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UPANISAD
ous phenomena of the macrocosin is one, and is identical, moreover, with the essence of the inicrocosm. The mystery of the universe, with all its stratifications of the gross and subtle, life in all its forms, matter in all its modifications, may be approached, therefore, either from within or from without.
This Self (the verse continues) has four portions (pāda: foot, part, quarter-like the four feet of a cow," states the commentary of Sarikara to this verse). We are about to embark on a rcview of the relationship of the four states of the microcosm to those of the macrocosm.
3. The first portion is Vaiśvānara, “The Common-to-all-men." Its field is the waking state. Its consciousness is outward-turned (through the gates of the senses). It is seven limbed and nineteen mouthed. It enjoys (bhuj, "eats, or lives on") gross matter (sthūla).
This is the Self in the waking state, the phenomenal individual moving and living in the phenomenal world. The reference of the number seven, however, is obscure. Sankara, in his commentary, seeks to interpret it on the basis of Chăndogya Upanişad 5. 12. 2., where the limbs of the universal Ātman are described as 1. the head (heaven), 2. the eye (the sun), 3. breath (the wind), 4. the torso (space), 5. the kidneys (water) and 6. the feet (the earth). In the same verse the sacrificial area is likened to the breast of the universal Átman, the sacrificial grass to his hair, and the three fires of the Agnihotra sacrifice to his heart, mind, and mouth. Šankara, therefore, to complete his catalogue of seven, selects the last of these enumerated fires, and writes: 7. the mouth (the Ahavaniya fire). One feels that the explanation is a bit contrived, yet it vividly renders the basic idea--which is that Vaiśvānara is manifest equally in the physical universe and in the human physique.
The nineteen mouths mentioned in the text are identified by Šankara as the five faculties of sense (jñanendriya), the five faculties of action (karmendriya), the five vital airs (prāņa), and the four constituents of the inner organ; i.e., manas (the mind),
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