A History of Indian Philosophy, Volume 1Dasgupta, Surendranath
Religion
A History of Indian Philosophy, Volume 1
Dasgupta, Surendranath
Hindu philosophy; India -- Religion
[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.]
261
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
262
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