Pravachanasara presents the relationship of body, mind, and soul through a clear metaphysical distinction, while still acknowledging their close association in worldly life. The soul (jiva/atman) is described as pure consciousness, endowed with knowledge, perception, bliss, and energy, and is regarded as eternal and unchanging in its essential nature. By contrast, the body is composed of matter (pudgala), subject to birth, decay, and death, and thus fundamentally different from the soul. The mind, including thoughts and emotions, is also treated as a subtle form of matter, shaped by karmic influences and constantly fluctuating. From this standpoint, body and mind are not the self, but instruments or media through which the soul engages with the world.

At the same time, Pravachanasara explains that the soul becomes empirically associated with body and mind through karmic bondage. Past actions give rise to karmic matter that binds to the soul and determines the particular body and mental capacities that arise. This association is not intrinsic to the soul’s nature but is a contingent linkage that allows worldly experience to unfold. In ordinary life, this close connection leads to speaking as though body, mind, and soul form a single unit, yet this is regarded as a practical convention rather than ultimate truth.

The text repeatedly emphasizes that bondage and suffering arise from misidentifying the soul with the body and mind. When the attributes of the body—such as age, health, or gender—or the shifting states of the mind—thoughts, emotions, and memories—are taken as “self,” ignorance obscures the soul’s pure nature. True knowledge consists in a discriminative insight that clearly distinguishes the knower from these material adjuncts. Through right knowledge, faith, and conduct, this mistaken identification is gradually loosened, even while the body and mind continue to function on the empirical level.

From the perspective of spiritual realization, liberation is portrayed as the soul’s complete freedom from karmic matter and thus from any dependence on body and mind. As understanding deepens, identity is withdrawn from the physical and mental instruments, and the soul is recognized as independent, self-luminous consciousness. Body and mind remain as objects or vehicles of experience, while the soul stands as the observing and knowing principle. In this way, Pravachanasara frames the path as a progressive disentangling of consciousness from its material conditions, revealing the soul’s distinct and pristine nature.