Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori

THE HUMAN BODY 45
sense raises for itself the subject of its thought and
dwells thereon. For whilst buddhi has but three
moments in which it is born, exists, and dies, citta
endures.
The antah-karaṇ a is master of the ten senses,
which are the outer doors through which it looks forth
upon the external world. The faculties, as opposed to
the organs or instruments of sense, reside here. The
centres of the powers inherent in the last two sheaths
are in the Ājnā Cakra and the region above this and
below the sahasrāra lotus. In the latter the Ātmā of the
last sheath of bliss resides. The physical or gross body
is called sthūla-śarira. The subtle body (sūkṣmaśarīra
also called linga śarīra and kāraṇ a-śarīra) comprises
the ten indriyas, manas, ahaṃkāra, buddhi, and the five
functions of prāṇ a. This subtle body contains in itself
the cause of rebirth into the gross body when the period
of reincarnation arrives.
The ātmā, by its association with the upādhis, has
three states of consciousness—namely, the jāgrat, or
waking state, when through the sense organs are perceived
objects of sense through the operation of manas
and buddhi. It is explained in the Īśvara-pratya-bhījnā
as follows—“the waking state dear to all is the source of
external action through the activity of the senses.” The
Jīva is called jāgari—that is, he who takes upon himself
the gross body called Viśva. The second is svapna, the
dream state, when the sense organs being withdrawn,
Ātmā is conscious of mental images generated by the
impressions of jāgrat experience. Here manas ceases to
record fresh sense impressions, and it and buddhi work
on that which manas has registered in the waking state.