A History of Indian Philosophy, Volume 1Dasgupta, Surendranath
Religion
A History of Indian Philosophy, Volume 1
Dasgupta, Surendranath
Hindu philosophy; India -- Religion
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.
__________________________________________________________________
[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.]
263
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