Philosophies of India

SR No.: 007309
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Heinrich Zimmer, Joseph Campbell
Publisher: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd
Publication Year: 1953
Total Pages: 709
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 34 MB

Page 343

SANKHYA AND YOGA
cism and concentration is required before one can learn to separate reasoning (for example, in science) from the movements of the heart.
Buddhi is compounded of the three guņas, but by means of Yoga sattva guņa is made to prevail. Yogic training purges buddhi of its original inheritance of tamas and rajas. With the removal of the first, darkness is removed, and the subtle matter of buddhi becomes translucent, like the waters of a mountain lake. With the removal of the second, agitation is removed, and the rippling of the restless surface then is stilled, so that the waters, already cleared, become a steady mirror. Buddhi then reveals the purușa in its serene unconcern, aloof from the busy, rippling sphere of prakṛti.
Buddhi both contains and is the spontancity of our nature; the other faculties (ahaṁkāra, manas, and the ten indriyas) are "like bees, which follow the advice of their kings." "47 Yet to all appearances the influence runs in the opposite direction: the outer senses come in contact with their environment; their experiences are digested by manas; the product of manas is brought through ahańkāra into relation to one's individuality; and then buddhi decides what is to be done. The primacy of buddhi thus is heavily obscured. Only with the removal of rajas and tamas does the veil become transparent; for the powers that then pour into the human organism are the "supranormal" ones of the King's Son, and buddhi is revealed in its innate strength. Before such an effect can be attained, however, the apparent connection of the life-monad with suffering must be broken. The illusion of a connection is caused, as we have seen, by an absence of discrimination, a failure to recognize the distinction between puruşa and prakṛti-particularly between purușa and that most subtle of the products of prakṛti, the inner organ and the ten faculties of sense. Since this lack of "discriminative knowledge"
46 Cf. supra, pp. 301-305.
47 There is no queen bee according to the nature lore of the Hindus. 322