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EASTERN PHILOSOPHY |
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by Isvarakrsna
The [present] inquiry is into the [problem] of how to obviate the three kinds of pain [arising within the individual, outside him, or from more remote causes, all presenting a person with the not too cheerful prospect of being reborn again and again]. Now, even though there are obvious means for getting rid of these difficulties, this enquiry is not superfluous, for conclusiveness and permanency is not theirs. What rests on [sacred Vedic] tradition is like what is [ordinarily] experienced, for it is not pure, being at once deficient or too ornate. Something different from either is more worthwhile, consisting in an analytical knowledge of the phenomenal (vyakta), the noumenal (avyakta), and the knower. The root creative principle (prakrti) is not a modification [or development]. Seven, intelligence (mahat) and the rest [self-consciousness (ahamkara) and five principles (tanmatras)] are creative principles and modifications. Sixteen [or five powers of perception, five of action, mind and five elements] are modifications [merely]. The self (purusa) is neither a creative principle nor a modification. Perception, inference and authority, in that they comprise all sources of knowledge, are respected as the threefold source of knowledge. By virtue of a source of knowledge, the object of knowledge is obtained. Perception is ascertaining particular sense-objects. Inference is of three sorts, [antecedent, subsequent and by analogy, and] premises a predicate and [deduces] what it is predicated of. Authority is trustworthy tradition. By inference, that is, reasoning by analogy, are things lying beyond the grasp of the senses ascertained; but what cannot be ascertained thus must be received by revelation. Things may be imperceptible due to various reasons, such as distance, proximity, deficiency in the sense organ, inattention, minuteness, blocking out, ascendency and intermixture with identical things. [The creative principle] is not apprehended in perception, not because it does not exist, but because of its subtlety; it is [properly] apprehended in its effects. Intelligence and the rest [of the principles named above] are effects which are [in one respect] identical with, [and in another] different from the creative principle. The effect is existent [as a specific effect], for, [1.] a cause does not produce what is not; [2.] [one] appropriate cause may be assigned [to anything]; [3.] it is impossible that anything particular could connect up with anything and everything else; [4.] a cause operates only within its own competency; and [5.] there is a specificity of cause. The phenomenal is causally conditioned, not eternal, specifically disperse, mutable, pluralistic, grounded in something, conjugal, tending to enter relationships, dependent on something else. The noumenal has just the opposite characteristics. The phenomenal as well as matter (pradhana) have three moods (gunas), are undifferentiated, are an object of sense, public, unintelligible, full of urges. Soul (pums) has, like [the noumenal mentioned in the previous sutra], characteristics to these. The moods consist of pleasure, pain and indifference, have as purpose manifestation, activity and restraint, and dominate, depend on and produce one another mutually, join up with one another and are interchangeable.... In order to attain the intelligent comprehension of the self and the unity of matter, the two cooperate like the halt and the blind. This accomplished, there is creation. From the creative principle comes forth intelligence, from thence self-consciousness, and from that the group of sixteen [mentioned above]. From five among the sixteen proceed five elements.... The evolution of the creative principle from intelligence to the different elements is for the liberation of the individual selves, done for self as much as for the other. Just as it is the function of milk, an unconscious [substance], to nourish the calf, so it is the function of matter to accomplish the liberation of the self. Just as people engage in acts for the purpose of allaying anxiety, so the noumenal acts in order to liberate the self. Just as a dancer, having exhibited herself to the spectator, desists from the dance, so the creative principle desists, having manifested itself to the self. Without deriving benefits, the versatile servant serves unselfishly in multifarious ways the purposes of the selfish master (pums) who has no qualities whatever. Nothing, in my opinion, is more delicate than the creative principle. Having once become aware of having been beheld, she does not again expose herself to the view of the self. Indeed, nothing is bound, nor freed, nor is migrating. The creative principle alone is bound, freed and migrates in the various vehicles....
Excerpted from Samkya Karika. |
A Source Book in Indian Philosophy
A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English
Indian Philosophy: An Introduction to Hindu and Buddhist Thought
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