Soul Body And Person In Ancient India

Author(s): Karin Preisendanz
Publisher: Karin Preisendanz

Page 21

path of the gods and especially meritorious ancestors. However, it could also be the case that for the bodies of ancestors transferred to heaven such worldly "body-souls" were not considered necessary or that the issue just did not come up in the reflections on bodily heavenly existence after death.162
Under the above interpretation the passage analyzed in (8), although not referring to three variants or possibilities of afterlife based on one coherent concept, would nevertheless show consistency as regards the subject or entity which is addressed in it with the second person imperative forms.
To conclude this rather detailed discussion of the important verse RV 10.16.3 (analysis [8]), even though I certainly cannot claim to have solved all the problems involved in its interpretation, on its own as well as in context, I think that the interpretation of atman as thc/a pneumatic "vital soul," next to an plied individuating "free soul" which is not named explicitly, can stand at least as a hypothesis.
my forward respiration (prdna) my backward respiration (apāna) my in-between respiration (vyāna) =
the whole "I." It has to be stressed that "I," which according to the majority of later Brahminical philosophers, just as in the context of the Platonic notion of soul," cannot refer to the body and must therefore refer to some non-physical "soul" or "power of life," is obviously employed by the author of this verse to refer not to a single entity, but to a collection of several material and subtle material entities. This complex referent could be subsumed under the notion of "individualized life," approaching a more differentiated idea of a person that comprises atman as the "vital soul" and five essential vital faculties of a subtle material nature,
The special context may be responsible for the fact that neither the "free soul" nor the mental vital faculty manas) is mentioned here.
A clear distinction between dtman and präna is also made in an Atharvavedic prayer for protection directed at the three "worlds" heaven, earth and intermediate space, as becomes evident from the introductory invocations and the macrocosmic correspondences essential to the prayer. The praying person entrusts him/herself to Heaven and Earth, I equating his/her eye" (caksas) with the sun (which belongs to heaven), his/her präna with the wind (connected with the intermediate space in which wind moves back and forth), his/her dtman (directly) with the intermediate space, and his/her solid body (Sartra) with the earth. After these identifications, the word at man is used again in an obviously different sense, in the concluding phrase "I lay down the atman for Heaven and Earth, for protection":190 (10) "eye"
sun
(heaven) prana wind
intermediate space) atman
intermediate space intermediate space) solid body - earth
(earth)
VIIL
In the Athartaveda we find evidence not only for a distinction between as, as the "free soul," and prāna, as the pneumatic "vital soul" or specialized "breathing-soul," but furthermore a distinction between a man and prona, e.g, in a twoverse incantation whose specific function is unfortunately not clear. The subsequent hymn which is directed at desire (kama) as a cosmic power could indicate that the two verses express some analogical love spell or represent a formula used in connection with successful courtship or the union with a desired person. In the first verse, the "whole l' is differentiated into "my deman," "my sight," and "my hearing," and finally into three kinds of respiration, "breathing for wards" (ie, outwards), "breathing backwards" (i.e., inwards) and "breathing in between":165
"T": my ātman (vital soul") my sight (cakşus) my hearing (Srotra)
dan
heaven and earth Like the expression "(the whole) 'T' in the Atharvavedic love spell (?) adduced above analysis [9]), the term atman in the conclusion probably refers to the to
12 Cf. Arbman 1926: 179-180. 1 Space does not allow discussion of another interpretation of the passage analyzed in (8).
namely, the ultimate dispersal and dissolution of the person in the various macrocosmic
elements, constituents and realms. IH CE. AV 19.51.1-2.
On this interpretation of the three types of breath(ing) cf. Bodewitz 1986: 333-334 and 337-341. The occurrence in the triad makes it very improbable that prdna refers to the/a
vital soul" here; the mention of pranea as a vital faculty, together with two other types of respiration, furthermore implies that also "eye" and "ear" are understood here as (sensory) vital faculties. On the whole verse (AV 19.51.1) cf. also Heesterman 1995: 30.
IN Cf. Preisendanz 1994: 235-237 and 298, with further references. 187 CE. Flew 1967: 142. 18 CE. AV 5.9 translated already in Weber 1898: 197-199; cf. also Willman-Grabowska 1929
1930:17. I Although intermediate space is also invoked in AV 5.9.3 and mentioned in 5.9.7, the pray
ing person entrusts him/herself only to Heaven and Earth, understood as a divine parental couple who grants protection (5.9.7) and the full life-span (Euskert, ypat) (cf. 5.9.8); the empty intermediate space between them obviously possesses only a faint character, or
even no special character at all, and is not personified. 1 CE AV 5.9.7. Weber (1898: 198) suggests that this verse is an evening prayer, followed by a
morning prayer in the following verse (AV 5.9.8).
158
159