alled the body (sarira) par excellence.

Q. What is the subtile body?

A. It is the effect of the elements not differentiated into five and
having seventeen characteristic marks (lingas).

Q. What are the seventeen?

A. The five channels of knowledge (Jnanendriyas), the five organs of
action, the five vital airs, beginning with prana, and manas and buddhi.

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* The five subtile elements thus produce the gross ones--each of
the five is divided into eight parts, four of those parts and one
part of each of the others enter into combination, and the result
is the gross element corresponding with the subtile element,
whose parts predominate in the composition.

** These six changes are--birth, death, existence in time, growth,
decay, and undergoing change of substance (parinam) as milk is changed
into whey.
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Q. What are the Jnandendriyas?

A. [Spiritual] Ear, skin, eye, tongue and nose.

Q. What is the ear?

A. That channel of knowledge which transcends the [physical] ear, is
limited by the auricular orifice, on which the akas depends, and which
is capable of taking cognisance of sound.

Q. The skin?

A. That which transcends the skin, on which the skin depends, and which
extends from head to foot, and has the power of perceiving heat and
cold.

Q. The eye?

A. That which transcends the ocular orb, on which the orb depends,
which is situated to the front of the black iris and has the power of
cognising forms.

Q. The tongue?

A. That which transcends the tongue, and can perceive taste.

Q. The nose?

A. That which transcends the nose, and has the power of smelling.

Q. What are the organs of action?

A. The organ of speech (vach), hands, feet, &c.

Q. What is vach?

A. That which transcends speech, in which speech resides, and which is
located in eight different centres* and has the power of speech.

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* The secret commentaries say seven; for it does not separate the lips
into the "upper" and "nether" lips. And, it adds to the seven centres
the seven passages in the head connected with, and affected by, vach--
namely, the mouth, the two eyes, the two nostrils and the two ears.
"The left ear, eye and nostril being the messengers of the right side of
the head; the right ear, eye and nostril, those of the left side." Now
this is purely scientific. The latest discoveries and conclusions of
modern physiology have shown that the power or the faculty o