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The Fourth Lesson: The Vedanta System.1193
have been accepted without question by the founders of the systems, and
incorporated with their doctrines and conceptions. You will notice these
principles appearing in the other systems considered in these lessons. The
best modern authorities do not take this classification of principles very
seriously, and are apt to regard them as in the nature of worn-out systems
of the past, although as the mental principles are concerned, and the
psychology arising therefrom, the Hindu thinkers hold that they are much
better ideas of the operation of the mind than any Western theories, or
hypotheses, With the exception of the conception of the Mental Principles,
therefore, the balance of the classification may be omitted from the serious
consideration of the philosophies, as the fundamental conceptions of the
same are not affected thereby.
The Vedanta adheres to the prevailing Hindu conception of the several
“principles” or “sheaths” of the individual soul, which may be stated as follows:
(1) The Rupa, or Physical Body; (2) The Jiva or Prana, or Vital Force; (3) The
Linga Sharira, or Astral Body, or Etheric Double; (4) The Kama Rupa, or
Animal Soul; (5) The Manas, or Human Soul; (6) The Buddhi, or Spiritual Soul;
(7) Atman, or Spirit. The last three principles compose the reincarnating soul,
while the first four disintegrate at the death of the body, or shortly after. This
classification is common to the several Hindu philosophies, and the students
of our own system will find them agreeing with our own classification of
“The Seven Principles.” (See our “Fourteen Lessons in Yogi Philosophy.”)
The Vedantists hold to the teachings of Reincarnation and Karma, which
form a part of the fundamental philosophical and religious thought of the
race. To the Vishisht-Advaita school of Ramanuga, Samsara or the cycle of
existence, and Karma, mean the evolution and progress of the soul through
the mists of Avidya and Maya back to the realization of itself as an “element”
in the nature of the One. But to the Advaita school of Sankaracharya,
Samsara, with its incidents of Reincarnation and Karma, is but a part of the
universal illusion, and both disappear when the soul awakens to the fact
that it is not an individual entity, but a distorted reflection or appearance of