THE WAKING STATE OR THE CONDITION OF VAISHVĀNARA
The first condition is Vaishvānara, the seat [1] of which is in the waking state [jāgaritasthāna], which has knowledge of external [sensible] objects, and which has seven members and nineteen mouths and the world of gross manifestation for its province. [2]
Vaishvānara, as the etymological derivation of the word indicates, [3] is what we have called 'Universal Man', regarded however more especially in the complete development of his states of manifestation and under the particular aspect of that development. Here the extent of this term appears to be limited to one of these states only,
the most external of all, that of gross manifestation, which constitutes the corporeal world; but this particular state can be taken as the symbol for the whole of universal manifestation, of which it is an element, since for the human being it is necessarily the basis and point of departure for all realization; as in all symbolism, therefore, it will suffice to effect the transposition appropriate to the degree to which the conception is called upon to apply. It is in this sense that the state in question can be related to 'Universal Man' and described as constituting his body, conceived by analogy with the body of individual man, an analogy which is that of the 'macrocosm' (ädhidevaka) and the 'microcosm' (adhyātmika), as we have already explained. Under this aspect Vaishvānara is also identified with Viräj, that is to say with the Cosmic Intelligence insofar as it governs and unifies in its integrality the whole of the corporeal world. Finally, from another point of view, which however corroborates the preceding one, Vaishvānara also means 'that which is common to all men'; in that case it is the human species, understood as specific nature, or more exactly what may be called 'the genius of the species. [4] Furthermore, it should be observed that the corporeal state is in fact common to all human individuals, whatever may be the other modalities in which they are capable of developing themselves in order to realize, as individuals and without going beyond the human level, [5] the full range of their respective possibilities.
After what has just been said it will be easy for us to explain the significance of the seven members mentioned in the Māndūkya Upanishad and which form the seven principal parts of the 'macrocosmic' body of Vaishvānara. Taking them in order: (i) the assemblage of the higher luminous spheres, that is to say of the higher states of being (considered however in this instance solely in their relationship with the particular state in question), is compared with the part of the head containing the brain, for the brain in fact corresponds organically with the 'mental' function, which is but a reflection of the intelligible Light or of the supra-individual principles; (ii) the sun and the moon, or more exactly the principles represented in the sensible world by these two luminaries, [6] are the two eyes; (iii) the igneous principle is the mouth; [7] (iv) the directions of space (dish) are the ears; [8] (v) the atmosphere, that is to say the cosmic environment whence the 'vital breath' (prāna) proceeds, corresponds to the lungs; (vi) the intermediate region (Antariksha), extending between the Earth (Bhū or Bhūmi) and the luminous spheres or the heavens (Svar or Svarga) and considered as the region where forms (still potential in relation to the gross state) are
elaborated, corresponds to the stomach; [9] (vii) and finally the earth, that is to say, symbolically, the final term in actuation of the entire corporeal manifestation, corresponds to the feet, which are taken here as the emblem of the whole lower portion of the body. The relationship of these various members to one another and their functions in the cosmic whole to which they belong is analogous (but not identical, be it understood) with the relationship between the corresponding parts of the human organism. It will be noticed that no mention is made here of the heart because its direct relationship with universal Intelligence places it outside the sphere of the individual functions properly so called, and because this 'seat of Brahma' is really and truly the central point both in the cosmic and in the human orders, whereas everything pertaining to manifestation, and above all to formal manifestation, is external and 'peripheric', if one may so express it, belonging exclusively to the circumference of the 'wheel of things'.
In the condition we are describing, Ātmā, as Vaishvānara, becomes conscious of the world of sensible manifestation (considered also as the sphere of that aspect of the 'non-supreme' Brahma which is called Virāj). It does so by means of nineteen organs, which are described as so many mouths, because they are the 'entranceways' of knowledge for everything belonging to this particular domain; moreover, the intellectual assimilation which operates in
knowledge is often compared symbolically with the vital assimilation effected by nutrition. These nineteen organs (also including in that term the corresponding faculties, in accordance with our previous explanation of the general significance of the word indriya) are: the five organs of sensation, the five organs of action, the five vital breaths (vāyus), the 'mental' faculty or the inward sense (manas), the intellect (Buddhi, considered here exclusively in its relation to the individual state), thought (chitta), conceived as the faculty which gives form to ideas and which associates them one with another, and, finally, individual consciousness (ahankāra): these are the faculties which we have already studied in detail. Each organ and each faculty of every individual belonging to the domain in question, that is to say to the corporeal world, proceeds respectively from its corresponding organ or faculty in Vaishvānara; of this organ and faculty it is in a certain sense one of the constituent elements, in the same way that the individual to which it belongs is an element of the cosmic whole, in which, for its part and in the place allotted to it (from the fact that it is that individual being and not another), it contributes of necessity toward making up the total harmony. [10]
The waking state, in which the activity of the organs and faculties in question is exercised, is described as the first of the conditions of Ātmā, although the gross or corporeal modality to which it corresponds occupies the lowest degree in the order of development (prapancha) of manifestation, starting from its primordial and unmanifested principle; it marks indeed the limit of that development, at least in relation to the state of existence in which human individuality is situated. The reason for this apparent anomaly has already been explained: it is in this corporeal modality that we find the basis and point of departure, firstly of individual realization (that is to say of the full realization of the individuality in its integral extension), and afterwards of all further realization which lies
beyond the individual possibilities and implies the taking possession by the being of its higher states. Consequently if, instead of placing oneself at the point of view of the development of manifestation, one places oneself, as we are doing at present, at the point of view of this realization with its various degrees, the order of which necessarily proceeds in the contrary direction, from the manifested to the unmanifested, then in that case the waking state must clearly be looked upon as in fact preceding the states of dreaming and deep sleep, which correspond respectively to the extra-corporeal modalities of the individuality and to the supra-individual states of the being.