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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
attain to emancipation. The first of these sheaths, beginning with the outermost, is conceived to be the envelope of food (the anna-maya kosha), the second of präna or breath (the prâna-maya hosha), the third, of desire (the mano-maya kosha), the fourth, of knowledge (the vijñana-maya kosha), and the last of bliss (the ananda-maya kosha). The soul is conceived to be devoid of and distinct from all the attributes named in connection with the sheaths, and to be lying at the back of them all. It is this something lying behind all the sheaths that is to be freed. The means for its freedom consist in all those practices which, falling under the different heads--Hatha Yoga and the like, --have already formed the subject of enquiry in the seventh chapter of this book, and found to be insufficient and vague. Thus, the only question before us now is : how far is the idea of the soul's envelopes or sheaths entertainable by rational thought?
The answer to this is really furnished by the nature of the things of which the sheaths are said to be composed. We have seen that knowledge and bliss appertain to the soul, not as a pillow case may be said to appertain to a pillow, but as inalienable properties of pure spirit as a substance. It is, therefore, wrong to say that they form two of the envelopes, or sheaths, which are to be destroyed before the soul can be set free. The case with the other sheaths stands no better, for mind is not an envelope, but only an instrument of discrimination and volition. We cannot even conceive prâna as forming a sheath on the soul, though the diaphragmatic and the thoracic cavities might easily be mistaken for one,
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