A History of Indian Philosophy Part 36

but we have no mental picture of the self as we have of other things, yet in all our knowledge we seem to know our self. The Jains had said that the soul was veiled by karma matter, and every act of knowledge meant only the partial removal of the veil. [email protected] says that the self cannot be found as an image of knowledge, but that is because it is a distinct, transcendent principle, whose real nature as such is behind or beyond the subtle matter of knowledge. Our cognitions, so far as they are mere forms or images, are merely compositions or complexes of subtle mind-substance, and thus are like a sheet of painted canvas immersed in darkness; as the canvas gets prints from outside and moves, the pictures appear one by one before the light and arc illuminated.

So it is with our knowledge. The special characteristic of self is that it is like a light, without which all knowledge would be blind. Form and motion are the characteristics of matter, and

[Footnote 1: _Tattakaumudi_ 5; _Yogavarttika_, IV. 22; [email protected]@sya_, p. 74; _Yogavarttika_ and _Tattvavais'aradi_, I. 4, II. 6, 18, 20; [email protected],_ I. 6, 7.]

240

so far as knowledge is mere limited form and movement it is the same as matter; but there is some other principle which enlivens these knowledge-forms, by virtue of which they become conscious.

This principle of consciousness (_cit_) cannot indeed be separately perceived _per se_, but the presence of this principle in all our forms of knowledge is distinctly indicated by inference.

This principle of consciousness has no motion, no form, no quality, no impurity [Footnote ref 1]. The movement of the knowledge-stuff takes place in relation to it, so that it is illuminated as consciousness by it, and produces the appearance of itself as undergoing all changes of knowledge and experiences of pleasure and pain. Each item of knowledge so far as it is an image or a picture of some sort is but a subtle knowledge-stuff which has been illumined by the principle of consciousness, but so far as each item of knowledge carries with it the awakening or the enlivening of consciousness, it is the manifestation of the principle of consciousness.

Knowledge-revelation is not just the unveiling or revelation of a particular part of the self, as the Jains supposed, but it is a revelation of the self only so far as knowledge is pure awakening, pure enlivening, pure consciousness. So far as the content of knowledge or the image is concerned, it is not the revelation of self but is the blind knowledge-stuff.

The Buddhists had a.n.a.lysed knowledge into its diverse const.i.tuent parts, and had held that the coming together of these brought about the conscious states. This coming together was to them the point of the illusory notion of self, since this unity or coming together was not a permanent thing but a momentary collocation. With [email protected] however the self, the pure _cit_, is neither illusory nor an abstraction; it is concrete but transcendent.

Coming into touch with it gives unity to all the movements of the knowledge-composites of subtle stuff, which would otherwise have remained aimless and unintelligent. It is by coming into connection with this principle of intelligence that they are interpreted as the systematic and coherent experience of a person, and may thus be said to be intelligized. Intelligizing means the expression and interpretation of the events or the happenings of

[Footnote 1: It is important to note that [email protected] has two terms to denote the two aspects involved in knowledge, viz. the relating element of awareness as such (_cit_) and the content (_buddhi_) which is the form of the mind-stuff representing the sense-data and the image. Cognition takes place by the reflection of the former in the latter.]

241

knowledge in connection with a person, so as to make them a system of experience. This principle of intelligence is called [email protected] There is a separate [email protected] in [email protected] for each individual, and it is of the nature of pure intelligence. The Vedanta atman however is different from the [email protected] [email protected] in this that it is one and is of the nature of pure intelligence, pure being, and pure bliss. It alone is the reality and by illusory maya it appears as many.

Thought and Matter.

A question naturally arises, that if the knowledge forms are made up of some sort of stuff as the objective forms of matter are, why then should the [email protected] illuminate it and not external material objects. The answer that [email protected] gives is that the knowledge-complexes are certainly different from external objects in this, that they are far subtler and have a preponderance of a special quality of plasticity and translucence (_sattva_), which resembles the light of [email protected], and is thus fit for reflecting and absorbing the light of the [email protected] The two princ.i.p.al characteristics of external gross matter are ma.s.s and energy. But it has also the other characteristic of allowing itself to be photographed by our mind; this thought-photograph of matter has again the special privilege of being so translucent as to be able to catch the reflection of the _cit_--the super-translucent transcendent principle of intelligence. The fundamental characteristic of external gross matter is its ma.s.s; energy is common to both gross matter and the subtle thought-stuff. But ma.s.s is at its lowest minimum in thought-stuff, whereas the capacity of translucence, or what may be otherwise designated as the intelligence-stuff, is at its highest in thought-stuff. But if the gross matter had none of the characteristics of translucence that thought possesses, it could not have made itself an object of thought; for thought transforms itself into the shape, colour, and other characteristics of the thing which has been made its object. Thought could not have copied the matter, if the matter did not possess some of the essential substances of which the copy was made up. But this plastic ent.i.ty (_sattva_) which is so predominant in thought is at its lowest limit of subordination in matter. Similarly ma.s.s is not noticed in thought, but some such notions as are a.s.sociated with ma.s.s may be discernible in

242

thought; thus the images of thought are limited, separate, have movement, and have more or less clear cut forms. The images do not extend in s.p.a.ce, but they can represent s.p.a.ce. The translucent and plastic element of thought (_sattva_) in a.s.sociation with movement (_rajas_) would have resulted in a simultaneous revelation of all objects; it is on account of ma.s.s or tendency of obstruction (_tamas_) that knowledge proceeds from image to image and discloses things in a successive manner. The buddhi (thought-stuff) holds within it all knowledge immersed as it were in utter darkness, and actual knowledge comes before our view as though by the removal of the darkness or veil, by the reflection of the light of the [email protected] This characteristic of knowledge, that all its stores are hidden as if lost at any moment, and only one picture or idea comes at a time to the arena of revelation, demonstrates that in knowledge there is a factor of obstruction which manifests itself in its full actuality in gross matter as ma.s.s. Thus both thought and gross matter are made up of three elements, a plasticity of intelligence-stuff (_sattva_), energy-stuff (_rajas_), and ma.s.s-stuff (_tamas_), or the factor of obstruction. Of these the last two are predominant in gross matter and the first two in thought.

Feelings, the Ultimate Substances [Footnote ref 1].

Another question that arises in this connection is the position of feeling in such an a.n.a.lysis of thought and matter. Samkhya holds that the three characteristic const.i.tuents that we have a.n.a.lyzed just now are feeling substances. Feeling is the most interesting side of our consciousness. It is in our feelings that we think of our thoughts as being parts of ourselves. If we should a.n.a.lyze any percept into the crude and undeveloped sensations of which it is composed at the first moment of its appearance, it comes more as a shock than as an image, and we find that it is felt more as a feeling ma.s.s than as an image.

Even in our ordinary life the elements which precede an act of knowledge are probably mere feelings. As we go lower down the scale of evolution the automatic actions and relations of matter are concomitant with crude manifestations of feeling which never rise to the level of knowledge. The lower the scale of evolution the less is the keenness of feeling, till at last there comes a stage where matter-complexes do not give rise to feeling

_________________________________________________________________

[Footnote 1: _Karika_, 12, with [email protected] and [email protected]]

243

reactions but to mere physical reactions. Feelings thus mark the earliest track of consciousness, whether we look at it from the point of view of evolution or of the genesis of consciousness in ordinary life. What we call matter complexes become at a certain stage feeling-complexes and what we call feeling-complexes at a certain stage of descent sink into mere matter-complexes with matter reaction. The feelings are therefore the things-in-themselves, the ultimate substances of which consciousness and gross matter are made up. Ordinarily a difficulty might be felt in taking feelings to be the ultimate substances of which gross matter and thought are made up; for we are more accustomed to take feelings as being merely subjective, but if we remember the [email protected] a.n.a.lysis, we find that it holds that thought and matter are but two different modifications of certain subtle substances which are in essence but three types of feeling ent.i.ties.

The three princ.i.p.al characteristics of thought and matter that we have noticed in the preceding section are but the manifestations of three types of feeling substances. There is the cla.s.s of feelings that we call the sorrowful, there is another cla.s.s of feelings that we call pleasurable, and there is still another cla.s.s which is neither sorrowful nor pleasurable, but is one of ignorance, depression ([email protected]_) or dullness. Thus corresponding to these three types of manifestations as pleasure, pain, and dullness, and materially as s.h.i.+ning (_prakas'a_), energy ([email protected]_), obstruction (_niyama_), there are three types of feeling-substances which must be regarded as the ultimate things which make up all the diverse kinds of gross matter and thought by their varying modifications.

The [email protected] [Footnote ref 1].

These three types of ultimate subtle ent.i.ties are technically called [email protected]_ in [email protected] philosophy. [email protected] in Sanskrit has three meanings, namely (1) quality, (2) rope, (3) not primary. These ent.i.ties, however, are substances and not mere qualities. But it may be mentioned in this connection that in [email protected] philosophy there is no separate existence of qualities; it holds that each and every unit of quality is but a unit of substance. What we call quality is but a particular manifestation or appearance of a subtle ent.i.ty. Things do not possess quality, but quality

_________________________________________________________________

[Footnote 1: _Yogavarttika_, II. 18; [email protected]'a's _Tattvayatharthyadipana_, pp. 1-3; [email protected]@sya_, p. 100; _Tattvakaumudi_, 13; also [email protected] and [email protected], 13.]

244

signifies merely the manner in which a substance reacts; any object we see seems to possess many qualities, but the [email protected] holds that corresponding to each and every new unit of quality, however fine and subtle it may be, there is a corresponding subtle ent.i.ty, the reaction of which is interpreted by us as a quality. This is true not only of qualities of external objects but also of mental qualities as well. These ultimate ent.i.ties were thus called [email protected] probably to suggest that they are the ent.i.ties which by their various modifications manifest themselves as [email protected] or qualities. These subtle ent.i.ties may also be called [email protected] in the sense of ropes because they are like ropes by which the soul is chained down as if it were to thought and matter. These may also be called [email protected] as things of secondary importance, because though permanent and indestructible, they continually suffer modifications and changes by their mutual groupings and re-groupings, and thus not primarily and unalterably constant like the souls ([email protected]_). Moreover the object of the world process being the enjoyment and salvation of the [email protected], the matter-principle could not naturally be regarded as being of primary importance. But in whatever senses we may be inclined to justify the name [email protected] as applied to these subtle ent.i.ties, it should be borne in mind that they are substantive ent.i.ties or subtle substances and not abstract qualities. These [email protected] are infinite in number, but in accordance with their three main characteristics as described above they have been arranged in three cla.s.ses or types called _sattva_ (intelligence-stuff), _rajas_ (energy-stuff) and _tamas_ (ma.s.s-stuff). An infinite number of subtle substances which agree in certain characteristics of self-s.h.i.+ning or plasticity are called the [email protected]_ and those which behave as units of activity are called the [email protected]_ and those which behave as factors of obstruction, ma.s.s or materiality are called [email protected]_. These subtle [email protected] substances are united in different proportions (e.g. a larger number of sattva substances with a lesser number of rajas or tamas, or a larger number of tamas substances with a smaller number of rajas and sattva substances and so on in varying proportions), and as a result of this, different substances with different qualities come into being.

Though attached to one another when united in different proportions, they mutually act and react upon one another, and thus by their combined resultant produce new characters, qualities and substances. There is however

245

one and only one stage in which the [email protected] are not compounded in varying proportions. In this state each of the [email protected] substances is opposed by each of the other [email protected] substances, and thus by their equal mutual opposition create an equilibrium, in which none of the characters of the [email protected] manifest themselves.

This is a state which is so absolutely devoid of all characteristics that it is absolutely incoherent, indeterminate, and indefinite. It is a qualitiless simple h.o.m.ogeneity. It is a state of being which is as it were non-being. This state of the mutual equilibrium of the [email protected] is called [email protected] [Footnote ref 1]. This is a state which cannot be said either to exist or to non-exist for it serves no purpose, but it is hypothetically the mother of all things. This is however the earliest stage, by the breaking of which, later on, all modifications take place.

[email protected] and its Evolution.

[email protected] believes that before this world came into being there was such a state of dissolution--a state in which the [email protected] compounds had disintegrated into a state of disunion and had by their mutual opposition produced an equilibrium the [email protected] Then later on disturbance arose in the [email protected], and as a result of that a process of unequal aggregation of the [email protected] in varying proportions took place, which brought forth the creation of the manifold.

[email protected], the state of perfect h.o.m.ogeneity and incoherence of the [email protected], thus gradually evolved and became more and more determinate, differentiated, heterogeneous, and coherent. The [email protected] are always uniting, separating, and uniting again [Footnote ref 2]. Varying qualities of essence, energy, and ma.s.s in varied groupings act on one another and through their mutual interaction and interdependence evolve from the indefinite or qualitatively indeterminate the definite or qualitatively determinate. And though co-operating to produce the world of effects, these diverse moments with diverse tendencies never coalesce. Thus in the phenomenal product whatever energy there is is due to the element of rajas and rajas alone; all matter, resistance, stability, is due to tamas, and all conscious manifestation to sattva. The particular [email protected] which happens to be predominant in any phenomenon becomes manifest in that phenomenon and others become latent, though their presence is inferred by their

[Footnote 1: _Yogavarttika,_ II. 19, and [email protected],_ I. 61.]

[Footnote 2: _Kaumudi_ 13-16; _Tattvavais'aradi_ II. 20, IV. 13, 14; also _Yogavarttika,_ IV. 13,14.]

246

effect. Thus, for example, in a body at rest ma.s.s is patent, energy latent and potentiality of conscious manifestation sublatent. In a moving body, the rajas is predominant (kinetic) and the ma.s.s is partially overcome. All these transformations of the groupings of the [email protected] in different proportions presuppose the state of [email protected] as the starting point. It is at this stage that the tendencies to conscious manifestation, as well as the powers of doing work, are exactly counterbalanced by the resistance of inertia or ma.s.s, and the process of cosmic evolution is at rest. When this equilibrium is once destroyed, it is supposed that out of a natural affinity of all the sattva reals for themselves, of rajas reals for other reals of their type, of tamas reals for others of their type, there arises an unequal aggregation of sattva, rajas, or tamas at different moments. When one [email protected] is preponderant in any particular collocation, the others are co-operant. This evolutionary series beginning from the first disturbance of the [email protected] to the final transformation as the world-order, is subject to "a definite law which it cannot overstep." In the words of Dr B.N.Seal [Footnote ref 1], "the process of evolution consists in the development of the differentiated ([email protected]_) within the undifferentiated (_samyavastha_) of the determinate (_vies'a_) within the indeterminate (_avis'esa_) of the coherent (_yutasiddha_) within the incoherent (_ayutasiddha_). The order of succession is neither from parts to whole nor from whole to the parts, but ever from a relatively less differentiated, less determinate, less coherent whole to a relatively more differentiated, more determinate, more coherent whole." The meaning of such an evolution is this, that all the changes and modifications in the shape of the evolving collocations of [email protected] reals take place within the body of the [email protected] [email protected] consisting of the infinite reals is infinite, and that it has been disturbed does not mean that the whole of it has been disturbed and upset, or that the totality of the [email protected] in the [email protected] has been unhinged from a state of equilibrium. It means rather that a very vast number of [email protected] const.i.tuting the worlds of thought and matter has been upset. These [email protected] once thrown out of balance begin to group themselves together first in one form, then in another, then in another, and so on. But such a change in the formation of aggregates should not be thought to take place in such a way that the later aggregates appear in supersession of the former ones, so that when the former comes into being the latter ceases to exist.

_

[Footnote 1: Dr B.N. Seal's _Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus_, 1915, p.7.]

247

For the truth is that one stage is produced after another; this second stage is the result of a new aggregation of some of the reals of the first stage. This deficiency of the reals of the first stage which had gone forth to form the new aggregate as the second stage is made good by a refilling from the [email protected] So also, as the third stage of aggregation takes place from out of the reals of the second stage, the deficiency of the reals of the second stage is made good by a refilling from the first stage and that of the first stage from the [email protected] Thus by a succession of refillings the process of evolution proceeds, till we come to its last limit, where there is no real evolution of new substance, but mere chemical and physical changes of qualities in things which had already evolved. Evolution ([email protected]_) in [email protected] means the development of categories of existence and not mere changes of qualities of substances (physical, chemical, biological or mental).

Thus each of the stages of evolution remains as a permanent category of being, and offers scope to the more and more differentiated and coherent groupings of the succeeding stages. Thus it is said that the evolutionary process is regarded as a differentiation of new stages as integrated in previous stages ([email protected]@rstaviveka_).

Pralaya and the disturbance of the [email protected] Equilibrium.

But how or rather why [email protected] should be disturbed is the most knotty point in [email protected] It is postulated that