Dictionary of all Scriptures & Myths

Understanding Biblical Symbolism


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BIBLE VERSES

SENSE ORGANS, OR FIVE ORGANS OF KNOWLEDGE

Symbolic of the soul's five means of perception on the lower planes.

"To the brain as the central organ, and its two dependents the sensible and the motor nerves, corresponds the relation of manas (mind and conscious will) to the five jnána-indriyas, or organs of knowledge (these are, following the order of the five elements to which they correspond, hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell), and the five karma-indriyas, or organs of action (speech, hands, feet, and the organs of generation and excretion)." - DEUSSEN, Phil. of Upanishads, p. 263.

This central manas is a symbol of the causal-body, the centre of the soul's perceptive and active functionings. In their proper order the sense organs given as eye, ear, skin, tongue and nose; or as sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell, are symbols of consciousness (sight), intuition (hearing), mind (touch), desire (taste), and sensation (smell). These correspond with the five elements (planes), light, fire, air, water, earth, i.e. the planes atma, buddhi, manas, astral, and physical, as will be seen.

The organs of action which produce karma are mental action (speech), mental discipline (hands), progress (feet), production of higher qualities (generation), and riddance of lower qualities (excretion).

"The jnâna-indryas convey the impressions of the senses to the manas, which manufactures them into ideas (sankalpa). These ideas are then formed into resolves (sankalpa) by the manas in its function as conscious will,' and are carried into execution by the five karmaindriyas." - Ibid.

The five organs of perception and knowledge convey as ideas the experience of the ego during an incarnation, to the causal-body (manas); then these ideas are sifted and readjusted to become motives to action of a progressive order in the next incarnation of the ego.

"The soul lastly is further attended by the ethical substratum (karma-ûsraya), which determines the character of the new body and life. This ethical substratum is formed by the actions committed in the course of each several life, and is therefore different for each soul and for each life course." - Ibid., p. 265.

 

See Also

CHARIOT
ELEMENTS (Five)
EXPERIENCE
LINGAM
MANAS
PRANAS
REINCARNATION
SKANDHAS
VITAL AIRS