आतिवाहिकमेवाऽन्तर्विस्मृत्या दृढरूपया । आधिभौतिकबोधेन मुधा भाति पिशाचवत् ॥ २२ ॥
ātivāhikamēvā’ntarvismṛtyā dṛḍharūpayā | ādhibhautikabōdhēna mudhā bhāti piśācavat || 22 ||
Translation
The subtle body alone, through a forgetting grown firm within, and the knowing of a body of the elements, appears falsely, like a ghost.
Word by word
- ātivāhikam
- the subtle body
- ēva
- alone
- antar
- (antaḥ) within
- vismṛtyā
- through a forgetting
- dṛḍha
- firm
- rūpayā
- grown
- ādhibhautika
- of a body of the elements
- bōdhēna
- and the knowing
- mudhā
- falsely
- bhāti
- appears
- piśāca
- a ghost
- vat
- like
Meaning
Here is our own condition. We too have, in truth, only the subtle body; but we have forgotten it, and the forgetting has grown firm, and so we know ourselves as bodies of matter. The commentary: by a firm forgetting of one's own nature and of the subtle, the subtle itself appears, wholly falsely, as gross, like a ghost, which is nothing and yet, by error, seems to have a shape. It answers an objection: then how do we experience things as material and working, unlike an imagined mountain? Through this forgetting.