Class 30, Tattva Bodha

In this pivotal and deeply insightful class, Acharya Tadany established the profound equivalence between kāraṇa śarīram (causal body) and ānandamayaḥ kośaḥ (happiness sheath), explaining that the three fundamental guṇas—sattva (knowing faculty), rajas (acting faculty), and tamas (inertia/rest)—exist in potential seed form within the causal body and later manifest in the subtle and gross bodies, shaping all human experience. 

Acharya Tadany detailed how tamo guṇa dominates in deep sleep (suṣupti), fully suppressing rajas (eliminating all action, worry, stress, and emotional turmoil) and nearly suppressing sattva (leaving only minimal awareness of ignorance), resulting in a guaranteed, uniform happiness that everyone universally loves and prepares for extensively—making deep sleep a reliable, predictable preview of intrinsic ānanda (happiness) free from external dependence, unlike the partial, unpredictable happiness of waking life (illustrated by the three levels of joy: priya from seeing, moda from acquiring, pramoda from experiencing/sharing). 

Acharya Tadany emphasized that waking happiness is a temporary “dip” into causal bliss when worries cease, and that ānandamayaḥ kośaḥ is characterized by malina sattva (sattva overpowered by tamas) and the three gradations of joy. 

With the completion of ānandamayaḥ kośaḥ, the entire topic of anātmā (non-self)—comprising three bodies, three states, and five sheaths (11 subdivisions in total)—is now fully covered, setting the stage for the next major phase: the direct, profound study of ātmā (the unchanging Self), which Tadany described as the most important and core teaching of Vedānta. He concluded with the liberating principle: “The body is mine, but I am not the body,” giving space for objective dealing with pain and conditions, and practical guidance for channeling guṇas appropriately (sports for rajas, study for sattva, rest for tamas).

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