asti bhāti priyaṃ rūpaṃ ಅಸ್ತಿ ಭಾತಿ ಪ್ರಿಯಂ ರೂಪಂ

*Shloka 20*

*अस्ति भाति प्रियं रूपं नाम चेत्यंशपञ्चकम्।*
*आद्यत्रयं ब्रह्मरूपं जगद्रूपं ततो द्वयं ।।२०।।*
asti bhāti priyaṃ rūpaṃ nāma cetyaṃśapañcakam ।
ādyatrayaṃ brahmarūpaṃ jagadrūpaṃ tato dvayam ॥ 20॥

20. Every entity has five characteristics, viz, existence, cognizability, attractiveness, form, and name. Of these, the first three belong to *Brahman* and the next two to the world.

*Commentary by Sri Paramarthananda:*
What is said in the previous verse is further clarified and consolidated. It was said that through enquiry the seeker differentiates between what is *Brahman* and what is creation. The differentiation is an intellectual process because they can be never separated. The objects can be physically separated from each other because they are limited. But *Brahman* being limitless cannot be physically separated from the objects. Existence and consciousness being all-pervading cannot be physically separated from the world. Only intellectual separation is possible and actually intellectual separation alone is enough. At the objective level pure existence cannot be seen separately. At the subjective level, I cannot physically separate consciousness from the three bodies. In the waking state, the gross body continues, in the dream state, the dream body continues, in the deep sleep state and even in the *samādhi* state, the causal body continues. I am never going to experience pure consciousness, but it is only in terms of discriminative understanding that the differentiation is done. How is that discrimination done? The author presents the method of discrimination in this verse. This is a very oft-quoted verse. We are experiencing five factors outside. All our experiences have five components. Three of those components belong to *Brahman* and two belong to the creation. Three are factual and two are material. Thus all our experiences are mixed. The five components are: *Asti:* existence; words like ‘is’, ‘am’, ‘are’ refer to existence. I never experience anything as nonexistent. Even non-existent is referred to as ‘nothing is existent’. *Asti* is otherwise known as *sat*. It is common to all experiences but I take existence for granted. *Vedānta* is not helping me to experience the existence because it is always experienced. *Vedānta’s* aim is only drawing my attention to the already experienced fact and giving some additional information about that fact. *Bhāti*: it is known to me; *it is*, it is known or experienced. Everything that is experienced is known. It is known because if it is not known, I will never say, ‘it is’. The very talk about existence presupposes experience. The existence of what we do not experience cannot be talked about. No one can talk about an unknown thing. For example, if I say that I do not know Chinese language, the fact that I do not know Chinese language is known to me. Everything is known to me as known or unknown. ‘Known’ refers to knowledge of a known entity or an unknown entity. Knowledge is associated with consciousness. Thus *bhāti* = known = associated with knowledge = associated with consciousness (  *cit*). Everything is associated with existence and consciousness. *Priyaṃ*: dear; everything is associated with dearness. Everything is an object of my or someone’s liking. Objects are liked by me in two different ways. Some are liked when they come and some are liked when they go. Some people give happiness wherever they go and some others give happiness whenever they go. Every object is associated with like or dislike. Even disliked objects are liked when they go. Liking is associated with *ānanda*. *priyaṃ rūpaṃ* means *ānandasvarūpa*. Everything in the creation has *sat*, *cit* and *ānanda*. *Nāma*: everything is associated with a name.  *Rūpa*: form, refers to any property.  All our experiences have *sat, cit, ānanda*, *nāma* and *rūpa*. A wise person is one who knows that the first three belong to *Brahman* and the last two belong to the world.

In all our experiences five factors are involved. One is *asti*. I use the word ‘is’ but I never pay attention to the *‘is-ness’*. In every statement that is made every word should correspond to an entity. I am taking the word ‘is’ for granted when it is used in statements. *Vedānta* draws our attention to that. ‘Is-ness’ is factor 1. Whenever I say that something is, I have experienced that object and  known the object. I can never talk about the ‘is-ness’ of an unknown object. Thus ‘is-ness’ presupposes ‘known-ness’. I can never talk about the existence of an object without making it an object of knowledge. Known-ness is possible only when I am conscious of the object. Therefore, the author says *bhāti* is the second factor. ‘Something is known’ means that consciousness is associated with that object whose existence I talk about. *Asti* means *sat* association, *Bhāti* means *cit* association. *Sat* and *cit* are in every object. *Cit* is present as ‘known’. *Sat* is present as ‘is’. Every object is associated with *ānanda* also. This association with *ānanda* is expressed in statements such as ‘I like this clip’. Every object is liked by someone or the other. *Priyaṃ* means *ānanda* association, which is the third factor. Two more factors are *nāma* and *rūpa*, name and form. In this context, *rūpa* can be taken to be any attribute or object. These two are the variable factors. All these five factors are experienced simultaneously. Of these five, three are present unchangingly everywhere, especially two. *Priyaṃ* can change, but two are unchanging and uniform. Whatever is unchanging and uniform is not paid attention to normally. *Vidyāraṇya* describes this fact in the 10th chapter of *Pañcadaśī*. He asks us to consider the situation after a play is over and all the actors have retired to the green room and the scene set has been removed. If someone in the audience is asked what or who is there on the stage, that person would invariably say, ‘no one or nothing is on the stage’. That statement shows that the light, because of which we could see the actors earlier and also know that no one is on the stage now, is missed. Even though the light plays such an important role, it is not noticed because it is uniform and changeless. Similarly space that is everywhere is not noticed. Statements like empty space is a contradiction because space is always present. Whatever is uniform and changeless is taken for granted. Only the moving gets human attention. *Asti, bhāti*, and *priyaṃ* are *brahma-rūpam*, which are uniform and everywhere. *Nāma-rūpa* abounds in variety and are always changing. People do not notice the *brahma-rūpam*, which is the truth but fall in love with the variety, which is the untruth. Untruth is attractive and truth is not attractive. Thus *māyā* always wins. One should enjoy *māyā* holding on to *Brahman*. *Asti*, existence, *bhāti*, consciousness, *priyaṃ*, happiness, *rūpam*, form, and *nāma*, name are the five components. Of these, the first three, *sat-cit-ānanda* belong to *Brahman*, which is uniform. A question may come up as to how *ānanda* can be uniform because *ānanda* is experienced to be changing. The *ānanda* that manifests in the mind is never uniform. Experiential pleasure is not *brahma-ānanda*, but it is the *ānanda* that is reflected in the mind. Since the mind has fluctuations, the *ānanda* seems to have fluctuations. The original *atmānanda* in every living being is the same, but when that original *ānanda* reflects in the mind it varies according to the condition ( *sattva, rajas or tamas*) of the mind. The other two, *rūpam* and *nāma* belong to the unstable, changing *mithyā* world and are unreliable.

*ಅಸ್ತಿ ಭಾತಿ ಪ್ರಿಯಂ ರೂಪಂ ನಾಮ ಚೇತ್ಯಂಶಪಂಚಕಮ್  ।*
*ಆದ್ಯತ್ರಯಂ ಬ್ರಹ್ಮರೂಪಂ ಜಗದ್ರೂಪಂ ತತೋ ದ್ವಯಮ್ ।।೨೦।।*

ಪ್ರತಿಯೊಂದು ಪದಾರ್ಥದಲ್ಲಿಯೂ ಅಸ್ತಿತ್ವ -ಸತ್, ಪ್ರಕಾಶ-ಚಿತ್, ಪ್ರಿಯವಾಗಿರುವಿಕೆ-ಆನಂದ, ರೂಪ ಅಥವಾ ಆಕಾರ  ಮತ್ತು ಹೆಸರು ಎಂಬ ಐದು ಅಂಶಗಳಿವೆ. ಇವುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಮೊದಲನೆಯ ಮೂರು ಎಂದರೆ ಸಚ್ಚಿದಾನಂದಗಳು ಬ್ರಹ್ಮ ಸ್ವರೂಪ, ನಂತರದ ಎರಡು ಅಂದರೆ ನಾಮರೂಪಗಳು, ಜಗದ್ರೂಪ, ಅರ್ಥಾತ್ ಪ್ರಪಂಚದ ರೂಪವಾಗಿದೆ.