Soul Body And Person In Ancient India

Author(s): Karin Preisendanz
Publisher: Karin Preisendanz

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As evident already in the Atharvavedic passage of analysis (10) discussed above, the original wind-like "vital soul" ātman has as a "free soul" undoubtedly lost its subtle physical character in the speculations of the Brahmanas and Aranyakas and become conceptually divorced from the material and perceptible world, again symbolized by its essential connection with the empty intermediate space.206 Its vital function was assumed by the more materially conceived prana, in the sense of the "vital soul" or the specialized "breathing-soul" (cf. analysis (10) and, for atman as the Self, analysis (11]). Once prana was "demoted and considered as the vital faculty of respiration, comparable to the faculties of seeing, hearing, etc., some notion of a basic vital function would have again been connected with atman (cf. analyses (13) and (14), similarly for asu in the passage of analysis [12]), even though as a less prominent function that was of less interest to the early priestly philosophers than others of its functions. The central function of amman seems to be that of the Self, as suggested above in the interpretations of the passages analyzed in (11) and (13), in conjunction with the passage of analysis (12) possibly relating to ask as the Self. This is to be viewed and understood in connection with another Vedic usage of the term atman, namely, to refer to the body in the special sense of its "core" or "essence," i.e., the trunk, as opposed to the limbs. Such a meaning of the word dtman is possibly evidenced already in a singular passage in the Rgveda, 28 and can certainly be observed in the
Brāhmaṇaso, it cannot be ruled out that in the case of the so-called saddhotformula in the two adduced variants analyses [13] and [14]) this meaning is alluded to or vaguely associated owing to the mention of the limbs and the back, especially in the triad in analysis (13) because of the suggestive top-down order of the physical constituents back-trunk(?)-limbs. Such a special usage of the term atman can be understood as derived from the developed usage of the term in the Brähmaņas as it can be assumed for the passages analyzed in (13) and (14) (and maybe already for the passage of analysis [11]), namely to refer to that which primarily constitutes the individual living being, be it god, human or animal: his/her/its Self, true and real being, essence, or core.210 In other words, I would like to suggest that the extended special usage of the word dimman to refer to the trunk of the body was possible because - by way of its assuming the individuating function of the "free soul" asx - the atman, although originally just a "vital soul," was associated with the rather abstract individuated core of a living being and thus conceived as his/her/its central identifying component or essence and (eventually?) also as responsible for life; if this idea is transferred to the physical realm, the trunk could indeed be conceived as the core or essence of the body, as constituting its ātman.
On the term atman referring to the trunk or even the whole body in the Brāhmanas scen.
209 below. 206 Cf. similarly also, e..ChUp 3.14.2 where älmar is said to be (open) space (alasärman);
cf. Strauss 1925: 45, with further reference to SPB 10.6.3. 20 It cannot be completely ruled out, of course, that the vital function was never excluded
from the concept of dtman, but was retained in the sense of a basic function, and that therefore even older passages that mention prāna next to arman have to be understood as
referring to prara in the sense of a mere vital faculty. 301 Cf. Willman-Grabowska 1929-1930: 14 and Geldner's translation (Geldner 1951–1957: vol.
3, 390). In the case of the passage RV 10.163.5-6 an alternative interpretation is conceivable, namely, that the word atman refers here to the psycho-physical totality of the person: after consumption, understood as a demonic force, has been removed from various parts of the body (cf. the preceding verses), it is now said in conclusion to be removed from the whole person (Aman) (cf. also the remark in Arbman 1927a: 13, n. 2). This could be un derstood to mean that the disease is removed not only from the whole body, i.e., the named physical constituents of the person, but inclusively and so to say prophylactically also from his/her non-physical personal constituents that were not mentioned before because consumption is manifest only physically. Regarding the passage RV 9.113.1 adduced by Willman-Grabowska in this connection, I agree with her conjecture that it is more probable that here the soul" ("Påme," to be specified as "vital soul"; cf. also Renou 1956: 51 and Thieme 1964: 44) or the complete being" ("Petre entier"; cf. also Arbman 1927a: 13, n. 2: "das Selbst, die eigene Person"... "ohne Unterscheidung von Körper und Seele," and Horsch 1968: 470"die Person als mehr oder weniger substantielle Einheit") is referred to (possibly also the individual vital power, cf. above p. 151). Geldner (1951-1957: vol 3, 119) and O'Flaherty (1981: 133) render dtman as a reflexive pronoun here, a function
From here on the way is open for the philosophical and mystical quest for ātman as the "core" of the human being and his/her true and ultimately real individual nature.911 This quest commences in the later parts of the Brāhmaṇas and in the Aranyaka-s, which generally speaking follow upon the former from the point of view of literary history and history of thought; it reaches its climax in the early philosophical speculations preserved in the teachings of the Upanişads. In accordance with the inclination of the Upanişadic thinkers to reduce the whole world to a single principle, the human atman or essential nature is now identified in many Upanişadic teachings with the one single principle that is at the basis of this world, the Absolute. Although this Absolute is conceived differently in the numerous teachings, its designation as brahman, already prefigured in the Brah
which the word does not yet generally have in the Reveda (cf. Debrunner-Wackernagel
1929-1930: 489-490, referring to altogether three such usages, and Burrow 1973: 269). 209 Cf. Arbman 1927a: 13, n. 2 and Willman-Grabowska 1929-1930: 18-19 and 21 passim; cf.
also n. 205 above. 210 Cf. also Willman-Grabowska 1929-1930:20-21. 211 This may be the meaning of the word diman which caused Bodewitz to consider this San
skrit term as representing in some contexts a generic concept like the English word 'soul (cf. Bodewitz 1991: 36). - On the more archaic, even though already slightly modified notion of Atman (and pur ) (cf. below p. 167) as the "free soul that leaves the body during sleep (a topic not addressed in older Vedic literature) cf. Arbman 19272: 85-88.
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