Tattva Bodha
in a nutshell
by Peter Bonnici

Tattva Bodha Chart

[Download a PDF of the Tattva Bodha in a nutshell chart.]

1. Tattva Bodha is a fundamental text for those desirous of mokSha. Its value is to present succinct definitions of some key terms in vedAnta. The chart isn’t a replacement for reading the text, but is an attempt to present the information graphically so that linkages and levels can be brought out.

2. The text starts by laying out the qualifications of one fit for discriminative knowledge of truth which it defines as: 'Atman is truth, everything other than that is mithyA.' In the chart, everything below the red dotted line is mithyA. AtmA and mithyA are two levels of reality: absolute and relative, respectively.

3. The chart also shows that there is only one Reality, given two names: brahma to infer limitlessness and AtmA to infer all-pervasiveness. Thus, after resolving mithyA back into its cause by understanding it as merely a manifestation of that cause, there is only one Reality. When wave is seen to be nothing but a form of its cause, we understand there is only water.

4. One term not on the chart (because it is not in the text) is the term ‘jagat’, commonly translated as ‘creation’, or ‘universe’. Everything, gross or subtle, that can be objectified has a form, and that form has a name. All names and forms (nAma rUpa-s), together with pure existence (sat brahman), are called jagat. Thus when we say: ‘chair is’, ‘thought is’, ‘feeling is’, the ‘is-ness’ is sat brahman, while ‘chair’, ‘thought’, ‘feeling’ are names of forms in which pure existence can be experienced. That which is seen with name and is-ness together is jagat.

5. What the chart also aims to clarify is that there aren’t three ‘bodies’ – causal, subtle and gross. The causal level is the unmanifest state of the subtle and gross levels. The gross body is perceivable by others, the subtle body is perceivable only by the individual, the causal body is not perceivable by even the individual because the I-sense too has been resolved. Similarly, at the macrocosmic level, mAyA is the unmanifest state of jagat. Thus, it is not strictly accurate to point to the surrounds and say: it is all mAyA. mAyA is not available for experience as mAyA, but only as jagat. All we can point at is jagat.

6. Finally, from reading the text it may not be clear how or where the kosha-s (layers of personality) and the three states of experience fit in. Hopefully the chart makes clear that one way of describing the individual is in terms of gross, subtle and causal bodies, or another way is as five layers of personality. These different bodies are accessible at different levels of experience: waking, dream and deep sleep.

7. In conclusion… having clarity about what is AtmA and what is not is key to understanding the end section of Tattva Bodha. The oneness of jIva and Ishvara is described by unfolding the inner meaning of the statement ‘tat tvam asi’ as follows:

• tat refers to Ishvara, the Lord - the word Ishvara has a literal and an implied meaning;
• the literal meaning of ‘Ishvara’ is ‘brahma together with mithyA limiting adjuncts’;
• the implied meaning of Ishvara is that without limiting adjuncts, brahma;
• tvam refers to the jIva, the individual;
• the literal meaning of ‘jIva’ is ‘AtmA together with mithyA gross and suble bodies’;
• the implied meaning is that without mithyA gross and suble bodies, AtmA;
• as we saw at the start, AtmA and brahma are different names of the one Reality;
• thus, jIva and Ishvara are Absolutely non-different, and only relatively different because of the names and forms through which the one Reality is experienced.

The text concludes by quoting scripture: 'The knower of AtmA crosses sorrow.’

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