Talk:Pañcikaraṇa
By Swami Harshananda
Pañcikaraṇa literally means ‘the process of quintuplication’.
This is a technical term specially found in the treatises on Advaita Vedānta.
Viṣṇu pañcāyatana | Śiva pañcāyatana | Surya pañcāyatana | Devī pañcāyatana | Gaṇapati pañcāyatana |
Siva Gaṇapati | Viṣṇu Surya | Śiva Gaṇapati | Viṣṇu Śiva | Viṣṇu Śiva |
2 3 | 2 3 | 2 3 | 2 3 | 2 3 |
Viṣṇu | Śiva | Surya | Devi | Gaṇapati |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Devī Surya | Devī Gaṇapati | Devi Viṣṇu | Surya Gaṇapati | Devī Surya |
5 4 | 5 4 | 5 4 | 5 4 | 5 4 |
The process by which each of the pañcamahābhutas[1] is formed out of the pañcatanmātras[2] is called ‘pañcīkaraṇa’. Each former element, because of this, contains half of the corresponding tanmātra and one-eighth of each of the other four. For instance, one unit of the mahābhuta pṛthvi is equal to 1/2 pṛthvī tanmātra + 1/8 of ap tanmātra + 1/8 of agni tanmātra + 1/8 of vāyu tanmātra + 1/8 of ākāśa tanmātra. Because of this pañcīkarana, each of the mahābhutas contains a part of the other four bhutas and hence their characteristics.
References[edit]
- The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore