The Sarva-Darsana-Samgraha Part 18

The following is the full meaning of this pa.s.sage:--The word "_internal organ_," which properly includes "mind," "intelligence,"

"egoism," and "reason,"[139] includes also the seven tattvas which enter into the production of enjoyment [or experience], viz., those called _kala_, time, fate, knowledge, concupiscence, nature, and quality;[140] the words "_thought_" (_dhi_) and _karman_ signify the five cognisable gross elements, and their originators, the subtile rudiments. By the word "_instruments_" are comprehended the ten organs of sense and action.

"But is it not declared in the Srimat Kalottara that 'The set of five, sound, touch, form, taste and smell, intelligence, mind and egoism, these const.i.tute the _puryash?aka_?'"

How, then, can any different account be maintained? We grant this, and hence the venerable Rama Ka??ha has explained that sutra in its literal meaning [_i. e_., as _puryash?aka_, is derived from _ash?a_, "eight"], so why should we be prolix in the discussion? Still, if you ask how we can reconcile our account with the strict nominal definition of _puryash?aka_, we reply that there is really no contradiction, as we maintain that it is composed of a set of eight in the following manner:--(1.) The five elements; (2.) the five rudiments; (3.) the five organs of knowledge; (4.) those of action; (5.) the fourfold internal organ; (6.) their instrument;[141] (7.) nature [prak?iti]; and (8.) the cla.s.s composed of the five, beginning with _kala_, which form a kind of case.[142]

Now in the case of some of those souls who are joined to the _puryash?aka_ body, Mahesvara Ananta having compa.s.sionated them as possessed of peculiar merit, const.i.tutes them here as lords of the world; as has been said--

"Mahesvara pities some and grants them to be lords of the world."

The cla.s.s called _sakala_ is also divided into two, as _pakvakalusha_ and _apakvakalusha_. As for the former, the Supreme Being, in conformity with their maturity (_paripaka_), puts forth a power agreeable thereto, and transfers them to the position of the hundred and eighteen Lords of the Mantras, signified by the words Ma??ali, &c., as has been said--

"The rest are denominated _sakala_, from their connection with _Kala_, &c., seized by time whose mouths are days;

"The Supreme of his own will makes one hundred and eighteen of these the Lords of the Mantras.

"Eight of these are called _Ma??alins_; eight again are Krodha, &c.;

"Viresa, Srika??ha, and the hundred Rudras,--these together are the hundred and eighteen."

In their case again, the Supreme, having a.s.sumed the form of a teacher, stops the continued accession of maturity and contracts his manifested power, and ultimately grants to them liberation by the process of initiation; as has been said--

"These creatures whose _mala_ is matured, by putting forth a healing power,

"He, a.s.suming the form of a teacher, unites by initiation to the highest principle."

It is also said in the Srimad M?igendra--

"He removes from that infinitesimal soul all the bonds which previously exerted a contrary influence over it."[143]

All this has been explained at great length by Naraya?a-Ka??ha, and there it is to be studied; but we are obliged to pa.s.s on through fear of prolixity.

But as for the second cla.s.s, or those called _apakvakalusha_, the Supreme Being, as impelled by the desert of their respective actions, appoints them, as bound and endued with infinitesimal bodies, to enjoy the rewards of their previous actions.[144] As has been said--

"The other souls, bound [in their material bonds] he appoints to enjoy their various deserts,

"According to their respective actions: such are the various kinds of souls."

We now proceed to describe the third category, matter (or _pasa_).

This is fourfold, _mala_,[1] _karman_, _maya_, and _rodha-sakti_.[145]

But it may be objected, "Is it not said in the Saiva agamas that the chief things are the Lord, souls, and matter? Now the Lord has been shown to mean Siva, 'souls' mean atoms (or beings endowed with atomic bodies), and matter (or 'bond') is said to be the pentad,[146] hence matter will be fivefold. How then is it now reckoned to be only fourfold?" To this we reply as follows:--Although the _vindu_ or nasal dot, which is the germinal atom of _maya_, and is called a Siva-tattva, may be well regarded as material in comparison with the highest liberation as defined by the attainment of the state of Siva, still it cannot really be considered as matter when we remember that it is a secondary kind of liberation as causing the attainment of the state of such deities as Vidyesvara, &c. Thus we see there is no contradiction. Hence it has been said in the Tattva-prakasa--

"The bonds of matter will be fourfold."

And again in the Srimad M?igendra--

"The enveloper-controller (_mala_), the overpowerer (_rodha_), action, and the work of Maya,

"These are the four 'bonds,' and they are collectively called by the name of 'merit.'"

The following is the meaning of this couplet:--

(1.) "Enveloping," because _mala_ exceedingly obscures and veils the soul's powers of vision and action; "controlling," because _mala_, a natural impurity, controls the soul by its independent influence. As has been said--

"_Mala_, though itself one, by manifold influence interrupts the soul's vision and action;

"It is to be regarded as the husk in rice or rust on copper."[147]

(2.) The "overpowerer" is the obscuring power; this is called a "bond"

[or matter] in a metaphorical sense, since this energy of Siva obscures the soul by superintending matter [rather than by itself partaking of the nature of matter].

Thus it has been said--

"Of these I am the chief energy, and the gracious friend of all,

"I am metaphorically called _pasa_,[148] because I follow desert."

(3.) Action [or rather its consequences, _karman_] as being performed by those who desire the fruit. It is in the form of merit or demerit, like the seed and shoot, and it is eternal in a never-beginning series. As has been said in the Srimat Kira?a--

"As _Mala_ has no beginning, its least actions are beginningless:

"If an eternal character is thus established, then what cause could produce any change therein?"

(4.) "_Maya_," because herein as an energy of the Divine Being all the world is potentially contained (_mati_) at a mundane destruction, and again at a creation it all comes (_yati_) into manifestation, hence the derivation of the name. This has been said in the Srimat Saurabheya--

"The effects, as a form of the Divine energy, are absorbed therein at a mundane destruction,

"And again at a renovation it is manifested anew in the form of effects as _kala_, &c."[149]

Although much more might be added on this topic, yet we stop here through fear of extending this treatise too far. Thus have the three categories been declared,--the Lord, the soul, and matter.

A different mode of treating the subject is found in the Jnanaratnavali, &c., in such lines as--

"The Lord, knowledge, ignorance, the soul, matter, and the cause

"Of the cessation thereof,--these are collectively the six categories."

But our readers must seek for full information from the work itself.

Thus our account of the system is complete.

E. B. C.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 112: Colebrooke speaks of the _Pasupati-sastra_ (_Mahesvara-siddhanta or Sivagama_), as the text-book of the Pasupata sect. The agamas are said to be twenty-eight (see their names in the Rev. T. Foulkes' "Catechism of the Saiva Religion").]

[Footnote 113: "There must be three eternal ent.i.ties, Deity, soul, matter;" "as the water is co-eternal with the sea and the salt with the water, so soul is co-eternal with the Deity, and _pasa_ is eternally co-existent with soul" (J. A. O. S. iv. pp. 67, 85). In p.

58 we find the _advaita_ of the Vedanta attacked. In p. 62 it is said that the soul is eternally entangled in matter, and G.o.d carries on his five operations (see _infra_) to disentangle it, bringing out all that is required for previous desert.]