So far it is clear that this macrocosm and microcosm are built on exactly the same plan, and in this microcosm we know only one very small part. We know neither the sub-conscious, nor the super-conscious. We know only the conscious. If a man says “I am a sinner,” he is foolish, because he does not know himself. He is the most ignorant of men about himself; one part only he knows, because the fact of knowledge covers only one part of the “mind-ground” he is in. So with this universe; it is possible to know only one part through reasoning, but Nature comprises the whole of it, the sub-conscious, the conscious and the super-conscious, the individual mahat and the universal Mahat with all their subsequent modifications, and these lie beyond reason.
What makes nature change? We see that Up to this point everything, all Prakriti, is jadâ (insentient). It is working under law; it is all compound and insentient. Mind, intelligence, and will, all are insentient. But they are all reflecting the sentiency, the Chit (Intelligence) of some Being who is beyond all this, and whom the Sânkhya philosophers call Purusha. This Purusha is the unwitting cause of all these changes in Nature—in the universe. That is to say, this Purusha, taking Him in the universal sense, is the God of the universe. It is claimed that the will of the Lord created the universe. This is very good as a common daily expression, but that is all. How could it be will? Will is the third or fourth manifestation in Nature. Many things exist before it, and what created them? Will is a compound, and everything that is a compound is a production out of Nature. Will itself cannot create Nature. It is not a simple. So to say that the will of the Lord created the universe is illogical. Our will only covers a little portion of self-consciousness, and moves our brain, they say. If it did you could stop the action of the brain, but you cannot. It is not the will. Who moves the heart? It is not the will, because if it were you could stop it or not at your will. It is neither will that is working your body, nor that is working the universe. But it is something of which will itself is one of the manifestations. This body is being moved by the power of which will is only a manifestation in one part. So in the universe there is will, but that is only one part of the universe. The whole of the universe is not guided by will, that is why we do not find the explanation in will. Suppose I take it for granted that the will is moving the body, and then I begin to fret and fume. It is my fault, because I had no right to take it for granted that it was will. In the same way, if I take the universe and think it is will that moves it and then find things that do not coincide, it is my fault. This Purusha is not will, neither can it be intelligence, because intelligence itself is a compound. There cannot be any intelligence without some sort of matter. In man, this matter takes the form which we call brain. Wherever there is intelligence there must be matter in some form or other. But that intelligence itself is a compound. What then is this Purusha? It is neither intelligence nor buddhi (will), but yet it is the cause of both these; it is His presence that sets them all vibrating and combining. Purusha may be likened to some of these substances which by their mere presence promote chemical reaction, as in the case of cyanide of potassium which is added when gold is being smelted. The cyanide of potassium remains separate and unaffected, but its presence is absolutely necessary to the success of the process. So with the Purusha. It does not mix with Nature: it is not Intelligence, or Mahat, or any one of these, but the Self, the Pure, the Perfect. “I am the Witness, and through My witnessing, Nature is producing all that is sentient and all that is insentient.” (Gita IX. 10.)
What is this sentiency in Nature? The basis of sentiency is in the Purusha, is the nature of the Purusha. It is that which cannot be spoken, but which is the material of all that we call knowledge. This Purusha is not consciousness, because consciousness is a compound, but whatever is light and goodness in this consciousness belongs to It. Sentiency is in the Purusha, but the Purusha is not intelligent, not knowing, it is knowledge itself. The Chit in the Purusha, plus Prakriti, is what is known to us as intelligence and consciousness. Whatever is pleasure and happiness and light in the universe belongs to the Purusha, but it is a compound because it is that Purusha plus Nature. “Wherever there is any happiness, wherever there is any bliss, there is one spark of that immortality, which is Purusha.” This Purusha is the great attraction of the universe, untouched by, and unconnected with the universe, yet it attracts the whole universe. You see a man going after gold, because therein is a spark of the Purusha, even though he knows it not. When a man desires children, or a woman a husband, what is the attracting power? That spark of Purusha behind the child or wife, behind everything. It is there, only overlaid with matter. Nothing else can attract. “In this world of insentiency that Purusha alone is sentient.” This is the Purusha of the Sânkhyas. As such it necessarily follows that this Purusha must be omnipresent. That which is not omnipresent must be limited. All limitations are caused; that which is caused must have beginning and end. If the Purusha is limited it will die, will not be final, will not be free, but will have been caused. Therefore if not limited, it is omnipresent. According to Kapila there are many Purushas, not one. An infinite number of them, you are one, I am one, each is one; an infinite number of circles, each one infinite, running through this universe. The Purusha is neither born nor dies. It is neither mind nor matter, and the reflex from it is all that we know. We are sure if it be omnipresent it knows neither death nor birth. Nature is casting her shadow upon it, the shadow of birth and death, but it is by its own nature eternal. So far we have found the theory of Kapila wonderful.
Next we will have to take up the proofs against it. So far the analysis is perfect, the psychology cannot be controverted. There is no objection to it. We will ask of Kapila the question: Who created Nature? and his answer will be that Nature (Prakriti) is uncreate. He also says that the Purusha is omnipresent and that of these Purushas there is an infinite number. We shall have to controvert this last proposition, and find a better solution, and by so doing we shall come to the ground taken by Vedânta. Our first doubt will be how there can be these two infinites. Then our argument will be that it is not a perfect generalization, and that therefore we have not found a perfect solution. And then we shall see how the Vedantists find their way out of all these difficulties and reach a perfect solution. Yet all the glory really belongs to Kapila. It is very easy to give a finish to a building that is nearly complete.
III
SÂNKHYA AND ADVAITA
I will give you first a resumé of the Sânkhya philosophy, through which we have been going, because in this lecture we want to find where its defects are, and where Vedânta comes in as supplementary to these defects. You must remember that according to the Sânkhya philosophy, Nature is causing all these manifestations which we call thought and intellect, reason, love, hatred, touch, taste; that everything is from Nature. This Nature consists of three sorts of elements, one called Sattva, another Rajas, and the third Tamas. These are not qualities, but the materials out of which the whole universe is being evolved, and at the beginning of a cycle they remain in equilibrium. When creation comes this equilibrium is disturbed and these elements begin to combine and recombine, and manifest as the universe. The first manifestation of this is what the Sânkhya calls the Mahat (universal Intelligence), and out of that comes consciousness. And out of consciousness is evolved Manas (universal Mind). Out of this consciousness are also evolved the organs of the senses, and the tanmâtras,—sound particles, touch particles, taste particles, and so forth. All fine particles are evolved from this consciousness, and out of these fine particles come the gross particles which we call matter. After the tanmâtras (those particles which cannot be seen, or measured) come the gross particles which we can feel and sense. The chitta (“mind-stuff”) in its three-fold functions of intellect, consciousness and mind, is working and manufacturing the forces called prânas. These prânas have nothing to do with breath, you must at once get rid of that idea. Breath is one effect of the Prâna (universal Energy). By these prânas are meant the nervous forces that are governing and moving the whole body, which are manifesting themselves as thought, and as the various functions of the body. The foremost and the most obvious manifestation of these prânas is the breathing motion. If it were caused by air, a dead man would breathe. The prâna acts upon the air, and not air upon it. These prânas are the vital forces which manipulate the whole body, and they in turn are manipulated by the mind and the indriyas (the two kinds of organs). So far so good. The psychology is very clear and most precise, and just think of the age of it, the oldest rational thought in the world! Wherever there is any philosophy or rational thought, it owes something to Kapila. Wherever there is any attempt at psychology, or philosophy, there is some indebtedness to the great father of this thought, to this man Kapila.
So far we see that this psychology is wonderful, but we shall have to differ with it on some points, as we go on. We find that the principal idea on which Kapila works is evolution. He makes one thing evolve out of another, because his very definition of causation is “the effect is the cause reproduced in another form,” and because the whole universe, so far as we see it, is progressive and evolving. This whole universe must have evolved out of some material, out of Prakriti or Nature. Therefore this Nature cannot be essentially different from its cause, only when it takes form it becomes limited. The material itself is without form. But according to Kapila, from undifferentiated nature down to the last stage of differentiation, none of these is the same as Purusha, the “Enjoyer,” or “Enlightener.” Just as a lump of clay, so is a mass of mind, or the whole universe. By itself it has no light, but we find reason and intelligence in it, therefore there must be some Existence behind it, behind the whole of Nature, whose light is percolating through it and appearing as Mahat and consciousness and all these various things, and this Existence is what Kapila calls the Purusha, the Âtman or Self of the Vedantist. According to Kapila, the Purusha is a simple factor, not a compound. It is immaterial, the only one that is immaterial, whereas all the various manifestations are material. The Purusha alone knows. Suppose I see a blackboard, first the external instruments will bring that sensation to the organ (to the indriya according to Kapila), from the organ it will go to the mind and make an impression; the mind will cover it up with another factor,—consciousness, and will present it to the buddhi (intelligence), but buddhi cannot act; it is the Purusha behind that acts. These are all its servants, bringing the sensation to It, and It gives the orders, and the buddhi reacts. The Purusha is the Enjoyer, the Perceiver, the real One, the King on his throne, the Self of man, and It is immaterial. Because It is immaterial, it necessarily follows that It must be infinite, It cannot have any limitation whatever. So each one of these purushas is omnipresent, each is all-pervading, but can act only through fine and gross manifestations of matter. The mind, the self-consciousness, the organs and the vital forces compose what is called the fine body, or what in Christian philosophy is called the “spiritual body” of man. It is this body that comes to reward or punishment, that goes to the different heavens; that incarnates and reincarnates; because we see from the very beginning that the going and coming of the soul (Purusha) is impossible. Motion means going and coming, and that which goes from one place to another cannot be omnipresent. It is this linga-sarira (subtle body) which comes and goes. Thus far we see from Kapila’s psychology that the soul is infinite, and that the soul is the only principle that is not an evolution of Nature. It is the only one that is outside of Nature, but It has apparently got bound by Nature. This Nature is around the Purusha and It has identified Itself with Nature. It thinks “I am the linga-sarira,” It thinks “I am the gross matter, the gross body,” and as such is enjoying pleasure and pain; but these do not really belong to the soul, they belong to this linga-sarira, and to the gross body. When certain nerves are hurt we feel pain. We recognize that immediately. If the nerves in our fingers were dead we could cut the fingers and not feel it. So pleasure and pain belong to the nerve-centres. Suppose my organ of sight is destroyed, I do not feel pleasure or pain from color, although my eyes are there. So it is obvious that pleasure and pain do not belong to the soul. They belong to the mind and the body.
The soul has neither pleasure nor pain; it is the Witness of everything, the eternal Witness of things that are going on, but it takes no fruits from any work. “As the sun is the cause of sight in every eye, yet is not itself affected by the defects in any eye; as a piece of crystal appears red when red flowers are placed before it, so this Purusha appears to be affected by pleasure or pain from the reflection cast upon It by Nature, but it remains ever unchanged.” The nearest way to describe Its state is that it is meditation. This meditative state is that in which you approach nearest to the Purusha. Thus we see why the meditative state is always called the highest state by the Yogi, neither a passive nor an active state, but the meditative state. This is the Sânkhya philosophy.
Next, the Sânkhyas say that this manifestation of Nature is for the soul, all the combinations are for something outside of Nature. So these combinations which we call Nature, these constant changes are going on for the enjoyment of the soul, for its liberation, that it may gain all this experience from the lowest to the highest, and when it has gained it, the soul finds that it never was in Nature. It was entirely separate, and it finds that it is indestructible, that it neither goes nor comes, that going to heaven and being born again were in Nature and not in the soul. So the soul becomes free. All of Nature is working for the enjoyment and experience of the soul. It is getting this experience in order to reach the goal, and that goal is freedom. These souls are many, according to the Sânkhya philosophy. There is an infinite number of souls. And the other conclusion is that there is no God, as the Creator of the universe. Nature herself is sufficient to produce all these forms. God is not necessary, say the Sânkhyas.