A. Being the master of the three states, it is the knowledge of the three states, as existing in the present, past and future.** ------- * That is to say, flits from birth to birth. ** It is the stable basis upon which the three states arise and disappear. ------- 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)." The spirit has also been called (above) sat, chit, and ananda. Q. What is meant by its being sat (presence)? A. Existing unchanged in the three divisions of time and uninfluenced by anything else. Q. What by being chit (consciousness)? A. Manifesting itself without depending upon anything else, and containing the germ of everything in itself. Q. What by being ananda (bliss)? A. The ne plus ultra of bliss. Whoever knows without doubt and apprehension of its being otherwise, the self as being one with Brahma or spirit, which is eternal, non-dual and unconditioned, attains moksha (liberation from conditioned existence.) -------- * The "heresy of individuality," or attavada of the Buddhists. -------- Was Writing Known Before Panini?