Panchikaranam

By Adi Sankaracharya
788-820 CE
(more by Shankara; scroll down)
[Shankara discusses manifestation through the five elements and the
process leading to the realization of Atman, the Self.]
1) AUM. The VIRAT is said to be the sum total of all the quintuplicated five
elements and their effects. This is called the gross body of the Atman (soul).
Waking is that state, where the senses give rise to the knowledge of objects.
The Atman, which identifies Itself with both the waking state and the gross
body, is known as the VISHVA.
These three (the gross body, the waking state and the VISHVA) together are
represented by the first letter 'A' in the syllable 'AUM'.
2) The five unquintuplicated rudimentary elements and their effect, the
subtle body, both together constitute what is called the HIRANYAGARBHA.
The material subtle body has seventeen parts, viz. the five vital forces, the
ten organs of perception and action, the mind and the intellect. This is said
to be the subtle body of the Atman (soul).
3) When the sense-organs are quiescent or withdrawn, the knowledge
arising out of impressions of the waking state and the imaginary objects
there perceived, are together called the dream state. The TAIJASA is the
Atman which identifies Itself with both the dream state and the subtle body.
These three, i.e. -- the subtle body, the dream state and the TAIJASA -- are
represented by the second letter 'U' in 'AUM'.
4) Bound up with reflection of Pure-consciousness, the Nescience, which
hides the Atman and is the cause of both the gross and the subtle bodies, is
called the 'AVYAAKRTA' or undifferentiated. This is the causal body of the
Atman. This is neither existent nor non-existent, nor even both existent and
non-existent; neither different from, nor identical with, nor both different
from and identical with, the Atman. This Nescience is neither composite, nor
non-composite, nor both composite and non- composite, but removable by
the knowledge of the identity of Brahman and the Atman alone.
When all thoughts cease and the determinative intellect, too, lapses into its
causal condition, the state of deep-sleep appears. The personality
appropriating these two, i.e., the causal-body and the deep- sleep state is
described as 'PRAJNA'.
These three (the causal-body Nescience, the deep-sleep state and the
PRAJNA) are symbolised by the last letter 'M' in 'AUM'.

Now, 'A' the waking-personality, should be resolved into 'U', the dreampersonality, and the 'U' into 'M' i.e., the deep-sleep personality. Again, the
'M' should be reduced into 'AUM' and the 'AUM' into 'I'. I am, the Atman, the
Witness of all, the absolute of the nature of Pure Consciousness; I am
neither Nescience nor even its effect but I am Brahman alone, Eternally
Pure, Ever Enlightened, Eternally Free and Existence Absolute. I am the Bliss
Absolute, One without a second and the Innermost Consciousness.
Remaining in this state of absolute identification is what is called 'SAMADHI'
or the Super-conscious state.
'Thou art That', 'I am Brahman', 'Consciousness-Bliss is Brahman', 'This Self
is Brahman', etc. -- all these Srutis, i.e., the Upanisadic sayings (known as
Mahavakyas or the great dictum) are direct evidences to the identity of the
Atman, the individual soul, and Brahman. This is what is called
'PANCHKARANAM' or quintuplication.
Here ends the small treatise named 'Panchikaranam' by Bhagavan Sri
Sankaracharya.
[Note: 'Quintuplicated': A particular process by which the five elementary
constituents of the universe are said to be compounded with one another to
form grosser entities that serve as units in the composition of the physical
universe.]