The verse and its meaning · Spanda Karikas · Spanda Karikas — The Pulse of Consciousness

The Eightfold City Within

Spanda Karika 3.17

तन्मात्रोदयरूपेन मनोऽहंबुद्धिवर्तिना । पुर्यष्टकेन संरुद्धस्तदुत्थं प्रत्ययोद्भवम् ॥ भुङ्क्ते परवशो भोगं तद्भावात्संसरेदतः । संसृतिप्रलयस्यास्य कारणं सम्प्रचक्ष्महे

Meaning · English

Shut in by the city of eight, which rises as the subtle elements and moves as mind, the sense of I, and understanding, the soul enjoys what grows out of it, born of passing ideas. Helpless, it feels its enjoyments. Because that body is there, it goes on wandering from life to life. We now explain what brings that wandering to its close.

Three words carry this teaching. Tanmatra means a subtle element, a bare trace of sound, touch, sight, taste or smell before it becomes a solid thing; the root sense is 'that measure only'. Puryashtaka means the 'city of eight': the subtle body made of those traces together with mind (manas), the sense of I (ahamkara) and understanding (buddhi). Pratyaya means an idea or impression that arises in the mind; the root sense is 'what a thing rests on'. Now the clauses. The subtle body rises as those fine elements and works as mind, I-sense and understanding. The Spanda Karikas say the soul is shut in by it. From it grows a stream of impressions, and the soul enjoys, or suffers, whatever those impressions bring. It does this paravasha, under another's control, helpless. Because this body stays, the soul keeps moving through worldly life again and again. The last line promises a turn: the cause of that wandering will now be named, so that its ending can be understood. This is taught here because the earlier verses showed how words and ideas veil the self. The question left is why the veiling lasts, and the answer is this small inner city that keeps producing experience. Kshemaraja reads the confinement as a loss of freedom, svatantrya, not as a wall outside us. What it asks of the listener is first to see this machinery clearly.

A man sleeps in a rented room above a railway line. Each train wakes him and drags his dreams along, and he never chooses the timetable. The trains are the stream of impressions, the room is the city of eight, and the sleeper is the soul, enjoying and suffering what passes by without having set it.

1. Tonight, sit for five minutes before sleep with nothing in your hands. 2. Each time a thought arrives, such as a worry, a song or a replayed remark, silently say 'an impression came'. 3. Notice whether you chose it or it simply rose. 4. Count how many came unasked. Do not argue with them. Only count.

A mother stands at the kitchen counter after an argument with her teenage son. He has gone to his room. She is chopping onions, yet she is not in the kitchen. A look on his face, a tone, a remembered quarrel from last year all run through her at once, and her shoulders have tightened before she decides anything. The verse would change this in small steps. She would see that the replay is a rising of impressions and not the whole truth about her son. She would notice the I-sense saying 'I was wronged' as one more arising. She might then put the knife down and breathe before she speaks to him. Ordinary experience confirms that a tired, hurt mind runs old impressions faster than fresh looking. The text teaches that the soul is helpless inside this subtle body until its cause is known. The verse does not promise that the hurt will vanish, that her son will agree with her, or that a hard family situation needs no other help.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: Words That Veil the Self · Spanda Karika 3.15
• Next: Rooted in One · Spanda Karika 3.19
• All of Spanda Karikas · Ask Krishna about it

Sacred Sargam

The sacred texts with their meaning, read aloud, with Ask Krishna, a Panchang and bhajans. Free, on the web and as an app. Open Sacred Sargam