“Limb” (in Sanskrit kala) means a part, a ray.
For example, the moon has 16 limbs from the New Moon phase to the Full Moon. Just as the Full Moon is complete with all the 16 parts on the Full Moon day, PuruSa is also complete when the 16 limbs are present. The 16 limbs are:
स प्राणमसृजत प्राणाच्छ्रद्धा खं वायुर्ज्योतिरापः पृथिवीन्द्रियं मनः । अन्नमन्नाद्वीर्यं तपो मन्त्राः कर्म लोका लोकेषु च नाम च॥ — 6.4, prashna.
[Meaning: He created prANa; from prANa (He created) faith, space, air, fire, water, earth, organs, mind, food; from food (He created) vigor, self-control, mantras, rites, worlds and name in the worlds.]
The life-principle, faith, space, air, fire, earth, the senses, mind, matter, vigor, austerity, mantras, action, fields (areas of experience), and name (identity) — these sixteen arise from the partless Puruṣa. Though in reality without parts, the Puruṣa appears as though endowed with parts when manifested.
Among these sixteen, the life-principle (prāṇa) and the mind (manas) are especially significant. It may be said that the indivisible Self appears as if fragmented into many. Just as a sheet of glass shatters into pieces upon impact, so too the Self seems to break into multiplicity when “movement” arises. This apparent fragmentation is referred to as the “fall” (cyuti).
When one realizes, “I am all-pervading; I alone exist, and there is no ‘other’ apart from Me,” one abides as the Pure Self. With no second entity to bind, one is ever free. The positive expression of this realization is omniscience and omnipotence—absolute Knowledge and Power.
Knowledge, being indivisible, cannot be partitioned into parts. Likewise, Power cannot be divided. As long as one abides as pure Knowledge and Power, there is neither mind nor life-principle. In other words, there is no faculty for thought and no impulse for movement. In that state, the individual is none other than the Cosmic Self.
The individual and the mind dissolve into the Self as the rivers merge into the ocean. They can be seen as long as one functions as an individual. On being as brahman, they will no longer be visible. The Yogis struggle to control the life-principle and the ritualists struggle to control the mind. The Advaitin’s approach is to perceive the true Self and in such a perception, both the mind and the life-principle get dissolved without effort.
Shankara explains as follows:
सर्वदेशकालपुरुषाद्यवस्थास्वेकमेव ज्ञानं नामरूपाद्यनेकोपाधिभेदात् सवित्रादिजलादिप्रतिबिम्बवदनेकधावभासत इति । — Shankara at mantra 6.2, prashna.
[Meaning: Knowledge which is one in all places, times and men, is reflected and seen diverse, in diverse conditions of name and form, as the Sun, etc., is seen when reflected in water, etc. (Translation by Shri Sitarama Sastri).]
There is no distinction based on time, space, or external attributes; it is the same singular Knowledge that illumines all. This unified Knowledge creates apparent differences within Itself through name, form, and action, manifesting as multiplicity. This perception of many arises solely from nescience (ignorance). Thus, the indivisible Self appears to the individual as if it were divided.
It should now be clear that it is this nescience that engenders both the mind and the life-principle. This was Pippalada’s answer regarding the source of the mind and life. They do not originate in one physical location only to travel to another at the journey’s end—a truth that reminds us of the Chandogya Upanishad.
When asked about the source of the River Ganges, one naturally thinks of the Himalayan mountain range. However, the Chandogya Upanishad suggests such an answer is incomplete. In reality, the Ganges originates from the very place where it eventually discharges! Because it finally joins the ocean, it must originally emerge from the ocean—an ancient allusion to the principles of the hydrological cycle.
Shankara explains that the Sun evaporates water from the oceans, transforming it into clouds that release rain upon the Himalayas. This rainwater then flows down through the fluvial system, taking on the name and form of the “River Ganges” before finally merging back into the sea. Thus, the waters emerge from the ocean and return to the ocean.
The prashna Upanishad illustrates how the indivisible Self appears as many through names and forms, and how these forms ultimately dissolve back into the Source:
स यथेमा नद्यः स्यन्दमानाः समुद्रायणाः समुद्रं प्राप्यास्तं गच्छन्ति भिद्येते तासां नामरूपे समुद्र इत्येवं प्रोच्यते । एवमेवास्य परिद्रष्टुरिमाः षोडश कलाः पुरुषायणाः पुरुषं प्राप्यास्तं गच्छन्ति भिद्येते चासां नामरूपे पुरुष इत्येवं प्रोच्यते स एषोऽकलोऽमृतो भवति॥ — 6.5, prashna.
[Meaning: The illustration is this: Just as these flowing rivers that have the sea as their goal, get absorbed after reaching the sea, and their names and forms are destroyed, and they are called merely the sea, so also these sixteen parts (i.e. constituents) of the all-seeing PuruSa, that have PuruSa as their goal, disappear on reaching PuruSa, when their names and forms are destroyed and they are simply called PuruSa. Such a man of realization becomes free from the parts and is immortal.]
We observe various rivers flowing at all times. They originate from the ocean and return to it. While they flow, they possess distinct names and forms. Yet, prior to their origin from the sea and after their merger back into it, they are known only as the ocean. They do not retain individual ID tags. Therefore, even in their flowing state, the rivers are essentially the ocean. In the same way, the sixteen limbs (kalas) originate from the undivided Self and appear as many; however, as we meditate deeply upon them, they merge back into the indivisible One Self. In that realization, one becomes immortal. Mortality persists only as long as names and forms continue to appear and disappear as separate entities.
As the kaTha Upanishad states:
मृत्योः स मृत्युमाप्नोति — 2.4.10, kaTha.
[Meaning: From death to death one goes.]
One continues to move from death to death unless one develops a mind that is “partless.” An undivided mind leads one to the impartite Self, where all disparate parts merge into the whole. The body, the senses, and the life-principle are merely limbs; even the world itself is but a part of this unity.
The path to attaining this state is through the mind. The mind must be made steady to abide as the undivided Self. In that realization, the individual “I,” the body, the senses, and the world dissolve into the Self. This is the state of liberation (Mukti).
अरा इव रथनाभौ कला यस्मिन्प्रतिष्ठिताः ।
तं वेद्यं पुरुषं वेद यथा मा वो मृत्युः परिव्यथा इति ॥ — 6.6, prashna.
[Meaning: You should know that PuruSa who is worthy to be known and in whom are transfixed the parts like spokes in the nave of a chariot wheel, so that death may not afflict you anywhere.]
In the state of Liberation, everything—including the life-principle—is established in pure Knowledge. By knowing this PuruSa, one loses all fear of death.
Thus did the Brahmarishi Pippalada assure the six sages who approached him for explication. The Upanishad exhorts us not to remain finite perceivers, but to abide as the complete Seer. While we normally perceive through the limited mind, we should instead strive to perceive through “Pure Awareness” or Knowingness itself.
As Bhagavad-Gita says:
पश्यन्ति ज्ञानचक्षुषः ॥ — 15.10, Bhagavad-Gita.
[Meaning: They see, who possess the eye of Knowledge.]
It is the mind that possesses the capacity for perception. However, this capacity must be extended without interruption. Such extension implies a complete absorption — where all apparent multiplicity is gathered and resolved into oneself. To dissolve all perceived distinctions into one’s own Self is to become all-pervasive. In this sense, one must “become” ViSNu — the all-pervading, as indicated by the derivation vyApakatvAt viSNṇuḥ (ViSNu is that which pervades everything).
गुरुणा प्रदर्शितकलाप्रलयमार्गः | — Shankara’s bhASya at 6.5, prashna.
[Meaning: The Guru will demonstrate the path.]
Shankara clarifies that such a path can be shown only by a teacher who has himself realized the Self. It is this realized Guru who guides the seeker effectively.
Thus, the prashna Upanishad concludes with the clear instruction that a sincere aspirant must approach a competent teacher and learn from him the knowledge of jIva–brahma aikya — the identity of the individual self with brahman.
(To Continue … … Part 18 (muNDaka 1)