Reading section 31

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prak@rti can bring forth this order and harmony of the universe, how can it determine what course of evolution will be of the best service to the puru@sas, how can it remove its own barriers and lend itself to the evolutionary process from the state of prak@rti equilibrium? How too can this blind tendency so regulate the evolutionary order that all men must suffer pains according to their bad karmas, and happiness according to their good ones? There must be some intelligent Being who should help the course of evolution in such a way that this system of order and harmony may be attained. This Being is Îs'vara. Îs'vara is a puru@sa who had never been subject to ignorance, afflictions, or passions. His body is of pure sattva quality which can never be touched by ignorance. He is all knowledge and all powerful. He has a permanent wish that those barriers in the course of the evolution of the reals by which the evolution of the gu@nas may best serve the double interest of the puru@sa's experience (_bhoga_) and liberation (_apavarga_) should be removed. It is according to this permanent will of Îs'vara that the proper barriers are removed and the gu@nas follow naturally an intelligent course of evolution for the service of the best interests of the puru@sas. Îs'vara has not created the prak@rti; he only disturbs the equilibrium of the prak@rti in its quiescent state, and later on helps it to follow an intelligent order by which the fruits of karma are properly distributed and the order of the world is brought about. This acknowledgement of Îs'vara in Yoga and its denial by Sâ@mkhya marks the main theoretic difference between the two according to which the Yoga and Sâ@mkhya are distinguished as Ses'vara Sâ@mkhya (Sâ@mkhya with Îs'vara) and Nirîs'vara Sâ@mkhya (Atheistic Sâ@mkhya) [Footnote ref 1].

Buddhi and Puru@sa.

The question again arises that though puru@sa is pure intelligence, the gu@nas are non-intelligent subtle substances, how can the latter come into touch with the former? Moreover, the puru@sa is pure inactive intelligence without any touch of impurity and what service or need can such a puru@sa have of the gu@nas? This difficulty is anticipated by Sâ@mkhya, which has already made room for its answer by assuming that one class of the gu@nas called sattva is such that it resembles the purity and the intelligence of the puru@sa to a very high degree, so much so

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[Footnote 1: _Tattvavais'âradî,_ IV. 3; _Yogavârttika,_ I. 24; and _Pravavanabhâsya,_ V. 1-12.]

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that it can reflect the intelligence of the puru@sa, and thus render its non-intelligent transformations to appear as if they were intelligent. Thus all our thoughts and other emotional or volitional operations are really the non-intelligent transformations of the buddhi or citta having a large sattva preponderance; but by virtue of the reflection of the puru@sa in the buddhi, these appear as if they are intelligent. The self (puru@sa) according to Sâ@mkhya-Yoga is not directly demonstrated by self-consciousness. Its existence is a matter of inference on teleological grounds and grounds of moral responsibility. The self cannot be directly noticed as being separate from the buddhi modifications. Through beginningless ignorance there is a confusion and the changing states of buddhi are regarded as conscious. These buddhi changes are further so associated with the reflection of the puru@sa in the buddhi that they are interpreted as the experiences of the puru@sa. This association of the buddhi with the reflection of the puru@sa in the buddhi has such a special fitness (_yogyatâ_) that it is interpreted as the experience of the puru@sa. This explanation of Vâcaspati of the situation is objected to by Vijñâna Bhik@su. Vijñâna Bhik@su says that the association of the buddhi with the image of the puru@sa cannot give us the notion of a real person who undergoes the experiences. It is to be supposed therefore that when the buddhi is intelligized by the reflection of the puru@sa, it is then superimposed upon the puru@sa, and we have the notion of an abiding person who experiences [Footnote ref 1]. Whatever may be the explanation, it seems that the union of the buddhi with the puru@sa is somewhat mystical. As a result of this reflection of _cit_ on buddhi and the superimposition of the buddhi the puru@sa cannot realize that the transformations of the buddhi are not its own. Buddhi resembles puru@sa in transparency, and the puru@sa fails to differentiate itself from the modifications of the buddhi, and as a result of this non-distinction the puru@sa becomes bound down to the buddhi, always failing to recognize the truth that the buddhi and its transformations are wholly alien to it. This non-distinction of puru@sa from buddhi which is itself a mode of buddhi is what is meant by _avidyâ_ (non-knowledge) in Sâ@mkhya, and is the root of all experience and all misery [Footnote ref 2].

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[Footnote 1: _Tattvavais'âradî_ and _Yogavârttika_, I. 4.]

[Footnote 2: This indicates the nature of the analysis of illusion with Sâ@mkhya. It is the non-apprehension of the distinction of two things (e.g. the snake and the rope) that is the cause of illusion; it is therefore called the _akhyâti_ (non-apprehension) theory of illusion which must be distinguished from the _anyathâkhyâti_ (misapprehension) theory of illusion of Yoga which consists in positively misapprehending one (e.g. the rope) for the other (e.g. snake). _Yogavârttika,_ I. 8.]

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Yoga holds a slightly different view and supposes that the puru@sa not only fails to distinguish the difference between itself and the buddhi but positively takes the transformations of buddhi as its own. It is no non-perception of the difference but positively false knowledge, that we take the puru@sa to be that which it is not (_anyathâkhyâti_). It takes the changing, impure, sorrowful, and objective prak@rti or buddhi to be the changeless, pure, happiness-begetting subject. It wrongly thinks buddhi to be the self and regards it as pure, permanent and capable of giving us happiness. This is the avidyâ of Yoga. A buddhi associated with a puru@sa is dominated by such an avidyâ, and when birth after birth the same buddhi is associated with the same puru@sa, it cannot easily get rid of this avidyâ. If in the meantime pralaya takes place, the buddhi is submerged in the prak@rti, and the avidyâ also sleeps with it. When at the beginning of the next creation the individual buddhis associated with the puru@sas emerge, the old avidyâs also become manifest by virtue of it and the buddhis associate themselves with the puru@sas to which they were attached before the pralaya. Thus proceeds the course of sa@msâra. When the avidyâ of a person is rooted out by the rise of true knowledge, the buddhi fails to attach itself to the puru@sa and is forever dissociated from it, and this is the state of mukti.

The Cognitive Process and some characteristics of Citta.

It has been said that buddhi and the internal objects have evolved in order to giving scope to the experience of the puru@sa. What is the process of this experience? Sâ@mkhya (as explained by Vâcaspati) holds that through the senses the buddhi comes into touch with external objects. At the first moment of this touch there is an indeterminate consciousness in which the particulars of the thing cannot be noticed. This is called _nirvikalpa pratyak@sa_ (indeterminate perception). At the next moment by the function of the _sa@mkalpa_ (synthesis) and _vikalpa_ (abstraction or imagination) of manas (mind-organ) the thing is perceived in all its determinate character; the manas differentiates, integrates, and associates the sense-data received through the senses, and

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thus generates the determinate perception, which when intelligized by the puru@sa and associated with it becomes interpreted as the experience of the person. The action of the senses, ahamkâra, and buddhi, may take place sometimes successively and at other times as in cases of sudden fear simultaneously. Vijñâna Bhik@su differs from this view of Vâcaspati, and denies the synthetic activity of the mind-organ (manas), and says that the buddhi directly comes into touch with the objects through the senses. At the first moment of touch the perception is indeterminate, but at the second moment it becomes clear and determinate [Footnote ref 1]. It is evident that on this view the importance of manas is reduced to a minimum and it is regarded as being only the faculty of desire, doubt and imagination.

Buddhi, including ahamkâra and the senses, often called _citta_ in Yoga, is always incessantly suffering changes like the flame of a lamp, it is made up of a large preponderance of the pure sattva substances, and is constantly moulding itself from one content to another. These images by the dual reflection of buddhi and puru@sa are constantly becoming conscious, and are being interpreted as the experiences of a person. The existence of the puru@sa is to be postulated for explaining the illumination of consciousness and for explaining experience and moral endeavour. The buddhi is spread all over the body, as it were, for it is by its functions that the life of the body is kept up; for the Sâ@mkhya does not admit any separate prana vâyu (vital breath) to keep the body living. What are called _vâyus_ (bio-motor force) in Vedânta are but the different modes of operation of this category of buddhi, which acts all through the body and by its diverse movements performs the life-functions and sense-functions of the body.

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[Footnote 1: As the contact of the buddhi with the external objects takes place through the senses, the sense data of colours, etc., are modified by the senses if they are defective. The spatial qualities of things are however perceived by the senses directly, but the time-order is a scheme of the citta or the buddhi. Generally speaking Yoga holds that the external objects are faithfully copied by the buddhi in which they are reflected, like trees in a lake

"_tasmims'ca darpane sphâre samasta vastudrstayah imâstâh pratibimbanti sarasiva tatadrumâh_" _Yogavarttika_, I. 4.

The buddhi assumes the form of the object which is reflected on it by the senses, or rather the mind flows out through the senses to the external objects and assumes their forms: "_indriyânyeva pranâlikâ cittasancaranamargah taih samyujya tadgola kadvârâ bâhyavastusûparaktasya cittasyendryasahityenaivârthakarah parinâmo bhavati_" _Yogavârttika_, I. VI. 7. Contrast _Tattvakaumudî_, 27 and 30.]

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Apart from the perceptions and the life-functions, buddhi, or rather citta as Yoga describes it, contains within it the root impressions (_sa@mskâras_) and the tastes and instincts or tendencies of all past lives (_vâsanâ_) [Footnote ref 1]. These sa@mskâras are revived under suitable associations. Every man had had infinite numbers of births in their past lives as man and as some animal. In all these lives the same citta was always following him. The citta has thus collected within itself the instincts and tendencies of all those different animal lives. It is knotted with these vâsanâs like a net. If a man passes into a dog life by rebirth, the vâsanâs of a dog life, which the man must have had in some of his previous infinite number of births, are revived, and the man's tendencies become like those of a dog. He forgets the experiences of his previous life and becomes attached to enjoyment in the manner of a dog. It is by the revival of the vâsanâ suitable to each particular birth that there cannot be any collision such as might have occurred if the instincts and tendencies of a previous dog-life were active when any one was born as man.

The sa@mskâras represent the root impressions by which any habit of life that man has lived through, or any pleasure in which he took delight for some time, or any passions which were

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[Footnote 1: The word sa@mskâra is used by Pâ@nini who probably preceded Buddha in three different senses (1) improving a thing as distinguished from generating a new quality (_Sata utkar@sâdhâna@m sa@mskâra@h_, Kâs'ila on Pâ@nini, VI. ii. 16), (2) conglomeration or aggregation, and (3) adornment (Pâ@nini, VI. i. 137, 138). In the Pi@takas the word sa@nkhâra is used in various senses such as constructing, preparing, perfecting, embellishing, aggregation, matter, karma, the skandhas (collected by Childers). In fact sa@nkhâra stands for almost anything of which impermanence could be predicated. But in spite of so many diversities of meaning I venture to suggest that the meaning of aggregation (_samavâya_ of Pâ@nini) is prominent. The word _sa@mskaroti_ is used in Kau@sîtaki, II. 6, Chândogya IV. xvi. 2, 3, 4, viii. 8, 5, and B@rhadâra@nyaka, VI. iii. 1, in the sense of improving. I have not yet come across any literary use of the second meaning in Sanskrit. The meaning of sa@mskâra in Hindu philosophy is altogether different. It means the impressions (which exist subconsciously in the mind) of the objects experienced. All our experiences whether cognitive, emotional or conative exist in subconscious states and may under suitable conditions be reproduced as memory (sm@rti). The word vâsanâ (_Yoga sûtra_, IV. 24) seems to be a later word. The earlier Upanis@sads do not mention it and so far as I know it is not mentioned in the Pâli pi@takas. _Abhidhânappadîpikâ_ of Moggallâna mentions it, and it occurs in the Muktika Upani@sad. It comes from the root "_vas_" to stay. It is often loosely used in the sense of sa@mskâra, and in _Vyâsabhâ@sya_ they are identified in IV. 9. But vâsanâ generally refers to the tendencies of past lives most of which lie dormant in the mind. Only those appear which can find scope in this life. But sa@mskâras are the sub-conscious states which are being constantly generated by experience. Vâsanâs are innate sa@mskâras not acquired in this life. See _Vyâsabhâ@sya, Tattvâvais'âradî_ and _Yogavârttika_, II. 13.]

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engrossing to him, tend to be revived, for though these might not now be experienced, yet the fact that they were experienced before has so moulded and given shape to the citta that the citta will try to reproduce them by its own nature even without any such effort on our part. To safeguard against the revival of any undesirable idea or tendency it is therefore necessary that its roots as already left in the citta in the form of sa@mskâras should be eradicated completely by the formation of the habit of a contrary tendency, which if made sufficiently strong will by its own sa@mskâra naturally stop the revival of the previous undesirable sa@mskâras.

Apart from these the citta possesses volitional activity (ce@s@tâ) by which the conative senses are brought into relation to their objects. There is also the reserved potent power (s'akti) of citta, by which it can restrain itself and change its courses or continue to persist in any one direction. These characteristics are involved in the very essence of citta, and form the groundwork of the Yoga method of practice, which consists in steadying a particular state of mind to the exclusion of others.

Merit or demerit (_pu@nya, pâpa_) also is imbedded in the citta as its tendencies, regulating the mode of its movements, and giving pleasures and pains in accordance with it.

Sorrow and its Dissolution [Footnote ref 1].

Sâ@mkhya and the Yoga, like the Buddhists, hold that all experience is sorrowful. Tamas, we know, represents the pain substance. As tamas must be present in some degree in all combinations, all intellectual operations are fraught with some degree of painful feeling. Moreover even in states of temporary pleasure, we had sorrow at the previous moment when we had solicited it, and we have sorrow even when we enjoy it, for we have the fear that we may lose it. The sum total of sorrows is thus much greater than the pleasures, and the pleasures only strengthen the keenness of the sorrow. The wiser the man the greater is his capacity of realizing that the world and our experiences are all full of sorrow. For unless a man is convinced of this great truth that all is sorrow, and that temporary pleasures, whether generated by ordinary worldly experience or by enjoying heavenly experiences through the performance of Vedic sacrifices, are quite unable to

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[Footnote 1: Tattavais'âradî and Yogavârttika, II. 15, and Tattvakaumudî, I.]

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eradicate the roots of sorrow, he will not be anxious for mukti or the final uprooting of pains. A man must feel that all pleasures lead to sorrow, and that the ordinary ways of removing sorrows by seeking enjoyment cannot remove them ultimately; he must turn his back on the pleasures of the world and on the pleasures of paradise. The performances of sacrifices according to the Vedic rites may indeed give happiness, but as these involve the sacrifice of animals they must involve some sins and hence also some pains. Thus the performance of these cannot be regarded as desirable. It is when a man ceases from seeking pleasures that he thinks how best he can eradicate the roots of sorrow. Philosophy shows how extensive is sorrow, why sorrow comes, what is the way to uproot it, and what is the state when it is uprooted. The man who has resolved to uproot sorrow turns to philosophy to find out the means of doing it.

The way of eradicating the root of sorrow is thus the practical enquiry of the Sâ@mkhya philosophy [Footnote ref 1]. All experiences are sorrow. Therefore some means must be discovered by which all experiences may be shut out for ever. Death cannot bring it, for after death we shall have rebirth. So long as citta (mind) and puru@sa are associated with each other, the sufferings will continue. Citta must be dissociated from puru@sa. Citta or buddhi, Sâ@mkhya says, is associated with puru@sa because of the non-distinction of itself from buddhi [Footnote ref 2]. It is necessary therefore that in buddhi we should be able to generate the true conception of the nature of puru@sa; when this true conception of puru@sa arises in the buddhi it feels itself to be different, and distinct, from and quite unrelated to puru@sa, and thus ignorance is destroyed. As a result of that, buddhi turns its back on puru@sa and can no longer bind it to its experiences, which are all irrevocably connected with sorrow, and thus the puru@sa remains in its true form. This according to Sâ@mkhya philosophy is alone adequate to being about the liberation of the puru@sa. Prak@rti which was leading us through cycles of experiences from birth to birth, fulfils its final purpose when this true knowledge arises differentiating

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[Footnote 1: Yoga puts it in a slightly modified form. Its object is the cessation of the rebirth-process which is so much associated with sorrow {_du@hkhabahla@h sa@msârah heya@h_).]

[Footnote 2: The word _citta_ is a Yoga term. It is so called because it is the repository of all sub-conscious states. Sâmkhyn generally uses, the word buddhi. Both the words mean the same substance, the mind, but they emphasize its two different functions. Buddhi means intellection.]

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puru@sa from prak@rti. This final purpose being attained the prak@rti can never again bind the purusa with reference to whom this right knowledge was generated; for other puru@sas however the bondage remains as before, and they continue their experiences from one birth to another in an endless cycle.

Yoga, however, thinks that mere philosophy is not sufficient. In order to bring about liberation it is not enough that a true knowledge differentiating puru@sa and buddhi should arise, but it is necessary that all the old habits of experience of buddhi, all its samskaras should be once for all destroyed never to be revived again. At this stage the buddhi is transformed into its purest state, reflecting steadily the true nature of the puru@sa. This is the _kevala_ (oneness) state of existence after which (all sa@mskâras, all avidyâ being altogether uprooted) the citta is impotent any longer to hold on to the puru@sa, and like a stone hurled from a mountain top, gravitates back into the prak@rti [Footnote ref 1]. To destroy the old sa@mskâras, knowledge alone not being sufficient, a graduated course of practice is necessary. This graduated practice should be so arranged that by generating the practice of living higher and better modes of life, and steadying the mind on its subtler states, the habits of ordinary life may be removed. As the yogin advances he has to give up what he had adopted as good and try for that which is still better. Continuing thus he reaches the state when the buddhi is in its ultimate perfection and purity. At this stage the buddhi assumes the form of the puru@sa, and final liberation takes place.

Karmas in Yoga are divided into four classes: (1) _s'ukla_ or white (_pu@nya_, those that produce happiness), (2) _k@r@s@na_ or black (_pâpa_, those that produce sorrow), (3) _s'ukla-k@r@s@na_ (_pu@nya-pâpa_, most of our ordinary actions are partly virtuous and partly vicious as they involve, if not anything else, at least the death of many insects), (4) _as'uklâk@r@s@na_ (those inner acts of self-abnegation, and meditation which are devoid of any fruits as pleasures or pains). All external actions involve some sins, for it is difficult to work in the world and avoid taking the lives of insects [Footnote ref 2]. All karmas

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[Footnote 1: Both Sâ@mkhya and Yoga speak of this emancipated state a _Kaivalya_ (alone-ness), the former because all sorrows have been absolutely uprooted, never to grow up again and the latter because at this state puru@sa remains for ever alone without any association with buddhi, see _Sâ@mkhya kârikâ_, 68 and _Yoga sûtras_, IV. 34.]

[Footnote 2: _Vyâsabhâ@sya_ and _Tattvavais'âradî_, IV. 7.]

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proceed from the five-fold afflictions (_kles'as_), namely _avidyâ, asmitâ, râga, dve@sa_ and _abhinives'a_.

We have already noticed what was meant by avidyâ. It consists generally in ascribing intelligence to buddhi, in thinking it as permanent and leading to happiness. This false knowledge while remaining in this form further manifests itself in the other four forms of asmitâ, etc. Asmitâ means the thinking of worldly objects and our experiences as really belonging to us--the sense of "mine" or "I" to things that really are the qualities or transformations of the gu@nas. Râga means the consequent attachment to pleasures and things. Dve@sa means aversion or antipathy to unpleasant things. Abhinives'a is the desire for life or love of life--the will to be. We proceed to work because we think our experiences to be our own, our body to be our own, our family to be our own, our possessions to be our own; because we are attached to these; because we feel great antipathy against any mischief that might befall them, and also because we love our life and always try to preserve it against any mischief. These all proceed, as is easy to see, from their root avidyâ, which consists in the false identification of buddhi with puru@sa. These five, avidyâ, asmitâ, râga, dve@sa and abhinives'a, permeate our buddhi, and lead us to perform karma and to suffer. These together with the performed karmas which lie inherent in the buddhi as a particular mode of it transmigrate with the buddhi from birth to birth, and it is hard to get rid of them [Footnote ref 1]. The karma in the aspect in which it lies in the buddhi as a mode or modification of it is called _karmâs'aya_. (the bed of karma for the puru@sa to lie in). We perform a karma actuated by the vicious tendencies (_kles'a_) of the buddhi. The karma when thus performed leaves its stain or modification on the buddhi, and it is so ordained according to the teleology of the prak@rti and the removal of obstacles in the course of its evolution in accordance with it by the permanent will of Îs'vara that each vicious action brings sufferance and a virtuous one pleasure.