A. Being the master of the three states, it is the knowledge of the
three states, as existing in the present, past and future.**

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* That is to say, flits from birth to birth.

** It is the stable basis upon which the three states arise and
disappear.
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Q. How is the spirit different from the five sheaths?

A. This is being illustrated by an example:--"This is my cow," "this is
my calf," "this is my son or daughter," "this is my wife," "this is my
anandamaya sheath," and so on*--the spirit can never be connected with
these concepts; it is different from and witness of them all. For it
is said in the Upanishad--[The spirit is] "naught of sound, of touch, of
form, or colour, of taste, or of smell; it is everlasting, having no
beginning or end, superior [in order of subjectivity] to Prakriti
(differentiated matter); whoever correctly understands it as such
attains mukti (liberation)." The spirit has also been called (above)
sat, chit, and ananda.

Q. What is meant by its being sat (presence)?

A. Existing unchanged in the three divisions of time and uninfluenced
by anything else.

Q. What by being chit (consciousness)?

A. Manifesting itself without depending upon anything else, and
containing the germ of everything in itself.

Q. What by being ananda (bliss)?

A. The ne plus ultra of bliss.

Whoever knows without doubt and apprehension of its being otherwise, the
self as being one with Brahma or spirit, which is eternal, non-dual and
unconditioned, attains moksha (liberation from conditioned existence.)

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* The "heresy of individuality," or attavada of the Buddhists.
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Was Writing Known Before Panini?

I am entrusted with the task of putting together some facts which would
support the view that the art of writing was known in India before the
time of our grammarian--the Siva-taught Panini. Professor Max Muller has
maintained the contrary opinion ever since 1856, and has the approbation
of other illustrious Western scholars. Stated briefly, their position
is that the entire absence of any mention of "writing, reading, paper,
or pen" in the Vedas, or during the whole of the Brahmana period, and
the almost, if not quite, as complete silence as to them throughout the
Sutra period, "lead us to suppose that even then [the Sutra period],
though the art of writing began to be known, the whole literature of
India was preserved by oral tradition only." ("H