Lessons in Vedanta

Lesson-20

Vyashti-Samashti (Individuality and Totality)

In the previous lessons, we discussed about Karana-Sthoola-Sookshma types of creation and shareeras.

Among these, the Shareeras are said to be of six types based on vyashti and samashti classification as follows

1.Vyashti Kaarana Shareera (Individual causal body)

2. Samashti Kaarana Shareera (Aggregate causal body)

3. Vyashti Sookshma Shareera (Individual subtle body)

4. Samashti Sookshma Shareera (Aggregate subtle body)

5. Vyashti Sthoola Shareera (Individual gross body)

6. Samashti Sthoola Shareera (Total gross body)

Examples of Vyashti-Samashti :

Tree is Vyashti, forest is Samashti

House is Vyashti, city is Samashti

River is Vyashti, ocean is Samahsti.

Ishwara is one who has Samashti as Upadhi. He who has vyashti as Upadhi is Jeevi.

Further classifications:

We have learnt that there are three classes of Samashti and three classes of Vyashti with reference to Karana-Sookshma-Sthoola shareeras. One who is present in all the three types of Samashtis is called by the general term - Ishwara. Similarly one who is present in all the three types of Vyashtis is referred to as Jeevi. There are individual nomenclatures for the six forms.

1. One who is present in Karana Samashti is called as Ishwara

2. One who is present in Karana Vyashti is called as Praajna

3. One who is present in Sookshma samashti is called as Hiranya Garbha

4. One who is present in Sookshma Vyashti is called as Taijasa

5. One who is present in Sthoola Samashti is called as Vaishwanara (Virat purusha)

6. One who is present in Sthoola Vyashti is called as Vishwa.

This can be tabulated as follows:

	Karana	Sookshma	Sthoola	Generic Name
Samashti	Ishwara (Rudra)	Hiranyagarbha (Vishnu)	Vaishwanara (Brahma)	Ishwara
Vyashti	Praajna	Taijasa	Vishwa	Jeeva

We observe that the term Ishwara is used in two places. Its meaning will change according to the context.

Brahma-Vishnu-Maheshwara

We have learnt about the six forms of Jeeva and Ishwara. When Ishwara (who is present in the three states of samashti) is under the influence of Satva, Rajas and Tamas, He will be referred to as Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra. With the predominance of Rajas, he will cause creation, with the predominance of Satva, he will sustain it and with the predominance of Tamas, he will cause destruction. Among these, Brahma becomes a part of Vaishwanara, who is of the form of Virat purusha. Vishnu becomes a part of Hiranyagarbha and Rudra becomes a part of Ishwara (one who is present in the three Samashti forms). Note that the term 'Hiranyagarbha' has also been used in two different contexts in different meanings.

All these explanations started in the 15th lesson, when we set out to understand the meaning of Adhyaropa.

The Karana, Sookshma and Sthoola types of creation took place (in that order, with the previous type serving as the cause for the subsequent type of creation) in a unique way from the 'Complete substance', the one without a second. This is the scheme of creation. This itself is called Adhyaropa. It means, we have been imposing one upon the other.

By understanding the underlying superimposition, we have come to know that the manifest world has come from one single source. Is this possible? - you may ask. Remember that the rope lying in the dark can be mistaken as different objects - a snake, a garland etc., etc. Also, it must be remembered that although there is only one object there, namely the rope, the mind created so many different objects. Applying the same analogy, we can understand that the source of different creations is only one fundamental substance. It was stated in the 18th lesson (while explaining about the sookshma srishti) that the Moola Prakriti which has the predominance of Tamas has two different energies namely, Avarana Shakti and Vikshepa Shakti. The scheme of creation explained above is in fact the action of the Vikshepa Shakti.