat; and it may be recalled that on this point, as on many others, the conceptions of Aristotle are in complete agreement with those of the East. As for the luminosity to which we have just alluded, it should be regarded as the reflection and diffraction of the intelligible Light in the extra-sensible modalities of formal manifestation (among which, however, it is only necessary in the present instance to consider those relating to the human state). Furthermore, the subtle form itself (sūkshma-sharīra or liḥga-sharīra) in which Taijasa dwells is likened to a fiery vehicle,2 although this must of course be distinguished from corporeal fire (the element Tejas or that which derives from it) which is perceived by the senses of the gross form (sthūla-sharīra), vehicle of Vaishvānara, and more particularly by sight, since visibility, necessarily presupposing the presence of light, is the sensible quality naturally belonging to Tejas; in the subtle state, however, there can no longer be any question of bhūtas, but only of the corresponding tanmātras which are their immediate determining principles.

As to the nādīs or arteries belonging to the subtle form, they should on no account be confused with the corporeal arteries by means of which the circulation of the blood is effected; physiologically, they correspond rather to the ramifications of the nervous system, for they are expressly described as luminous; moreover, just as fire is in a sense polarized into heat and light, so the subtle state is linked to the corporeal state in two different and complementary ways, through the blood as to the caloric and through the nervous system as to, the luminous quality.3 At the same time it must be clearly understood that between the nādīs and the nerves there is correspondence only and not identification, since the former are not corporeal and we are really concerned with two different spheres within the integral individuality.

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