[Footnote 6: I have followed the translation of Aung in rendering nâmarûpa as mind and body, _Compendium_, p. 271. This seems to me to be fairly correct. The four skandhas are called nâma in each birth. These together with rûpa (matter) give us nâmarûpa (mind and body) which being developed render the activities through the six sense-gates possible so that there may be knowledge. Cf. _M. V._ 564. Govindânanda, the commentator on S'a@nkara's bhâsya on the _Brahma sûtras_ (II. ii. 19), gives a different interpretation of Namarûpa which may probably refer to the Vijñanavada view though we have no means at hand to verify it. He says--To think the momentary as the permanent is Avidya; from there come the samskaras of attachment, antipathy or anger, and infatuation; from there the first vijñana or thought of the foetus is produced, from that alayavijnana, and the four elements (which are objects of name and are hence called nama) are produced, and from those are produced the white and black, semen and blood called rûpa. Both Vacaspati and Amalananda agree with Govindananda in holding that nama signifies the semen and the ovum while rûpa means the visible physical body built out of them. Vijñaña entered the womb and on account of it namarupa were produced through the association of previous karma. See _Vedantakalpataru_, pp 274, 275. On the doctrine of the entrance of vijñaña into the womb compare _D N_ II. 63.] 86 be viññâna. Here it occurred to him that in order that there might be viññâna there must be the conformations (_sa@nkhâra_) [Footnote ref 1]. But what being there are there the sa@nkhâras? Here it occurred to him that the sa@nkhâras can only be if there is ignorance (_avijjâ_). If avijjâ could be stopped then the sa@nkhâras will be stopped, and if the sa@nkhâras could be stopped viññâna could be stopped and so on [Footnote ref 2]. It is indeed difficult to be definite as to what the Buddha actually wished to mean by this cycle of dependence of existence sometimes called Bhavacakra (wheel of existence). Decay and death (_jarâmarana_) could not have happened if there was no birth [Footnote ref 3]. This seems to be clear. But at this point the difficulty begins. We must remember that the theory of rebirth was _____________________________________________________________________