Q. Why is the spirit said to be different from the three bodies?
A. That which is truth cannot be untruth, knowledge ignorance, bliss
misery, or vice versa.
Q. Why is it called the witness of the three states?
A. Being the master of the three states, it is the knowledge of the
three states, as existing in the present, past and future.**
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* That is to say, flits from birth to birth.
** It is the stable basis upon which the three states arise and
disappear.
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Q. How is the spirit different from the five sheaths?
A. This is being illustrated by an example:--"This is my cow," "this is
my calf," "this is my son or daughter," "this is my wife," "this is my
anandamaya sheath," and so on*--the spirit can never be connected with
these concepts; it is different from and witness of them all. For it
is said in the Upanishad--[The spirit is] "naught of sound, of touch, of
form, or colour, of taste, or of smell; it is everlasting, having no
beginning or end, superior [in order of subjectivity] to Prakriti
(differentiated matter); whoever correctly understands it as such
attains mukti (liberation).
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