Reading section 30

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 _aha@mkâra,_ and the above three tendencies are respectiviy called _tâmasika aha@mkâra_ or _bhûtâdi_, _râjasika_ or _taijasa aha@mâra,_ and _vaikârika aha@mkâra._ The râjasika aha@mkâra cannot make a new preponderance by itself; it only

250

helps (_sahakâri_) the transformations of the sattva preponderance and the tamas preponderance. The development of the former preponderance, as is easy to see, is only the assumption 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 _sâttvika_ or _vaikârika aha@mkâra_. This aha@mkâra 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 aha@mkâra (_abhimâna-dravya_) is the specific expression of the general consciousness which takes experience as mine. The function of the ego is therefore called _abhimâna_ (self-assertion). 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 _prâ@nas_ (bio-motor force) which help both conation and cognition are but aspects of buddhi-movement as life. The individual aha@mkâras 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 aka@mkâra (ego) and sense-evolutes thus forms a microcosm separate from similar other buddhis with their associated 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 (_kâra@na 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 associated ignorance (_avidyâ_). The buddhi and its sattva evolutes of aha@mkâra 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 aha@mkâra, the deficiency of buddhi is made good by prak@rti; again as aha@mkâra 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 prak@rti.

The Tanmâtras and the Paramâ@nus [Footnote ref 1].

The other tendency, namely that of tamas, has to be helped by the liberated rajas of aha@mkâra, 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 _bhûtâdi._ From this bhûtâdi with the help of rajas are generated the _tanmâtras,_ the immediately preceding causes of the gross elements. The bhûtâdi thus represents only the intermediate stage through which the differentiations and regroupings of tamas reals in the mahat proceed for the generation of the tanmâtras. There has been some controversy between Sâ@mkhya and Yoga as to whether the tanmâtras are generated from the mahat or from aha@mkâra. 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 bhûtâdi. Bhûtâdi is absolutely homogeneous and inert, devoid of all physical and chemical characters except quantum or mass. The second stadium tanmâtra represents subtle matter, vibratory, impingent, radiant, instinct with potential energy. These "potentials" arise from the unequal aggregation of the original mass-units in different proportions and collocations with an unequal distribution of the original energy (_rajas_). The tanmâtras possess something more than quantum of mass 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 Sâ@mkhya 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" assume 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 (_atîndriya_ but not _anudbhûta_) [Footnote ref 1].

Of the tanmatras the _s'abda_ or _âkâs'a tanmâtra_ (the sound-potential) is first generated directly from the bhûtâdi. Next comes the _spars'a_ or the _vâyu tanmâtra_ (touch-potential) which is generated by the union of a unit of tamas from bhûtâdi with the âkâs'a tanmâtra. The _rûpa tanmâtra_ (colour-potential) is generated similarly by the accretion of a unit of tamas from bhûtâdi; the _rasa tanmâtra_ (taste-potential) or the _ap tunmâtra_ is also similarly formed. This ap tanmâtra again by its union with a unit of tamas from bhûtâdi produces the _gândha tanmâtra_ (smell-potential) or the _k@siti tanmâtra_ [Footnote ref 2]. The difference of tanmâtras or infra-atomic units and atoms (_paramâ@nu_) is this, that the tanmâtras have only the potential power of affecting our senses, which must be grouped and regrouped in a particular form to constitute 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 classification of all gross objects as k@siti, ap, tejas, marut and vyoman is not based upon a chemical analysis, 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 tanmâtras was also conceived to exist as the ground of the five gross forms.

The five classes of atoms are generated from the tanmâtras as follows: the sound-potential, with accretion of rudiment matter from bhûtâdi generates the âkâsa-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 tanmâtras and atoms were explained in literatures other than Sâ@mkhya; for some account of it see Dr Seal's _Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus_.]

253

vâyu-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 âkâs'a-atom possesses penetrability, the vâyu-atom impact or mechanical pressure, the tejas-atom radiant heat and light, the ap-atom viscous attraction and the earth-atom cohesive attraction. The âkâsa we have seen forms the transition link from the bhûtâdi to the tanmâtra and from the tanmâtra to the atomic production; it therefore deserves a special notice at this stage. Sâ@mkhya distinguishes between a kâra@na-âkâs'a and kâryâkâs'a. The kâra@na-âkâs'a (non-atomic and all-pervasive) is the formless tamas--the mass in prak@rti or bhûtâdi; it is indeed all-pervasive, and is not a mere negation, a mere unoccupiedness (_âvara@nâbhâva_) or vacuum [Footnote ref 1]. When energy is first associated with this tamas element it gives rise to the sound-potential; the atomic âkâs'a is the result of the integration of the original mass-units from bhûtâdi with this sound-potential (_s'abda tanmâtra_). Such an âkâs'a-atom is called the kâryâkâs'a; it is formed everywhere and held up in the original kâra@na âkâs'a as the medium for the development of vâyu atoms. Being atomic it occupies limited space.

The aha@mkâra and the five tanmâtras are technically called _avis'e@sa_ 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 _vis'e@sa,_ 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 prak@rti 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 constitution, 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 âkâs'a says "Âkâs'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 constitution 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 Sâ@mkhya-Yoga evolution should be comprehended or interpreted.

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

The question is raised, how can the prak@rti supply the deficiencies made in its evolutes by the formation of other evolutes from them? When from mahat some tanmâtras have evolved, or when from the tanmâtras some atoms have evolved, how can the deficiency in mahat and the tanmâtras be made good by the prak@rti?

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? Sâ@mkhya 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 gu@nas, 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 (_udbhûta-v@rtti_) 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 passage from potentiality to actuality and the concomitant conditions (_sahakâri-s'akti_) or efficient cause (_nimitta-kâra@na_, such as the sculptor's art) is a sort of mechanical help or instrumental help to this passage or the transition [Footnote ref 3]. The refilling from prak@rti thus means nothing more than this, that by the inherent teleology of the prak@rti, the reals there are so collocated as to be transformed into mahat as those of the mahat have been collocated to form the bhûtâdi or the tanmâtras.

____________________________________________________________________

[Footnote 1: _Vyâsabhâ@sya_ and _Yogavârttika_, IV. 3; _Tattvavais'âradî_, IV. 3.]

[Footnote 2: Ray, _History of Hindu Chemistry_, p. 72.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid._ p. 73.]

255

Yoga however explains this more vividly on the basis of transformation of the liberated potential energy. The sum of material causes potentially contains the energy manifested in the sum of effects. When the effectuating condition is added to the sum of material conditions in a given collocation, all that happens is that a stimulus is imparted which removes the arrest, disturbs the relatively stable equilibrium, and brings on a liberation of energy together with a fresh collocation(_gu@nasannives'avis'e@sa_). As the owner of an adjacent field in transferring water from one field to another of the same or lower level has only to remove the obstructing mud barriers, whereupon the water flows of itself to the other field, so when the efficient or instrumental causes (such as the sculptor's art) remove the barrier inherent in any collocation against its transformation into any other collocation, the energy from that collocation flows out in a corresponding manner and determines the collocation. Thus for example the energy which collocated the milk-atoms to form milk was in a state of arrest in the milk state. If by heat or other causes this barrier is removed, the energy naturally changes direction in a corresponding manner and collocates the atoms accordingly for the formation of curd. So also as soon as the barriers are removed from the prak@rti, guided by the constant will of Îs'vara, the reals in equilibrium in the state of prak@rti leave their state of arrest and evolve themselves into mahat, etc.

Change as the formation of new collocations.

It is easy to see from what we have already said that any collocation of atoms forming a thing could not change its form, unless the barrier inherent or caused by the formation of the present collocation could be removed by some other extraneous instrumental cause. All gross things are formed by the collocation of the five atoms of k@siti, ap, tejas, marut, and vyoman. The difference between one thing and another is simply this, that its collocation of atoms or the arrangement or grouping of atoms is different from that in another. The formation of a collocation has an inherent barrier against any change, which keeps that collocation in a state of equilibrium, and it is easy to see that these barriers exist in infinite directions in which all the other infinite objects of the world exist. From whichever side the barrier is removed, the energy flows in that direction and helps the

256

formation of a corresponding object. Provided the suitable barriers could be removed, anything could be changed into any other thing. And it is believed that the Yogins can acquire the powers by which they can remove any barriers, and thus make anything out of any other thing. But generally in the normal course of events the line of evolution follows "a definite law which cannot be overstepped" (_pari@nâmakramaniyama_) or in other words there are some natural barriers which cannot be removed, and thus the evolutionary course has to take a path to the exclusion of those lines where the barriers could not be removed. Thus saffron grows in countries like Kashmere and not in Bengal, this is limitation of countries (_des'âpabandha_); certain kinds of paddy grow in the rainy season only, this is limitation of season or time (_kâlâpabandha_); deer cannot beget men, this is limitation by form (_âkârâpabandha_); curd can come out of milk, this is the limitation of causes (_nimittâpabandha_). The evolutionary course can thus follow only that path which is not barricaded by any of these limitations or natural obstructions [Footnote ref 1].

Change is taking place everywhere, from the smallest and least to the highest. Atoms and reals are continually vibrating and changing places in any and every object. At each moment the whole universe is undergoing change, and the collocation of atoms at any moment is different from what it was at the previous moment. When these changes are perceivable, they are perceived as _dharmapari@nâma_ or changes of _dharma_ or quality; but perceived or unperceived the changes are continually going on. This change of appearance may be viewed from another aspect by virtue of which we may call it present or past, and old or new, and these are respectively called the _lak@sa@napari@nâma_ and _avasthâpari@nâma_. At every moment every object of the world is undergoing evolution or change, change as past, present and future, as new, old or unborn. When any change is in a potential state we call it future, when manifested present, when it becomes sub-latent again it is said to be past. Thus it is that the potential, manifest, and sub-latent changes of a thing are called future, present and past [Footnote ref 2].

____________________________________________________________________

[Footnote 1: _Vyâsabhâ@sya, Tattvavais'âradî_ and _Yogavârttika,_ III. 14.]

[Footnote 2: It is well to note in this connection that Sâ@mkhya-yoga does not admit the existence of time as an independent entity like the Nyâya-Vais'e@sika. Time represents the order of moments in which the mind grasps the phenomenal changes. It is hence a construction of the mind (_buddhi-nirmâ@na_). The time required by an atom to move its own measure of space is called a moment (_k@sa@na_) or one unit of time. Vijñâna Bhik@su regards one unit movement of the gu@nas or reals as a moment. When by true wisdom the gu@nas are perceived as they are both the illusory notions of time and space vanish. _Vyâsabhâ@sya, Tattvavais'âradî_, and _Yogavârttika_, III. 52 and III. 13.]

257

Causation as Satkâryavâda (the theory that the effect potentially exists before it is generated by the movement of the cause).

The above consideration brings us to an important aspect of the Sâ@mkhya view of causation as _satkâryavâda_. Sâ@mkhya holds that there can be no production of a thing previously non-existent; causation means the appearance or manifestation of a quality due to certain changes of collocations in the causes which were already held in them in a potential form. Production of effect only means an internal change of the arrangement of atoms in the cause, and this exists in it in a potential form, and just a little loosening of the barrier which was standing in the way of the happening of such a change of arrangement will produce the desired new collocation--the effect. This doctrine is called _satkâryavâda,_ i.e. that the kârya or effect is _sat_ or existent even before the causal operation to produce the effect was launched. The oil exists in the sesarnum, the statue in the stone, the curd in the milk, The causal operation (_kârakaiyâpâra_) only renders that manifest (_âvirbhûta_) which was formerly in an unmanifested condition (_tirohita_) [Footnote ref 1].

The Buddhists also believed in change, as much as Sâ@mkhya did, but with them there was no background to the change; every change was thus absolutely a new one, and when it was past, the next moment the change was lost absolutely. There were only the passing dharmas or manifestations of forms and qualities, but there was no permanent underlying dharma or substance. Sâ@mkhya also holds in the continual change of dharmas, but it also holds that these dharmas represent only the conditions of the permanent reals. The conditions and collocations of the reals change constantly, but the reals themselves are unchangeable. The effect according to the Buddhists was non-existent, it came into being for a moment and was lost. On account of this theory of causation and also on account of their doctrine of s'ûnya, they were called _vainâs'ikas_ (nihilists) by the Vedântins. This doctrine is therefore contrasted to Sâ@mkhya doctrine as _asatkâryavâda._

__________________________________________________________________

[Footnote 1: _Tattvakaumudî,_ 9.]

258

The jain view holds that both these views are relatively true and that from one point of view satkâryavâda is true and from another asatkâryavâda. The Sâ@mkhya view that the cause is continually transforming itself into its effects is technically called _pari@nâmavâda_ as against the Vedânta view called the _vivarttavâda_: that cause remains ever the same, and what we call effects are but illusory impositions of mere unreal appearance of name and form--mere Maya [Footnote ref. 1].

Sâ@mkhya Atheism and Yoga Theism.

Granted that the interchange of the positions of the infinite number of reals produce all the world and its transformations; whence comes this fixed order of the universe, the fixed order of cause and effect, the fixed order of the so-called barriers which prevent the transformation of any cause into any effect or the first disturbance of the equilibrium of the prak@rti? Sâ@mkhya denies the existence of Îs'vara (God) or any other exterior influence, and holds that there is an inherent tendency in these reals which guides all their movements. This tendency or teleology demands that the movements of the reals should be in such a manner that they may render some service to the souls either in the direction of enjoyment or salvation. It is by the natural course of such a tendency that prak@rti is disturbed, and the gu@nas develop on two lines--on the mental plane, _citta_ or mind comprising the sense faculties, and on the objective plane as material objects; and it is in fulfilment of the demands of this tendency that on the one hand take place subjective experiences as the changes of the buddhi and on the other the infinite modes of the changes of objective things. It is this tendency to be of service to the puru@sas (_puru@sârthatâ_) that guides all the movements of the reals, restrains all disorder, renders the world a fit object of experience, and finally rouses them to turn back from the world and seek to attain liberation from the association of prak@rti and its gratuitous service, which causes us all this trouble of sa@msâra.

Yoga here asks, how the blind tendency of the non-intelligent

___________________________________________________________________

[Footnote 1: Both the Vedânta and the Sâ@mkhya theories of causation are sometimes loosely called _satkâryyavâda._ But correctly speaking as some discerning commentators have pointed out, the Vedânta theory of causation should be called satkâra@navâda for according to it the _kâra@na_ (cause) alone exists (_sat_) and all _kâryyas,_ (effects) are illusory appearances of the kâra@na; but according to Sâ@mkhya the kâryya exists in a potential state in the kâra@na and is hence always existing and real.]