__________________________________________________________________
[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
Apart from the perceptions and the life-functions, buddhi, or rather citta as Yoga describes it, contains within it the root impressions (sa@mskâras) and the tastes and instincts or tendencies of all past lives (vâsanâ) [Footnote ref 1]. These sa@mskâras are revived under suitable associations. Every man had had infinite numbers of births in their past lives as man and as some animal. In all these lives the same citta was always following him. The citta has thus collected within itself the instincts and tendencies of all those different animal lives. It is knotted with these vâsanâs like a net. If a man passes into a dog life by rebirth, the vâsanâs of a dog life, which the man must have had in some of his previous infinite number of births, are revived, and the man's tendencies become like those of a dog. He forgets the experiences of his previous life and becomes attached to enjoyment in the manner of a dog. It is by the revival of the vâsanâ suitable to each particular birth that there cannot be any collision such as might have occurred if the instincts and tendencies of a previous dog-life were active when any one was born as man.
The sa@mskâras represent the root impressions by which any habit of life that man has lived through, or any pleasure in which he took delight for some time, or any passions which were
___________________________________________________________________
[Footnote 1: The word sa@mskâra is used by Pâ@nini who probably preceded Buddha in three different senses (1) improving a thing as distinguished from generating a new quality (Sata utkar@sâdhâna@m sa@mskâra@h, Kâs'ila on Pâ@nini, VI. ii. 16), (2) conglomeration or aggregation, and (3) adornment (Pâ@nini, VI. i. 137, 138). In the Pi@takas the word sa@nkhâra is used in various senses such as constructing, preparing, perfecting, embellishing, aggregation, matter, karma, the skandhas (collected by Childers). In fact sa@nkhâra stands for almost anything of which impermanence could be predicated. But in spite of so many diversities of meaning I venture to suggest that the meaning of aggregation (samavâya of Pâ@nini) is prominent. The word sa@mskaroti is used in Kau@sîtaki, II. 6, Chândogya IV. xvi. 2, 3, 4, viii. 8, 5, and B@rhadâra@nyaka, VI. iii. 1, in the sense of improving. I have not yet come across any literary use of the second meaning in Sanskrit. The meaning of sa@mskâra in Hindu philosophy is altogether different. It means the impressions (which exist subconsciously in the mind) of the objects experienced. All our experiences whether cognitive, emotional or conative exist in subconscious states and may under suitable conditions be reproduced as memory (sm@rti). The word vâsanâ (Yoga sûtra, IV. 24) seems to be a later word. The earlier Upanis@sads do not mention it and so far as I know it is not mentioned in the Pâli pi@takas. Abhidhânappadîpikâ of Moggallâna mentions it, and it occurs in the Muktika Upani@sad. It comes from the root "vas" to stay. It is often loosely used in the sense of sa@mskâra, and in Vyâsabhâ@sya they are identified in IV. 9. But vâsanâ generally refers to the tendencies of past lives most of which lie dormant in the mind. Only those appear which can find scope in this life. But sa@mskâras are the sub-conscious states which are being constantly generated by experience. Vâsanâs are innate sa@mskâras not acquired in this life. See Vyâsabhâ@sya, Tattvâvais'âradî and Yogavârttika, II. 13.]
264