The Dabistán, or School of manners, Volume 2 (of 3): translated from the original Persian, with notes and illustrations
Religion
The Dabistán, or School of manners, Volume 2 (of 3): translated from the original Persian, with notes and illustrations
Iran -- Religion; Religions
THE SECOND of the sixteen divisions of the Tark sastra is
_Pramiti_,[335] that is, the comprehension of what is conjoint and
concomitant. This division is subdivided into twelve parts, namely, 1.
_Atmá_,[336] that is “spirit;” and means something which is distinct
from what is material and sentient; something everlasting, eternal,
very subtile in all bodies; 2. _Sarírá_,[337] that is “body;” and this
they define to be the seat of sensuality and of maladies; 3.
_Indriya_,[338] “the exterior senses;” and these they call the organs
of perception; 4. _Artha_,[339] and this they declare to be “the
earthly existences;” 5. _Buddhi_,[340] which they term “knowledge;” 6.
_Manas_,[341] “or the interior sense, which with the Hindus is the
heart,” and that is enough; 7. _Pravritti_,[342] and this consists in
justice or injustice; 8. _Dósha_,[343] that is “sinful error,” and
this is subdivided into three parts, viz.: _Rága_, and this is
“sensual lust;” _Dvèsha_, that is, “hate, enmity;” _Muha_,[344] and
this is “gross ignorance;” 9. the ninth of the twelve subdivisions is
_Prétyabháva_,[345] which is “the reproduction either of the tree from
the seed, or of the animal from the sperma;” 10. _Phal_,[346] or “the
good consequence of the good, or the bad consequence of the bad,”
which means “retribution;” 11. _Dukh_,[347] or “pain;” and 12.
_Apavarga_,[348] that is, “delight,” or the satisfaction of truth,
from which they derive emancipation, or _mukt_, in the language of
their learned men. Whoever is in full possession of it banishes far
from himself twenty-one maladies which they enumerate, namely: 1.
_Saríra_,[349] or “the body;” 2. _Shadindriya_,[350] that is, “the six
senses,” five of which are exterior, and the sixth is, according to
the Hindus, the interior sense, except which they know of no other;
they say, the _mind_ is the lord of the exterior senses; 3.
_Shad-darsa_,[351] that is, “the six particular objects of the six
senses;” so as seeing with the eye, hearing with the ear, smelling
with the nose, tasting with the tongue, touching with the hand, and
perceiving with the mind; he who sees is one, and that which is seen
is another; so that there is a seeing eye and a seen object, whatever
is seen, heard, smelled, tasted, touched, and impressed upon the mind,
corresponds respectively to each of the six senses; and whatever is
found by these six senses, or the six objects, are called
_Shad-darsas_; these six, with the six former senses, and the saríra,
or “body,” make thirteen; add to these six buddhaya, or “powers of
comprehension;” further, _sukhá_,[352] or “sensual delight;” and
finally, _dukh_, or “pain,” and you have the twenty-one affections
before mentioned.
THE THIRD of the sixteen parts of the Tarka is the _sanśaya_:[353]
this consists in pondering whether a certain object be such a thing or
another, as when a person sees from a distance an object and is not
certain what it is, whether it be a mineral or a man.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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