Soul Body And Person In Ancient India

Author(s): Karin Preisendanz
Publisher: Karin Preisendanz

Page 22

tality of the listed entities, from the eye" to the solid body, i.e., to the psychopsychical whole of the praying person, his/her Self; thus the usage of the word atman as a reflexive pronoun and therefore the meaning "myself" may also resound in this passage. What, then, about Atman in the equation part of the prayer? Because the whole person (atman), when submitted for protection, should also include the individuating "free soul," it could very well be that the term atman refers to this entity here, whereas prdņa and cak pus refer to two specialized body-souls," the "breathing-soul" and the perceptive soul, or präna to the breath-like vital soul" in general and caksus to sight, the most important sensory vital faculty. Although a different terminology would be used, the entities involved, including the solid body, would thus be those referred to explicitly and implicitly in the third verse of the cremation hymn RV 10.16 (analysis [8]) (cf. above pp. 151ff.). This interpretation implies that here too - on the evidence of the equation of ātman with intermediate space, and not with wind - the "free soul" (named ätman) is not imagined as breath-like and of a subtle physical nature any longer, as opposed to prana. Furthermore, although the relation of wind and praņa to intermediate space relates prdna to dtman, the correlation of the latter directly with empty intermediate space points at its conception as something almost immaterial or non-substantial as compared to prdna."
This "de-substantialization can also be observed elsewhere, in an Atharvavedic prayer for rescue or help directed to several god-like powers. The following entities are entreated to return to the praying person(s), a process which presumably involves divine intervention: (11)
prana atman "eye"
nents of the praying person. The additional differentiation of atman from as may point at an even more abstract notion of a man which is divorced not only from that of a pneumatic "vital soul" or specialized "breathing-soul," but also somehow from the ancient notion of a subtle material "free soul." Considering the usages of atman in the Atharvaveda which come close to that of a reflexive pronoun (cf. above p. 160), one could speculate that it is the now more clearly conceived individuating aspect of the "free soul" which becomes associated with this separately conceived atman (i.e., Self), possibly even together with the aspect of thinking or consciousness as manifest during all conscious states because manas is not mentioned here. This would leave ash with the main functions of a
dream-soul" (possibly as a conscious agent observed by another conscious agent, the atman) and of a representative of the person during all unconscious states as well as after death, fulfilling the latter function as a conscious agent, just as in the dream-situation, or even as the sole continuation of the former person in this state. This passage referring to the psychical components of a person could thus be interpreted as follows: (11)
vital soul" / "breathing-soul" (prana) (conscious?) Self (7) dman "eye" - sight/"perceptive soul" (caksus)
"free soul" (ass). It cannot be completely ruled out, of course, that with atman and as the "vital soul" and the individuating "free soul" are meant here, together with the two vital faculties respiration and sight.
IX.
Here, ātman is distinguished not only from prdna, but also from asu; the "eye" (cakesus) completes the enumeration of the most essential non-physical compo
In the speculative-proto-philosophical treatises of ritual science, the Brāhmanas, as well as in the Aranyaka-s, treatises that may have been composed in the seclusion of the forest by those who had retreated from the world and traditional or thodox religious practices and that were meant to be taught and studied there, the microcosmic-macrocosmic correlations relating to the deceased person in the Rgvedic cremation hymn discussed above analysis (8]) are transferred to the animal organism. This becomes evident in a formula which is used during the pasubandha, the animal sacrifice. Just as in the passage of analysis (11) dtmar is distinguished from ASN as well a from prana. According to a Brahmana-passage
191 Cf. also Willman-Grabowska 1929-1930: 17 on the usage of the word atmar in AV 11.8.31.
Horsch (1968: 470) may have had this or a similar passage in mind when he speaks of the
employment of the word atman to denote the person as a 'more or less substantial entity." 192 This would especially be the case if Weber is right in interpreting the prayer as an evening
prayer (cf. n. 190) because during dreams and deep sleep the "free soul" leaves the body. 193 Arbman (cf. Arbman 1927a: 81) supposes such a development only for later times. -Ober
lies (1998: 502-503) refers to AV 5.9.7 in connection with the microcosmic-macrocosmic correlations in the hymn about Puruşa (RV 10.90.13, analysis (6)) and refers also to RV 10.16.3 (analysis (8), but does not attempt to unravel the details, similar to Arbman 1927a:
10, n. 2. 194 Cf. AV 6.53.2; cf. again Willman-Grabowska 1929-1930: 17 and Schlerath 1968: 148. In Similar to the case of some other special situations, one would have to assume here that the
vital soul" or "breathing-soul" may leave the body briefly, cf. above p. 136.
196 The solid body as the physical component next to the four psychical components may be
alluded to in the second half of the verse, by means of God Vaivānara's epithet tanpa if the word tand, just as the word diment in its second occurrence in AV 5.9.7 (analysis (10]). refers to the psycho-physical totality of a person the physical component would just not
be addressed separately here, different from the situation in 5.9.7. IN Arbman seems to assume an emphatic repetition here and assigns the same role as "support
of life" to su, prdna and demon in this passage (cf. Arbman 1927:15, n. 2).
160
161