A History of Indian Philosophy Part 37

production being suspended, the activity here repeats the same state ([email protected][email protected]_) of equilibrium, so that there is no change or new production. The state of pralaya thus is not a suspension of the teleology or purpose of the [email protected], or an absolute break of the course of [email protected] evolution; for the state of pralaya, since it has been generated to fulfil the demands of the acc.u.mulated karmas of [email protected], and since there is still the activity of the [email protected] in keeping themselves in a state of suspended production, is also a stage of the [email protected] cycle. The state of mukti (liberation) is of course quite different, for in that stage the movement of the [email protected] ceases forever with reference to the liberated soul.

But still the question remains, what breaks the state of equilibrium?

The [email protected] answer is that it is due to the transcendental (non-mechanical) influence of the [email protected] [Footnote ref 1]. This influence of the [email protected] again, if it means anything, means that there is inherent in the [email protected] a teleology that all their movements or modifications should take place in such a way that these may serve the purposes of the [email protected] Thus when the karmas of the [email protected] had demanded that there should be a suspension of all experience, for a period there was a pralaya. At the end of it, it is the same inherent purpose of the [email protected] that wakes it up for the formation of a suitable world for the experiences of the [email protected] by which its quiescent state is disturbed. This is but another way of looking at the inherent teleology of the [email protected], which demands that a state of pralaya should cease and a state of world-framing activity should begin. Since there is a purpose in the [email protected] which brought them to a state of equilibrium, the state of equilibrium also presupposes that it also may be broken up again when the purpose so demands. Thus the inherent purpose of the [email protected] brought about the state of pralaya and then broke it up for the creative work again, and it is this natural change in the [email protected] that may be regarded from another point of view as the transcendental influence of the [email protected]

Mahat and [email protected]

The first evolute of the [email protected] is generated by a preponderance of the sattva (intelligence-stuff). This is indeed the earliest state from which all the rest of the world has sprung forth; and it is a state in which the stuff of sattva predominates. It thus holds

___________________________________________________________________

[Footnote 1: The Yoga answer is of course different. It believes that the disturbance of the equilibrium of [email protected] for new creation takes place by the will of is'vara (G.o.d).]

249

within it the minds (_buddhi_) of all [email protected] which were lost in the [email protected] during the pralaya. The very first work of the evolution of [email protected] to serve the [email protected] is thus manifested by the separating out of the old buddhis or minds (of the [email protected]) which hold within themselves the old specific ignorance (_avidya_) inherent in them with reference to each [email protected] with which any particular buddhi is a.s.sociated from beginningless time before the pralaya. This state of evolution consisting of all the collected minds (buddhi) or all the [email protected] is therefore called _buddhitattva._ It is a state which holds or comprehends within it the buddhis of all individuals.

The individual buddhis of individual [email protected] are on one hand integrated with the buddhitattva and on the other a.s.sociated with their specific [email protected] When some buddhis once begin to be separated from the [email protected], other buddhi evolutions take place. In other words, we are to understand that once the transformation of buddhis is effected for the service of the [email protected], all the other direct transformations that take place from the [email protected] take the same line, i.e. a preponderance of sattva being once created by the bringing out of some buddhis, other transformations of [email protected] that follow them have also the sattva preponderance, which thus have exactly the same composition as the first buddhis. Thus the first transformation from [email protected] becomes buddhi-transformation. This stage of buddhis may thus be regarded as the most universal stage, which comprehends within it all the buddhis of individuals and potentially all the matter of which the gross world is formed. Looked at from this point of view it has the widest and most universal existence comprising all creation, and is thus called _mahat_ (the great one). It is called [email protected]_ (sign), as the other later existences or evolutes give us the ground of inferring its existence, and as such must be distinguished from the [email protected] which is called [email protected],_ i.e. of which no [email protected] or characterise may be affirmed.

This mahat-tatva being once produced, further modifications begin to take place in three lines by three different kinds of undulations representing the sattva preponderance, rajas preponderance and tama preponderance. This state when the mahat is disturbed by the three parallel tendencies of a preponderance of tamas, rajas and sattva's called [email protected],_ and the above three tendencies are respectiviy called _tamasika [email protected]_ or _bhutadi_, _rajasika_ or _taijasa [email protected],_ and _vaikarika [email protected]_ The rajasika [email protected] cannot make a new preponderance by itself; it only

250

helps (_sahakari_) the transformations of the sattva preponderance and the tamas preponderance. The development of the former preponderance, as is easy to see, is only the a.s.sumption of a more and more determinate character of the buddhi, for we remember that buddhi itself has been the resulting transformation of a sattva preponderance. Further development with the help of rajas on the line of sattva development could only take place when the buddhi as mind determined itself in specific ways. The first development of the buddhi on this line is called _sattvika_ or _vaikarika [email protected]_. This [email protected] represents the development in buddhi to produce a consciousness-stuff as I or rather "mine,"

and must thus be distinguished from the first stage as buddhi the function of which is a mere understanding and general datun as thisness.

The ego or [email protected] (_abhimana-dravya_) is the specific expression of the general consciousness which takes experience as mine.

The function of the ego is therefore called _abhimana_ (self-a.s.sertion).

From this again come the five cognitive senses of vision, touch, smell, taste, and hearing, the five cognitive senses of speech, handling, foot-movement, the ejective sense and the generative sense; the [email protected]_ (bio-motor force) which help both conation and cognition are but aspects of buddhi-movement as life. The individual [email protected] and senses are related to the individual buddhis by the developing sattva determinations from which they had come into being. Each buddhi with its own group of [email protected] (ego) and sense-evolutes thus forms a microcosm separate from similar other buddhis with their a.s.sociated groups. So far therefore as knowledge is subject to sense-influence and the ego, it is different for each individual, but so far as a general mind ([email protected] buddhi_) apart from sense knowledge is concerned, there is a community of all buddhis in the buddhitattva. Even there however each buddhi is separated from other buddhis by its own peculiarly a.s.sociated ignorance (_avidya_). The buddhi and its sattva evolutes of [email protected] and the senses are so related that though they are different from buddhi in their functions, they are all comprehended in the buddhi, and mark only its gradual differentiations and modes. We must again remember in this connection the doctrine of refilling, for as buddhi exhausts its part in giving rise to [email protected], the deficiency of buddhi is made good by [email protected]; again as [email protected] partially exhausts itself in generating sense-faculties, the deficiency

251

is made good by a refilling from the buddhi. Thus the change and wastage of each of the stadia are always made good and kept constant by a constant refilling from each higher state and finally from [email protected]

The Tanmatras and the [email protected] [Footnote ref 1].

The other tendency, namely that of tamas, has to be helped by the liberated rajas of [email protected], in order to make itself preponderant, and this state in which the tamas succeeds in overcoming the sattva side which was so preponderant in the buddhi, is called _bhutadi._ From this bhutadi with the help of rajas are generated the _tanmatras,_ the immediately preceding causes of the gross elements. The bhutadi thus represents only the intermediate stage through which the differentiations and regroupings of tamas reals in the mahat proceed for the generation of the tanmatras.

There has been some controversy between [email protected] and Yoga as to whether the tanmatras are generated from the mahat or from [email protected] The situation becomes intelligible if we remember that evolution here does not mean coming out or emanation, but increasing differentiation in integration within the evolving whole.

Thus the regroupings of tamas reals marks the differentiation which takes place within the mahat but through its stage as bhutadi. Bhutadi is absolutely h.o.m.ogeneous and inert, devoid of all physical and chemical characters except quantum or ma.s.s.

The second stadium tanmatra represents subtle matter, vibratory, impingent, radiant, instinct with potential energy. These "potentials"

arise from the unequal aggregation of the original ma.s.s-units in different proportions and collocations with an unequal distribution of the original energy (_rajas_). The tanmatras possess something more than quantum of ma.s.s and energy; they possess physical characters, some of them penetrability, others powers of impact or pressure, others radiant heat, others again capability of viscous and cohesive attraction [Footnote ref. 2].

In intimate relation with those physical characters they also possess the potentials of the energies represented by sound, touch, colour, taste, and smell; but, being subtle matter, they are devoid

[Footnote 1: I have accepted in this section and in the next many of the translations of Sanskrit terms and expressions of Dr Seal and am largely indebted to him for his illuminating exposition of this subject as given in Ray's _Hindu Chemistry._ The credit of explaining [email protected] physics, in the light of the text belongs entirely to him.]

[Footnote 2: Dr Seal's _Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus_.]

252

of the peculiar forms which these "potentials" a.s.sume in particles of gross matter like the atoms and their aggregates. In other words, the potentials lodged in subtle matter must undergo peculiar transformations by new groupings or collocations before they can act as sensory stimuli as gross matter, though in the minutest particles thereof the sensory stimuli may be infra-sensible (_atindriya_ but not _anudbhuta_) [Footnote ref 1].

Of the tanmatras the _s'abda_ or _akas'a tanmatra_ (the sound-potential) is first generated directly from the bhutadi. Next comes the _spars'a_ or the _vayu tanmatra_ (touch-potential) which is generated by the union of a unit of tamas from bhutadi with the akas'a tanmatra. The _rupa tanmatra_ (colour-potential) is generated similarly by the accretion of a unit of tamas from bhutadi; the _rasa tanmatra_ (taste-potential) or the _ap tunmatra_ is also similarly formed. This ap tanmatra again by its union with a unit of tamas from bhutadi produces the _gandha tanmatra_ (smell-potential) or the [email protected] tanmatra_ [Footnote ref 2]. The difference of tanmatras or infra-atomic units and atoms ([email protected]_) is this, that the tanmatras have only the potential power of affecting our senses, which must be grouped and regrouped in a particular form to const.i.tute a new existence as atoms before they can have the power of affecting our senses.

It is important in this connection to point out that the cla.s.sification of all gross objects as [email protected], ap, tejas, marut and vyoman is not based upon a chemical a.n.a.lysis, but from the points of view of the five senses through which knowledge of them could be brought home to us. Each of our senses can only apprehend a particular quality and thus five different ultimate substances are said to exist corresponding to the five qualities which may be grasped by the five senses. In accordance with the existence of these five elements, the existence of the five potential states or tanmatras was also conceived to exist as the ground of the five gross forms.

The five cla.s.ses of atoms are generated from the tanmatras as follows: the sound-potential, with accretion of rudiment matter from bhutadi generates the akasa-atom. The touch-potentials combine with the vibratory particles (sound-potential) to generate the

[Footnote 1: Dr Seal's _Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus_.]

[Footnote 2: There were various ways in which the genesis of tanmatras and atoms were explained in literatures other than [email protected]; for some account of it see Dr Seal's _Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus_.]

253

vayu-atom. The light-and-heat potentials combine with touch-potentials and sound-potentials to produce the tejas-atom. The taste-potentials combine with light-and-heat potentials, touch-potentials and sound-potentials to generate the ap-atom and the smell-potentials combine with the preceding potentials to generate the earth-atom. The akas'a-atom possesses penetrability, the vayu-atom impact or mechanical pressure, the tejas-atom radiant heat and light, the ap-atom viscous attraction and the earth-atom cohesive attraction. The akasa we have seen forms the transition link from the bhutadi to the tanmatra and from the tanmatra to the atomic production; it therefore deserves a special notice at this stage. [email protected] distinguishes between a [email protected]'a and karyakas'a. The [email protected]'a (non-atomic and all-pervasive) is the formless tamas--the ma.s.s in [email protected] or bhutadi; it is indeed all-pervasive, and is not a mere negation, a mere unoccupiedness ([email protected]_) or vacuum [Footnote ref 1]. When energy is first a.s.sociated with this tamas element it gives rise to the sound-potential; the atomic akas'a is the result of the integration of the original ma.s.s-units from bhutadi with this sound-potential (_s'abda tanmatra_). Such an akas'a-atom is called the karyakas'a; it is formed everywhere and held up in the original [email protected] akas'a as the medium for the development of vayu atoms. Being atomic it occupies limited s.p.a.ce.

The [email protected] and the five tanmatras are technically called [email protected]_ or indeterminate, for further determinations or differentiations of them for the formation of newer categories of existence are possible. The eleven senses and the five atoms are called [email protected],_ i.e. determinate, for they cannot further be so determined as to form a new category of existence. It is thus that the course of evolution which started in the [email protected] reaches its furthest limit in the production of the senses on the one side and the atoms on the other. Changes no doubt take place in bodies having atomic const.i.tution, but these changes are changes of quality due to spatial changes in the position of the atoms or to the introduction of new atoms and their re-arrangement. But these are not such that a newer category of existence could be formed by them which was substantially different from the combined atoms.

___________________________________________________________________

[Footnote 1: Dr B.N. Seal in describing this akas'a says "akas'a corresponds in some respects to the ether of the physicists and in others to what may be called proto-atom (protyle)." Ray's _History of Hindu Chemistry_, p. 88.]

254

The changes that take place in the atomic const.i.tution of things certainly deserve to be noticed. But before we go on to this, it will be better to enquire about the principle of causation according to which the [email protected] evolution should be comprehended or interpreted.

Principle of Causation and Conservation of Energy [Footnote ref 1].

The question is raised, how can the [email protected] supply the deficiencies made in its evolutes by the formation of other evolutes from them? When from mahat some tanmatras have evolved, or when from the tanmatras some atoms have evolved, how can the deficiency in mahat and the tanmatras be made good by the [email protected]?

Or again, what is the principle that guides the transformations that take place in the atomic stage when one gross body, say milk, changes into curd, and so on? [email protected] says that "as the total energy remains the same while the world is constantly evolving, cause and effect are only more or less evolved forms of the same ultimate Energy. The sum of effects exists in the sum of causes in a potential form. The grouping or collocation alone changes, and this brings on the manifestation of the latent powers of the [email protected], but without creation of anything new. What is called the (material) cause is only the power which is efficient in the production or rather the vehicle of the power. This power is the unmanifested (or potential) form of the Energy set free ([email protected]_) in the effect. But the concomitant conditions are necessary to call forth the so-called material cause into activity [Footnote ref 2]."

The appearance of an effect (such as the manifestation of the figure of the statue in the marble block by the causal efficiency of the sculptor's art) is only its pa.s.sage from potentiality to actuality and the concomitant conditions (_sahakari-s'akti_) or efficient cause ([email protected]