Brahman alone appears as both: the Creator Ishvara and the individual jiva. It is then shown that the Self, which is the illuminator of the five sheaths, is truly the substratum of the entire world. The nature of Ishvara and His power of maya is analysed in the final section. The possible objections pertaining to this nature of the Self are refuted through logic and specific Upanishadic citations that support their negation. Having shown the Self to be different from the five sheaths, Swami Vidyaranya thereafter explains the essential nature of the Self to be Satyam, Jnanam and Anantam. The author while describing the sheaths skillfully explores and explains these personality layers and points out the erroneous self-identification that we have with each of them. Swami Vidyaranya, the author, enumerates in detail the nature of the five sheaths and through logic and reasoning establishes how the Self is not any of the five sheaths. Hence an analysis of the sheaths is deemed essential to remove the wrong conceptions with respect to our true Self. Our essential nature is not completely unknown, but is mistaken as one or more of the five sheaths. Through this analysis, it is clearly shown that the Self is different from the sheaths.
In the third chapter, titled ‘Panchakosha-viveka’, the author expounds the nature of the ultimate Reality using the methodology of the analysis of the five sheaths (koshas) employed in the Taittiriya-upanishad. By providing the complete grasp of the essentials of Vedanta, Panchadashi amply serves to dispel the ignorance of the Self. This epic work is a singular treatise on the entire philosophy of Advaita-vedanta. Panchadashi, the renowned composition of Sri Bharati Tirtha and Swami Vidyaranya, is a compendium of 15 foundational treatises or prakarana-granthas.
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