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saidevo
09 May 2008, 11:46 PM
Jiva-Atoms: Objectively, i.e. Atoms

AFTER the above general treatment of the Jiva-atom we may now take the two aspects of it separately and in a little more detail. Of these two we may dispose of the 'particular', the atom-aspect, first, and leave for later treatment the other aspect of the 'individual', the Jlva, discussion of which is the main purpose of the rest of this work; reference to only the material side of life being made as necessary to explain and illustrate the spiritual side.

First, attributes common to Jlva and atom, viz., size (The significance of 'size' in reference to Jiva is explained at outset of next chapter.), life, and vibration, may be further particularised with respect to the atom.



Compare जाति-आयुर्-भोगाः jAti-Ayur-bhogAH, Yoga-sutra, ii.13, i.e., "species or type (by birth), life-period (total life-time), and experience (as a whole, of pains and pleasures in varied settings)". Also अंश-गुण-कालात्मा, aMsha-guNa-kAlAtmA, as descriptive of महत्, mahat of Bh&gavata, Ill.v.28; Shridhara's Tika explains these as (a) chid-amsha, principle of consciousness (broadly corresponding to bhoga of the Yoga-Sutra), (b) of triple attributes (jAti), (c) of kShobhaka, kalayItA, 'stirring', 'disturbing', 'agitating', 'moving', 'instigating' time (Ayu).


The One, Non-arbitrary Form

Size, in this reference, may be said to break up into the triplet of 'bulk or volume', 'shape or form', and 'measure, magnitude, or dimension', which includes both the others. These again may be looked at as 'large, small, average', 'long, round, ovoid', 'linear, superficial, cubical', etc.



The view, here suggested, is that 'a-toms' (non-divisible) have a definite size; that the size varies for different systems or planes: that the subtler interpenetrate the denser, in an indefinite series. With reference to the new ideas that have come into western physical science, regarding the make-up of atoms, by electrons, neutrons, plutrons, positrons, etc., triplets of words, in terms of these, may be coined, corresponding with those in the text. The shapes produced by the whirling of electrons have been named 'harmonograms'. But it is quite possible that all these new views and terms may change or even disappear altogether. The simpler ones, of the text above, have lasted long, and seem likely to last longer. Primitive animalcules have outlasted the saurians.


A hypothesis may be advanced here as to form.

It has been said above that, under stress of the necessity embodied in the logion, etats, this-es, appear in pseudo-infinite number as constituent points of manifold Mula-prakrti. It has also been said that, by that same necessity, they are never actually points without magnitude, but always points with magnitude, with definite volume, form, and measure, and are therefore atoms.

Atoms would be without these if etat were not limited. But etat is limited, consequently they must have these. And if they must have these, or, rather, as is enough to say, form (for all three are only different ways of looking at the same thing, measure being limitation pure and simple, while form is limitation from outside, and volume is limitation from within), the sphere ought, apparently, to be their primal form, because it is the only universally non-arbitrary form.

A form which embodies the essence of 'pointness'--that it is the same, however looked at can only be a sphere, which presents the same appearance or feel from whatever side it is seen or felt. Of course the law of non-arbitrariness requires and necessitates the existence of all possible pseudo-infinite kinds of forms and figures in the World-Process, but the difference between the non-arbitrariness of the sphere on the one hand, and that of 'all possible figures' on the other, is the difference (if such an expression may be used without fear of misunderstanding) between Pratyag-AtmA on the one hand, and the pseudo-infinite contents of Its consciousness, the varieties of Not-Self, on the other.

Pratyag-AtmA is everywhere and always, but the contents of Its consciousness, made up of interminable and intermixing notselves, are in definite times, spaces, and motions; so the sphere (when we abolish the periphery of limitation) may be said to have its centre potentially everywhere and always, while its contents--all possible figures made up of the numberless interlacing radii, interlacing because the centre is everywhere, each corresponding to a not-self are only in definite times, spaces, and motions.

Figure-Symbology

Because of this fact, most figure-symbology represents the self-centred Pratyag-AtmA as the 'point'; differentiated Matter, Spirit-Matter, as the 'diameter-line', or the cross of two diameters, or two interlaced 'triangles'; and the whole, the Absolute, as the 'circle'. The line, or cross of two lines, or double triangle, and the circle are used to meet exigencies of script, in place of what strictly ought to be the star of three lines crossing at right angles at their middle, and the sphere, respectively.

Point-Sphere, Primal Root-Form

The 'point' should stand for Pratyag-AtmA; countless 'radii' for Mula-prakrti; and the 'sphere' for Param-AtmA, including both, and being the 'Same', always, ever, everywhere, however looked at (--the circle or disc varies, for instance, the moon--); but solids cannot be 'written' on paper easily. The correspondence of the point and the line to Self and Not-Self respectively should be noted, and may prove of use hereafter.

It may seem at first sight that there is no such opposition between point and line as there is between Self and Not-Self, inasmuch as a line is only a production, is prolongation, of a point. But the opposition is there. From all that has gone before, it will be clear that Not-Self is nothing independent of Self, nothing else that a production and a lengthening, a limitation and definition, of Self, that is to say, a going of the immovable Self out of Itself into a denial, a negation, of Itself. Even so, lines are the first denial of the non-magnitude of the point; and out of such denial, all the endless multiplicity of figures grows in the Metaphysic of Negation, i.e., Mathematics, as all the endless multitude of not-selves grows out of the denial of Self in the complete Metaphysic.

In describing these imaginary lines, by rushing to and fro, the point without magnitude may be said to be seeking to define itself, to give itself a magnitude, even as Self appears to define itself by entering into, by imposing upon itself, imagined not-selves, and saying, 'I am this', 'I am this'. Points in juxtaposition make a line; but if they have no magnitude, how can they juxtapose!

Pervading Triplicity

Corresponding to this triple sub-division of 'size', we may note a triple subdivision under 'duration' also. The words in this reference have not such a recognised standing as those connected with size. But we may distinguish 'period', corresponding to form as limited from without; 'filling' to volume, as limited from within; and 'rate', as limitation proper, corresponding to measure. Each of these again manifests as 'long, short, average', 'well-filled, ill-filled, occupied', (or 'crowded, scattered, leisurely arranged'), 'fast, slow, even', etc.

We may similarly distinguish under vibration (tentatively, as in the case of duration) the three aspects of 'extent, rate, and degree', and subdivide each of these three again into 'great, little, mean', 'high, low, even', and 'intense, sluggish, equable', etc.

In the above-mentioned arrangements of triplets we see illustrated the fact that all things of the World-Process fall into groups of three in accordance with the Primal Trinity that underlies and is the whole of the universe.



The Kashmir school of 'Shaiva' philosophy, some works of which have been published, recently, is also known as that of the Philosophy of the Triad. त्रिक दर्शनम् [b]trika darshanam. The main ideas of the present work appear to be very much in accord with that Philosophy. The importance of triads is amply recognised in familiar Samskrt literature also, thus:

त्रिधा दानानि दीयंते, त्रिधा यज्ञ: प्रवर्त्तते,
त्रिधा लोकाः, त्रिधा देवाः, त्रिधा विद्या, त्रिधा गतिः ।
भूतं, भव्यं, भविष्यं च; धर्मो अर्थः, काम एव च;
प्राण-अपानौ उदानश्चापि, अतः एव त्रयो गुणाः ।

tridhA dAnAni dIyaMte, tridhA yaj~ja: pravarttate,
tridhA lokAH, tridhA devAH, tridhA vidyA, tridhA gatiH |
bhUtaM, bhavyaM, bhaviShyaM cha; dharmo arthaH, kAma eva cha;
prANa-apAnau udAnashchApi, ataH eva trayo guNAH |
--Anugita, 24.

त्रिगुणं च, त्रितत्त्वं च, त्रयो देवाः, त्रयो अग्नयः,
त्रयाणां च त्रिमूर्त्तिस्त्वं, तुरीयस्त्वं, नमोऽस्तु ते ।

triguNaM cha, tritattvaM cha, trayo devAH, trayo agnayaH,
trayANAM cha trimUrttistvaM, turIyastvaM, namo&stu te |
--Aditya-stotra

त्रयीं तिस्रो वृत्तिः, त्रिभुवनम्, अथो त्रीन् अपि सुरान्,
अकाराद्यैः वर्णैः त्रिभिर् अभिदधत्, तीर्णविकृति,
तुरीयं ते धाम ध्वनिभिर् अवरुंधानम् अणुभिस्,
समस्तं व्यस्तं त्वां, शरणद! गृणाति ओम् इति पदम् ।

trayIM tisro vRuttiH, tribhuvanam, atho trIn api surAn,
akArAdyaiH varNaiH tribhir abhidadhat, tIrNavikRuti,
turIyaM te dhAma dhvanibhir avaruMdhAnam aNubhis,
samastaM vyastaM tvAM, sharaNada! gRuNAti om iti padam |
--Shiva-Mahimna-Stuti, 27.

"Three kinds of gifts, sacrifices, worlds or planes, gods, sciences, paths (after death); past, present, future; dharma-artha-kAma; prANa-apAna-udAna; three guNas; three ultimates or elements. fires; Vedas states of consciousness--all these are indicated by the three-lettered AUM."


Reflection within Reflection

And these groupings are not mechanical or empirical but organic. It may appear to the cursory observer that there is no 'why' apparent in them. But the 'why' is there, and in a very simple way too. Each member of a trinity reflects in itself each of the three and so produces three trinities, and this process is a pseudo-infinite one; hence the whole content of the World-Process is only a pseudo-infinite number of groups of such triads.

All these, it must be remembered, are simultaneous from the standpoint of the Absolute, and do not grow one out of another in time. If we would know why there is such a thing as this reflection, we should reconsider the arguments in the preceding chapters, whereby the necessity of both changelessness and change, of timelessness and time, spacelessness and space, simultaneity and succession, unity and diversity, reality of non-separateness and false appearance of separateness and distinguishability, are established.

The three are one, and yet three; and the result of this apparent antinomy is that they reflect each other; each carries the image of the others in its very heart, to prove its oneness with it; and all do this endlessly.

Self-Maintenance

To show that these endless multiplications, seemingly so tangible in their multitude, are, in reality, on close scrutiny, found to be very unsubstantial, we may consider a little more fully what has been parenthetically hinted above, (on p.358), viz., that volume and form mean the same thing.

Form is nothing else than a negation of continuity, a denial, a limitation, a cutting short of continued existence on all sides. Volume means evidently the same thing looked at from within; it is an inability to extend further. Hence only are form and volume liable to change. If they were anything real, actual, having being, then how could they change, i.e., pass from being into nothing and from nothing into being? 'There is no being to that which really is not, nor non-being to that which truly is.' (Gita, 2.16)

But such change is apparent every second, every millionth of a second, of our lives. The solution lies in the fact that, in all change, what really changes is only mere form (and it will appear on analysis that all other aspects or qualities of the atom are also on the same level with form), which is simply negation looked at as above; and that what remains behind is the pseudo-thing-in-itself, the 'substance' which is 'indestructible', the essence of which we regard as 'resistance'.

Resistance is nothing else than the power of attraction and repulsion embodied in a not-self, an etat, as exclusiveness, separateness, separate self-maintenance. It is the reflection of the affirmative-negative, attractive-repulsive, Energy of ichChA-Desire in the Self.

This 'resistance', 'self-maintenance', Atma-dhAraNa, like desire (of which indeed it is but another name, in the objective language belonging to the atom, as distinguishable from the subjective language belonging to the Jiva), 1 has no overt form of its own, and therefore, in a strict and abstract sense, never changes, remaining ever the same in totality.



In this consideration is to be found the reason why

तमः, अज्ञानं, मोहः, इच्छा, इच्छाशक्तिः, द्रव्याशक्तिः,
अर्यशक्तिः, बलम्, स्तिथिः, नियमः,

tamaH, aj~jAnaM, mohaH, ichChA, ichChAshaktiH, dravyAshaktiH, aryashaktiH, balam, stithiH, niyamaH,

etc., are allied terms, more or less interchangeable.


No Real Change: Energy Constant

It is the Energy which physical science recognises as remaining constant in the universe. Its overt form is the multitude of changing forms and actions. And yet again, lest it should be said that even form is after all not pure and utter negation, but has an 'appearance' at least, has an ex-is-tence, outer-being, and so should not be capable of destruction, the law makes provision for this also, and ordains that no form, however ephemeral, shall be destroyed beyond recall. As it has only pseudo-being, so it shall not have fixedness, but it shall have unending possibility, and therefore actuality, of recall and repetition. The remarks that apply to 'forms' apply also to 'actions', 'motions', 'movements', which constitute the essence of change.

We see thus that these reflections add nothing to the primal trinity, but are included in it. Their details constitute all the universe, and may not be comprehended by any single individual mind and in any single particular book, however large they may be. As the extent of these is, such will be the amount of detail comprehended. But the main principles may be grasped; and new details as they are brought forward by empirical experience, may be classified and put away, as a matter of convenience, in accordance with those main principles.

saidevo
12 May 2008, 08:36 AM
Triple Aspects of Jiva-Atom

We may conclude this line of observations by noticing another series of triplets, very important in itself, and also illustrative in a high degree of the principle of reflections and re-reflections.

The attributes, size, life, and vibration, common to both aspects or halves of the Jiva-atom, all considered with special reference to the primal, twofold (or threefold) motion of alternation involved in Negation, which constitutes the swing of the World-Process, yield us these parallel triplets, viz.:

(1) 'increase, decrease, and equality' in respect of matter; and 'liberality, narrowness, and tolerance' in that of spirit;

(2) 'growth, decay, and continuance' in respect of body; and 'pursuit, renunciation, and indifference or equanimity', in that of soul;

(3) 'expansion, contraction, and rhythm' in respect of the sheath; and 'pleasure, pain, and peace', in that of the Jiva.

We may also note that, in special relation to Mulaprakrti, the triplet of size, etc., takes on the form of 'quantity, quality, and mode'. Its transformation with reference to Pratyag-AtmA also may be described by the same three terms in the absence of other well-recognised ones, though the difference of connotation in the two cases is great; for they cover the different triplets mentioned by Kant under the heads of quantity, etc., in connection with the 'categories' and with 'logical judgments' respectively.

New Meanings of Old Words

We may now proceed, in the second place, to specify the attributes that appear in the atom with reference to the primary attributes of Mula-prakrti.

These are:

(a) dravya, substance, or dravya-tva, substantiality, mass, power of self-maintenance, that which constitutes it a something having a separate existence; that which makes it 'capable of serving as the substratum of movement', 'capable of being moved'; the immediate manifestation of this substance, this 'compacted energy', being movement;

(b) guNa, all 'qualities' whatsoever, (not the 'three attributes of Mula-prakrti); and

(c) karma, activity, vibration, incessant movement.



द्रव्य, द्रव्यत्व, गुण, कर्म । द्रवितुं, ओर् द्रावयितुं, योग्यं, द्रव्यं, dravya, dravyatva, guNa, karma | dravituM, or drAvayituM, yogyaM, dravyaM, that which can be 'driven' about, moved from place to place. Samskrta dru means 'to run, to dri-ve'.

These three terms belong specially to the Vaisheshika-system of Indian philosophy, which deals with this part of metaphysic predominantly; but as with most of the other Samskrta words used in this work, so with these, though they themselves are more or less current, yet the connotations that have been put into them here would often not be quite recognised, in some cases would perhaps be repudiated, by the authors of most of the current Samskrta works in which they are to be met with.

The present writer believes, however, that these, are the real original connotations, and that they were lost with the growth of the spirit of separateness and selfishness in the people, and the consequent gradual loss of the deeper Metaphysic which unified,and organised the various systems of philosophy as different chapters of a single work; clues to which Metaphysic, it is endeavoured to rediscover in these few pages, all too poor and fragmentary as they are. See Pranava-vada.


Primal Triplets

This triplet of dravya-guNa-karma, substance-quality-movement, is, as already indicated, a reflection and reproduction of more primal triplets. The mergence of Pratyag-AtmA and Mula-prakrti, producing the jIva-atom, also reproduces therein their two triplets of attributes in this most familiar and therefore most important form.

sattva-rajas-tamas become respectively transformed into guNa-karma-dravya; and sat-chit-Ananda jespectively into kriyA-jnAna-ichChA; which again correspond to karma-guNa-dravya respectively. jnAna, ichChA, and kriyA will be treated of in the next section, in Connection with the Jiva-portion of the Jiva-atom.

Hints and more or less veiled statements, regarding these correspondences, are scattered over Devl-Bhagavata, especially in Parts III.vi--ix, VII.xxxiii., and IX.1, and are also to be found in Kapila-Gita and works on Tantra-Shastra.

Correspondences

(i) guNa, then, is that in the atom which corresponds to the elements of chit or cognition, and sattva or cognisability, in Pratyag-AtmA and Mula-praktti respectively.

It is the qualities of matter which alone we know and can know, and never the thing-in-itself, as that expression is used by western psychologists and philosophers; for that thing-in-itself, so far as it has a being at all, a pseudo-being, as substance, (which holds together or possesses the qualities), is the object of desire and not of knowledge; as its movements are the object of, i.e., can be changed by, action.



A 'thing' is known only by its qualities; to speak of a 'thing-in-itself' apart from qualities and seek to know it as such, is self-contradiction and self-stultification. The One and Only Thing-in-It-Self that knows (or better, is aware of) It-Self, apart from (indeed, by repudiation of) all qualities, is the Supreme Self, Param-AtmA.


guNa may be subdivided again into three classes:

(a) mukhya, chief, vyAvartaka or visheshaka, distinguishing or differentiating, svAbhAvika or prAkrtika, natural, asAdhAraNa, uncommon or special or essential i.e., proper-ties, characteristics, differentia, propria, e.g., special sensuous properties, sound, touch, colour, taste, or smell, etc., which would from part of de-fini-tions;

(b) gauNa, secondary, Akasmika, accidental, sAdhAraNa or sAmAnya, common, or non-essential (or non-demarcating) i.e., qualities, which would form part of de-scrip-tions; and

(c) dharma (active), functions, lakshaNa, attributes, signs, marks, which would generally include both; for, in reality, distinction between essential and accidental rests only on greater or less persistence in space, time, and motion.



मुख्य, व्यावर्त्तक, विशेषक, स्वाभाविक, प्राकृतिक, असाधारण;
गौण, आकस्मिक, साधारण, सामान्य;
धर्म, लक्षण.

mukhya, vyAvarttaka, visheShaka, svAbhAvika, prAkRutika, asAdhAraNa;
gauNa, Akasmika, sAdhAraNa, sAmAnya;
dharma, lakShaNa.


We might perceive again in this triplet a general correspondence to Self, Not-Self, and Negation, and also to cognition, desire, and action, respectively.

It may be observed that demarcating and non-demarcating qualities are only relatively such. A quality which is non-distinguishing as between individuals of the same species, is distinguishing as between that species and other species. This fact only illustrates further, the fluidity which is continual in the higher regions of the subtle mental plane.

Sound, etc. Continua

With reference to (a), we may note that, in the human race, only five senses are working at the present time; and hence we have the five well-known sense-properties, or sens-able properties, tan-mAtras, under the sub-head of 'essential'. Varieties of each of these again are many, and if we had the necessary information as to details, we should be able to throw these into triplets, corresponding with and reflecting each other endlessly.



तन्मात्रं tanmAtraM. The word may be grammatically construed to mean, both, 'that only', (a near approach to 'thing-in-or-by-itseif'!) and 'the measure of that' (i.e., that which measures, de-limits, de-fines an object).

There is much obscurity as to the exact meaning of the word, in the current works of Sankhya-Yoga, to which it belongs principally as a technical term. But the way in which it is used in Bhagavata, Ill.v and xxvi, makes it certain that it means the essential property which belongs to, and distinguishes, each of the 'five elements', mahA-bhUtas or tattva-s. Thus,

• shabda-mAtram, 'sound only', 'pure sound', 'sound-continuum', is the property of AkAsha-tattva (?ether);
• sparsha-mAtram, 'tact only', 'tact continuum', of vAyu-air (invisible 'gas');
• rUpa-mAtram, 'color-form only', 'light-continuum', of tejas-fire (visible luminous 'gas');
• rasa-mAtram, 'taste only', 'taste-continuum', of jala-water ('liquid'), and
• gandha-mAtram, 'odour only', 'smell-continuum', of prthvi-earth (solid).

'Shut' the 'ear', 'skin', 'eye', 'tongue', 'nose', and you will feel some continuous sound, tact, light, taste, scent; these are the sense-continua, all-pervasive, generic: particular sensations of sounds, tacts, etc., are only particular modifications of these; as the words that are being written are particularisations of the ink-in-general which fills the ink-bottle or the fountain-pen's ink-holder. Note that tat-tva means that-ness.

One more observation is needed. There is obscurity and confusion in the current books (even in Bhagavata itself, in this very ch.III.xxvi.) as to the word which stands for the substrate of sound and that which means space. Synonyms for the letter are often used for the former. But there is reason to think that AkAshaH (masculine) means the element (?ether) which, as substratum, has the property of sound; while AkAshaM (neuter) means Space.


Sens-able Qualities

• Thus, under sound, we have: soft (in tone or timbre), or harsh, low (in pitch) and grave, or high (-pitched) and acute, loud, rounded, shrill, sonorous, deep, light, heavy, even, piercing, rolling, crackling, bursting, tearing, thunderous, whistling, screaming, roaring, rushing, dashing, moaning, groaning, rasping, grinding, etc., sounds.

• Tacts are smooth, rough, even, silky, flowery, velvety, hard, soft, firm, cool, warm, damp, dry, clammy, moist, etc.

• Colours are white, black, red, yellow, blue, brown, golden, violet, orange, grey, green, purple, etc., with their endless shades and combinations.

• Tastes ('gusts', relishes) are sweet, salt, acid, astringent, hot, bitter, acrid, pungent, putrid, etc.

• Smells or scents are fragrant, malodorous, stimulating, depressing, sulphurous, stinking, skunk-y, civet-like musky, saffron, sandal, khas, rose, jasmine, violet, pArijAta, mAlatI, sugandhA-rAja (the 'king of scents', also called rajanI-gandhA the 'night-scent'), lemon, lily, lotus, blooms of myrtle or henna, neem or tamarisk, mango, etc.



Maha-bharata, Shanti-parva, ch.182, enumerates nine kinds of smells, six of tastes, twelve kinds of forms and colours, twelve kinds of tacts, and seven kinds of sounds.

Anugita, ch.35, repeats these, with slight variations: it gives ten kinds of smells and eleven of sounds.

Popularly, seven kinds of sound (of the musical gamut); seven, of colour; six, of taste, are recognised as gener-al.

Of tacts and smells, no such numbers are commonly spoken of. Weavers of the world-famous Kashmir shawls are said to be able to distinguish three hundred colors and shades with the naked eye. In North India, salesmen of perfumes, (for the manufacture of which, the towns of Jaunpur and Ghazipur in the U.P. are famous), go about with boxes holding a dozen, or a score, or more, of glass phials, each containing a different kind of scent.

Musk is good for use in cold weather; rose, khas (scented grass which grows in speeial marshes in Gorakhpur in the U.P.), belA (a variety of jasmine), in hot weather. Some are good for all weathers. M.W.Calkins, An introduction to Psychology, (p.60), quotes Zwaardemacker (a Dutch physiologist) as recognising the following classes of smells: ethereal, aromatic, fragrant, ambrosiac, alliacious, empyreumatic, hircine, virulent, and nauseating. To the Many-ness of Nature-Mulaprakrti there is no limit!


'Flavors' and 'savors' are mixed tastes and smells which affect palate and nostril simultaneously. Sub-varieties of sensations must necessarily be countless in accordance with the countlessness of the objects of the senses; but humanity possesses definite names only for those that it uses and experiences most frequently.

Non-essential Qualities

(b) Non-essential qualities are, by their very nature, more difficult to fix. They are, generally speaking, those which describe the relation and position of an object, to and amidst other objects; thus, well-built, ill-built, near, distant, commodious, insufficient, etc. Many of the properties mentioned above as amongst essential, may, perhaps, on sifting, be found to be non-essential, or vice versa. Reference to the purpose in hand decides generally whether a quality is non-essential or otherwise.

(c) Attributes, partaking of the characters of both, may be instanced as 'heat, cold, temperateness', 'lightness, heaviness, weightiness, softness, hardness, firmness, plasticity, rigidity, elasticity, pressure, suction, support, etc.', 'shape, size, duration', etc. These attributes have an obvious reference to the latent and patent aspects of energy, and to Negation; as the others, properties and qualities, have to the Self-in-itself, and to the Not-Self as Many, respectively. Such considerations are capable of endless elaboration, which, however, has no special use.

saidevo
15 May 2008, 10:53 PM
Pairs of Opposite Qualities

But it may be generally useful to pair them off in opposites, as loud and low (sounds), vivid or bright and faint (colors), hot and cold (tacts), fragrant and malodorous (smells), agreeable and disagreeable (tastes); corresponding to the primal pair of pleasure and pain.

From the psychological standpoint, we may note in passing, every sense-property is something sui generis (without a counterpart or equal), on the same level 'and side by side with every other'. As sense-properties, all are equal and independent, and none is grosser or subtler than any other, whence the current saying: 'The musk's fragrance cannot be made to be realised by any amount of oaths and affirmations'; (नहि कस्तूरिका आमोदः शपथेन विभाव्यते ।--nahi kastUrikA AmodaH shapathena vibhAvyate |) i.e., it must be smelt personally to be known. (It will be seen that, in this sense, not only is Absolute Brahna 'indescribable' (see p.148, supra) but every experience whatsoever.)

Thus each sense-property, and each shade of it, must be experienced directly in order to come within the precise cognition and recognition of any Jiva. This is the manyness, the separateness and exclusiveness, of sensations. The remarks made and figures given at p.458, vol.v, of The Secret Doctrine (Adyar edn., 1938) will be found very suggestive in this connection; and, read together with what has gone before, may help to show some consistency in the apparently very inconsistent statements made on this subject in Puranas.

Order of Evolution

Thus, it is declared that in our world-system,

• the first 'element' to come forth (to say nothing of the still earlier Adi or mahat tattva, and anupAdaka or buddhi tattva, which are only vaguely alluded to here and there) was AkAsha (ether) with the guNa of sound;
• then vAyu (air), with the guNa of touch;
• then fire (agni), with light and form and colour;
• then water (Apas), with taste;
• and, lastly, earth (kshiti), with smell;



आदि महत् तत्त्व अनुपादक बुद्धि तत्त्व Adi or mahat tattva anupAdaka or buddhi tattva

In theosophical literature, the order given is usually Adi, then anupAdaka, then AkAsha, etc., Pranava-vada says Adi-tattva is the same as buddhi-tattva, and anupAdaka as mahat-tattva. In current Sankhya works, however, aham-kAra is called bhU-tAdi, and it is born from mahat which is the same as buddhi.


and it is added that each succeeding one was derived from the next preceding, and retained the property or properties of its originator, besides developing its own special property.



It is scarcely necessary to point out that the words earth, water, fire, air, ether, here, do not mean the substances ordinarily understood by them in the English language. In ancient Indian thought, Consciousness is the basic fact, the psychical factor is primary, and the physical is secondary; therefore moods of mind are regarded as 'creators', evolvers, of modes of matter; each peculiar sensation or sense-able quality, tan-maAtra, smell, taste, etc., evolves a corresponding bhUta or tattva, prithivI or kshiti (earth), Apas or jala (water), etc., i.e., the primary atomic aspect thereof (vide Sankhya and Vaisheshika works). 'Categories' are very fully dealt with in Vaisheshika philosophy, under six main heads, dravva (substance), guNa (attribute), karma (movement), sAmAnya (universality), visheSha (particularity), samavAya (co-inference); to which some writers have added a-bhAva (non-existence).


Again, it is said in Puranas that the order of evolution of the elements and properties is different in different cycles, mahA-kalpas, of this and other world-systems. It is also said that the number of the elements and corresponding senses and sensations differs actually (as Voltaire fancied in his Zadig et Micromegas) in different worlds, there being eighteen in some, thirty-six in others, and so forth, (Yoga-Vasishtha), as there are only five known to us in this world.

Such also seems to be the meaning of the statement that 'this world-system of ours is crowded round with infinite other systems governed by Brahmas having five, six, seven and more up to thousands of faces. (Tripaad-Vibhuti-Maha-Narayana Upanishat,vi.)

Quintuplication

Still again, it is said, in the doctrine of panchI-karaNa (Pancha-dashI, i.26-30, and Panchi-karana-vivarana.), 'quintuplication', i.e., the mixing of each of the five tattvas with each of the other four in certain proportions, that, at present, each material object has in it all five elements, and, therefore, the possibility of being cognised by all five senses; but the preponderant element gives it its best-recognised nature.

As a fact we find that beings having different constitutions of the same sense, and the same being during different conditions of the same sense, receive different sensations from apparently the same sense object. Thus it is now recognised that certain rays that are dark to men are luminous to ants, and vice versa; and objects that taste sweet during health, taste bitter during fever.



The element of truth in the theories as to 'natural names', 'true names', 'words of power', 'mantras', etc., may be found in these considerations. Given a certain constitution of ear, and also given certain surroundings, each object, because of the presence of AkAsha-tattva in it and in the surroundings and the ear, will affect that ear with a certain sound which will be its 'natural' name. So with 'natural' forms, smells, tastes, and tacts, of objects.

But because there are no such 'absolute' ears and 'absolute' environments, but only varying ones, therefore there can be no 'absolutely' natural names, etc., but only 'comparatively' such.

To a particular race of men, living in a particular country and climate, the words of their particular scripture would be the most 'natural names', 'words of power', most effective for evoking the desired results in those climatic and other conditions; to others, others.

As we pass from the grosser or denser to the subtler, from the more concrete, particular, special, to the more abstract, in-de-nnite, general, the range and reach of the 'natural' quality, etc., becomes more and more wide. 'Bodies' are very exclusive of each other; even two cannot, each, take the whole of the same piece of edible; but a million minds may be in unison in respect of one thought, or feeling, or resolve.

In the elemental ideas of mathematics and metaphysics, in the domains of the MahAn-AtmA or Mahat, Universal Mind, all Jivas are of the 'same opinion'; in the regions of the vishesha-tattvas, they differ. As said in Charaka, I.i, (quoted before, on p.283.)

"Generalisation expands and enhances all bhAvas, thoughts, feelings, things; specialisation, particularisation, narrows and contracts." See also Yoga-Sutra and Bhashya, ii.19.

Schopenhauer, on pp.482-3 of vol.I of The World as Will and Idea (English translation in three volumes by Haldane and Kemp, pub.1896), illustrates this same thought in another and fine way: "... The good conscience ... arises from ... the knowledge that our true self exists not only in our own person ... but in everything that lives. By this the heart feels itself enlarged, as by egoism it is contracted. For, as the latter concentrates our interest upon the particular manifestation of our own individuality, ... the knowledge that every thing living is just as much our own inner nature as is our own person, extends our interest to everything living; and in this way the heart is enlarged. Thus, through the diminished interest in our own self, the anxious care for the self is attached at its very root and limited; hence the peace, the unbroken serenity, which a virtuous disposition and a good conscience affords, and the more distinct appearance of this with every good deed, for it" (deed) "proves to ourselves the depth of this disposition".

(Faith is witnessed by deed), "The good man lives in a world of friendly individuals, the well-being of any of whom he regards as his own." Here, Schopenhauer has caught and described well, one aspect of the Vedanta reason for the Golden Rule of Ethics. For detailed exposition of this as well as other aspects, the reader may see the present writer's The Essential Unity of All Religions.


All Qualities Everywhere

All this means again, in brief, that each atom, having in it the common guNa of sense-cognisability, sens-ability, has also therefore in it what is necessarily included in this universal quality, viz., every possible particular guNa; but only one or some are manifest and others latent, in different conditions of time, space, and motion, to different Jivas; Jivas being regarded as 'lines of consciousness'.

That is to say, one kind of atom will mean one thing at one time and space to one kind of Jiva, and will, simultaneously and in that same position, mean a pseudo-infinite number of things to pseudo-infinite other kinds of Jivas; and it will also mean pseudo-infinite kinds of things to the same kind.

Karma and Sat

(ii) We may now turn to the karma-aspect of the atom, corresponding to the sat and rajas aspects of Pratyag-AtmA and Mula-prakrti respectively.

It may at first sight appear that sat-being, should correspond with dravya-substance rather than karma-movement. But if what has been said before, on the nature of sat and Ananda, and of rajas and tamas, is carefully considered, it will appear that sat properly corresponds to karma and not to dravya.

'Being' is what we are inclined to regard as the innermost, the most important, factor in the constitution of an object, because it appears prima facie to be the most permanent; and dravya, as shown above, is such in the case of the atom; the idea therefore comes up strongly that dravya should be connected with 'being'.

But the first premise here is not accurate. It does not discriminate between 'being' and 'existence'. What is being, sat, in Pratyag-AtmA, is 'ex-is-tence', asti-tA, 'outer-is-ness', in Matter. And in Pratyag-AtmA (if such a distinction may be permitted where there is truly and strictly none possible, and where all are aspects and all absolutely equally necessary and important), Ananda-bliss, is even more 'inner' than 'being'; it is, so to say, the feeling of own-being; the difference between a man looking at himself with eyes open and again with eyes shut. In this sense Ananda may be said to be even more 'being' than is 'being' itself. And karma, therefore, corresponds not to this innermost being of Ananda, but to the outer being, the existence, the manifestation of sat. Existence, reality, appearance, manifestation, is all in and by action and movement.

Camouflage

A very good physical illustration of this is the fact of natural history, that most insects, aquatic creatures, birds, quadrupeds, in wild life, are often so completely camouflaged by their protective colouring or markings that they are not distinguished at all from their surroundings, that they remain as it were non-existent, even when they are quite close to and right under the eye of the observer; but become 'manifest' at once, i.e., 'existent', with the slightest shake, motion, or action.



Consider the 'puzzle'-pictures, 'find the parrot, monkey, lion'.

The point has been much emphasised in a psychological reference by the distinguished psychologist, Prof. Ladd, of America, as it has been recognised by other Western psychologists that "the deepest and most central current in human nature is the ruling passion" (Hoffding, Outlines of Psychology, p.283), with the additional words. 'as manifesting in conduct', being understood, for our present purpose. See Science of Emotions and Science of Self; also p.270, supra.


Having thus shown that karma represents sat, we may proceed to note again that it is inseparable from the atom, is in fact one of its essential constituents. The consequence is that every atom is in unceasing motion.

Karma of Three Kinds

karma falls also into three kinds:

• (a) expansion, prasAraNa (corresponding to the boundlessness of the Self), in-breathing, pra-shvasana or ut-shvasana;
• (b) contraction, Akunchana (corresponding to the separated mutual repelling and restricting of not-selves), out-breathing, nishvasana;
• (c) spandana or sphuraNa or Andolana, rhythmic vibration (or shvasana, in-and-out-breathing), corresponding to the (affirmative-) negation which sums up both movement and counter-movement in itself, and holds the two others together in the conjunction of alternation.

The guNas specially arising out of karma are: shIghra-tA, quickness, manda-tA, slowness, and vega, or gati, speed, velocity, tempo. Minor varieties under each of the three are endless, as in the case of guNas: thus, rapid, slow, steady; Urdbva-gamana, upward motion, adho-gamana, downward motion, tiryag-gamana, sideways motion; ut-kShepaNa, uplifting, apa-kShepaNa, repulsing or casting away, atana, wandering; vertical, horizontal, oblique; centripetal, centrifugal, circumambulant; etc.1



प्रसारण, प्रश्वसन, उच्छवसन;
आकुञ्चन, निश्वसन;
स्पन्दन, स्पुरण, श्वसन ।
शीघ्रता; मंदता; वेग, गति ।
ऊर्ध्व-गमन; अधो-गमन; तिर्यग्-गमन ।
उत्क्षेपण; अपक्षेपण; अतन ।
केन्द्र-पाती, केन्द्र-उन्मुख; केन्द्र-वर्जी, केन्द्र-परङ्मुख; परिकामी ।

prasAraNa, prashvasana, uchChavasana;
Aku~jchana, nishvasana;
spandana, spuraNa, shvasana |
shIghratA; maMdatA; vega, gati |
Urdhva-gamana; adho-gamana; tiryag-gamana |
utkShepaNa; apakShepaNa; atana |
kendra-pAtI or kendra-unmukha; kendra-varjI or kendra-para~gmukha; parikAmI |

saidevo
20 May 2008, 11:46 AM
pp.381-389
The Atom's Inseparable 3 Aspects

(iii) Lastly we come to the dravya-aspect of the atom which represents the Ananda and tamas aspects of Self and Not-Self respectively. It is the 'etat-ness', the mere 'this-ness' of the atom. It is that in the atom which is the 'heart' of the thing, its substance, its inertia, its mass and weight and resistance, all that makes it a something existing in and for itself, so far as it can have such a pseudo-existence-in-itself at all.

It appears mysterious and unresolvable only when and if, after asking, 'What is this?', we try fallaciously to answer the question in terms of something else than guNa and karma. The answer to that question must always be in terms of guNa and karma; or otherwise, merely the reiteration, 'It is a this'.

Three aspects make up the fact of the atom--
• idam, 'this', (dravya),
• ittham, 'such' a this (guNa), and
• evam, 'thus', is this acting (karma);

(इदम्, इत्थम्, एवम् )

and they can never be separated from each other.

dravya too may be subdivided into:

• (a) substances with positive weight (predominant), in the aspect of attraction, guru, heavy;

• (b) those with negative weight (predominant), (See Dolbcar's Matter, Ether, and Motion, p.91.) in the aspect of repulsion, laghu, light, buoyant;

• (c) those with inertia, dead weight, positive-negative or passive-active resistance to all change, self-maintenance in whatever condition the thing happens to be, sthira, stable.

(गुरु, लघु, स्थिर)

Subdivisions of these, as of others, 'are endless: mahat, buddhi, AkAsha, vAyu, tejas, Apas, prthivi, solids, liquids, gases, ethers, metals, nonmetals, organic, inorganic, minerals, vegetables, animal substances, etc. Some of the qualities arising out of these subdivisions have been already noticed before in the guNa-aspect.

Correspondences

We have seen that resistance is of the very essence and nature of dravya-substance, and we see now that it has the dual form of attraction-repulsion. This makes further clear, if such clarification were needed, that dravya represents the Ananda and tamas aspects, which again correspond to the shakti-energy of the first trinity. We desire a thing, we know its qualities, and we act upon, change or modify, its movements.

(See J. Ward, article Psychology, in Encyclopaedia Britannica, para 9. In Bhagavata the triad is frequently mentioned, of dravya-jnAna-kriyA, instead of ichChA-jnAna-kriyA; (dravya being obviously equated with ichChA or desire.)

The three subdivisions of dravya may also be regarded as corresponding, in the order in which they are stated above, to Self and sattva, to Not-Self and rajas, and to Negation and tamas respectively.

Harmony in Discord

It will have been noticed by readers that the task, of expressing these correspondences precisely, becomes more and more difficult as we enter into greater and greater details and subdivisions, and the same triplet is repeated under more than one head.

The aspects become gradually so intermingled that they cannot be distinguished easily, and the assignment of triplets in a table of correspondences may naturally and reasonably vary, if the students differ in standpoint and in the amount of attention paid to each factor, some regarding one aspect as predominant, and others another.

In this last case, for example, if attraction be regarded as active affirmation, attention being specially directed to the activity, and repulsion as passive and steady negation of others, of manyness, then the two appear reasonably to correspond to rajas or Not-Self, and sattva or Self, respectively.

But if attraction be regarded as unification of others with self, as self-assertion over others, and repulsion as separation of others from self, as pushing away of others, then it would be right to say, as said above, that they correspond to sattva or Self, and rajas or Not-Self, respectively.

Still again, if attention were paid to the fact that the unification of attraction, when it appears in the limited atom, is a false and not a true unification, that it is the assertion in reality of Not-Self, which is then only masquerading as Self (that it is, so to say, fostering the flesh at the expense of the spirit), while the separation of repulsion is the diminution of such a false self and therefore an advancement of the true Self, then we would go back to the correspondence of attractive weight with Not-Self, and of negative weight with Self.

The view of this particular correspondence put forward here as the main one, viz., of positive weight; to Self, of repulsive weight to Not-Self, and of inertia to Negation, proceeds upon the consideration that the fact of the unity and of the principle of unification present in the atom is more characteristic, in the present reference, than the fact that the atom is only masquerading as a one and a self.

This should not confuse the careful student, but should only help him to look at every question from many sides and standpoints, and so recognise the harmonising elements of truth in each view, rather than the discordant elements of error.

Differences of Individuals

The laws previously ascertained apply to this triplet of aspects of the atom. As these three cannot be separated from each other, though, turn by turn, one is predominant and the others in the background, so the three subdivisions of each are also contemporaneous in this way; that one appears to be more manifest from one standpoint, while another appears to be more prominent from another standpoint at the same time.

This last statement applies especially to the subdivisions of dravya and karma. It is known that what is solid and immovable to one individual may be pliable as a liquid or a gas to another, and vice versa; and, again, that what appears to be linear motion from one standpoint appears as rotatory or curved from another, and vice versa.

Provision for limitation, in time, space, and motion, for death and re-birth of these aspects of the atom, even in the midst of their presistent continuance, is made by the fact of change, absorption and transformation, of each into other kinds of guNas, karmas, and dravyas; and, yet again, recovery of their previous condition, in an endless manner.

Ample illustration of this will be found in physical science, in connection with the doctrines of pseudo-indestructibility of matter, pseudo-eternity and conservation of energy, and perpetual transformation of motion, showing how substances (energies proper), attributes, and vibration, are being constantly changed, all the while retaining possibility of recovering their older shapes.

Atoms--Vortices of Nothing?

Concomitance of these three aspects, dravya, guNa, and karma, and, by inference, of all their subdivisions, from the metaphysical standpoint of the whole, is especially important and significant to bear in mind. It will help to show the underlying truth in each, and reconcile all of the many conflicting hypotheses of physical science.

Thus: some hold the view that atoms are nothing substantial but only vortices, pure motion, vortices (one may fairly say) of nothing; for even when the holders of this theory say that atoms are vortices of ether, they, in order to avoid an obvious petitio principii, or self-contradiction, take care to describe ether in terms the opposite of those used in describing matter; and so practically reduce ether to nothing. Others say that they are substantial, whether they have or have not a vortical or other motion besides.

So too, the first theory of light was corpuscular, that light is corpuscles; then it was discarded in favour of the undulatory theory, that light is undulations; with the discovery of new metals, radium, etc., and observations of their behaviour, the radiatory theory is being reinstated again.

[The late Dr. Hubbe-Schleiden (of Dohren bei Hannover, Germany) suggested the following as a more exact statement of these theories: "1. Light is emission of corpuscles (Newton). 2. Light is vibration of ether (Huyghens, Fresnel). 3. Light is emission of electrons."]

So again, one extreme view is that all sensations are merely vibrations of the objects sensed, transmitted to animal nerves; another extreme is that they have nothing to do with vibrations, (which may or may not be a parallel coincident), but are things sui generis.

Scientists who have trained themselves in philosophy also, as many are beginning to do now, look at the question impartially from both points of view; and therefore readily see the defects of each extreme, and acknowledge that nothing yet known explains how a certain number of vibrations at one end of a nerve should appear as the sensation red, or blue, or yellow, at the other end of that nerve.

All Always Concomittant

The inconclusiveness of all such theories lies in their exaggeration, their one-sidedness, and their attempt to reduce all the aspects of the atom to only one aspect; guNas and karmas to dravya only; or dravyas and karmas to guna only; or gunas and dravyas to karma only.

The truth is that all three aspects are always and inseparably concomitant; that an atom is ever a something, an etat, a this, which has always a certain motion, a certain kind of vibration, which motion or vibration, again is always accompanied by a special sense-property.

"The three aspects are inseparable and are the expression of all that happens in the physical world. Given one of the three in all its details, the other two would be known."

(Max Verworn, General Physiology, p.546; his three aspects, however, are "Substance, form, and transformation of energy", form being substituted for sense-quality, and transformation of energy for motion; not very different, after all.)

Qualities Common to All

A few more concrete, if somewhat cursory, observations may be of use to illustrate the simultaneity and concurrence of all aspects of the atom. Thus, though, at the present stage of evolution, volume and form appear to be specially, indeed, even almost exclusively, connected with the sense of vision amongst all the senses, yet it is not so, in reality. Even the current usage which employs words having a spatial reference, in connection with all senses, shows this, and is not merely metaphorical.

We speak of bulky or extensive or voluminous or massive sounds and touches and tastes and smells; also of their forms. The words are so employed because of a fact in nature; sounds, touches, tastes, and smells also have volume and form; they belong to sense-objects, to etats, are in space, time, and motion.

The words quantity, measure, magnitude, etc., apply to all sense-objects and with a clear meaning. Pitch and timbre of sounds; freshness or staleness, strength or weakness, insipidity and vapidity or acuteness and intensity of tastes; lightness or heaviness of touches; sweet sounds, sweet sights, sweet scents, and sweet tastes; beautiful voices, beautiful forms and colours, beautiful smells; rough and smooth tones as well as touches; all these are illustrations of the fact. (Lists of sense-qualities given in Mahabharata, referred to in foot-note on page 287, supra, include many such.)

Because of such common features hiding behind diverse features, under guNa as well as dravya and karma, is it possible to translate sensations of one sense "into those of another, under special circumstances and conditions, manipulation of which belongs to that region of science which is only gradually, with many set-backs, opening up to the public, under the names of hypnotism, mesmerism, animal magnetism, psychism, telepathy, clairvoyance, etc.

Combinations of Atoms

Cases of psychics able to experience any sensation with or at any part of the body are now recognised by at least some scientists of note. The obscure Vedantic doctrine of quintuplication of the five tattvas or sense-elements, (p.377, supra) seems also to refer to this subject. It seems to be the completion of the physics of the universe begun by Vaisheshika and Nyaya systems in their statements as to aNu, atoms, dvyaNuka, di-atoms, trasareNu, tri-diatoms etc.

[अणु, द्व्यणुक, त्रसरेणु । aNu, dvyaNuka, trasareNu. The last is explained in some books as tridiatoms, in others as tri-atoms. Modern science makes the 'atom' more complex.]

This is not clear now in the absence of details, but the suggestion that they are such completion comes to one who approaches the old books in the spirit of the open-minded student, no less ready to see alliances than to note differences. Working at this suggestion and comparing the apparently conflicting statements in Puranas, the student may succeed in making up some, at least provisionally, satisfactory system of the essential principles of chemistry, physiology, and cosmogony, pending knowledge of details through development of special faculty by yoga.

[The student will find much help and suggestion on this point in theosophical literature generally, and in The Secret Doctrine of H.P.Blavatsky and Ch.I of Ancient Wisdom of Annie Besant especially.]

saidevo
28 May 2008, 11:35 PM
pp.389-395
Meaning of Changes

We see, then, that all three aspects run on indefeasible parallels, even as thought, thing, and motion always accompany each other, though distinguishable; and that change in any of the three will necessarily bring about a change in the other two also.

In a sense, it is true, there should not be any change in the (dravya; a mere 'this' will remain only 'this'; and dravya constitutes the pseudo-permanent element in the atom; yet, seeing that each etat is inseparably connected with a quality and a motion, it happens that there is, as common observation shows, a sort of change of nature in the substance also. The substance is no longer recognised as the same.

The energy has also changed its form. Water becomes gas, and people naturally and not unreasonably say that the substance has changed, as well as motions and qualities.



The phenomena of allotropism and isomerism are illustrations. Views of chemical philosophers as to the development, one after another, in a 'periodic' succession, of the various so-called 'elements' out of one primal kind of root-matter, are also in accord with those propounded in the text above and in Puranas and Sankhya as to successive genesis, one from another, of the five mahA-bhUtas.

Compare also, G.W. de Tunzelman, A Treatise on Electrical Theory and the Problem of the Universe, (pub. 1910), p.505: "When the term energy is substituted for force, the Vedic scheme of development becomes identical with the one which expresses the most recent developments of physical research, viz.. the Absolute or Eternal Self--Consciousness--Mind--Energy--Ether--Matter."


In this sense, the tat-tva, 'thataess', the element, may properly be said to change. Rigorously speaking, there can be no change in mere, pure, 'this' (dravya); but no more can there be any change in mere, sheer, 'such' (guNa), or in mere, abstract, 'thus' (karma). What changes is the particularised condition of each as limited and made concrete by necessary relativity to the others.

We have now generally defined and described the three universal attributes of the atom. Wherever an atom is, there must be present these three also. Whatever its variations, these must accompany it. Let us now try to find out something more about the variations of the atom generally. These variations will naturally be most prominently connected with guMa-quality and karmam-movement, though change in these will cause the appearance of change in dravya-substance also.

Sphere, the Universal Form

Under guNa, we have inferred that in respect of form, corresponding to Not-Self, etats, this-es, have, by reflection of the unity and completeness of Self, one universal underlying form, the sphere, and a pseudo-infinity of other forms made up of the inter-mixture of points and lines.

In respect of volume, corresponding to Self, the common fact is only this, that there must be 'bulk', 'triple-dimension', 'extension', some size; and the detail is that the etat must have every possible size. Thus we have atoms of all possible sizes, each size of atom (with corresponding other qualities, vibrations, substantial nature, etc.) constituting one plane of matter; each plane constituting the 'outer' sheath, the material, of a pseudo-infinite series of world-systems on the same level with each other; and the next minuter size constituting the 'inner', 'spiritual' or 'ideal' counter-part and core thereof and therein.



In order to see the element of truth in this very absurd-looking statement, the reader may read Fournier d'Albe's Two New Worlds. Yoga-VAsishtha stories of worlds within atoms, and atoms within worlds again, ad infinitum, are made 'scientifically intelligible' by this work; see the present writer's Mystic Experiences or Tales from Yoga-VAsishtha. Pranava-VAda, of course, has much light to throw on this as on other points dealt with here. The scientific discovery of 'systems' of 'electrons' within each atom also helps to explain and support the ideas of the text.


The case is the same with special qualities. The presence of some one quality, of 'sense-cognisability', is common and inevitable; but there is no restriction as to what that must be. Reason and the law of non-arbitrariness require that the whole of all possible qualities must be present in the whole and every part of the World-Process, manifesting, of course, to any one Jiva, only in succession.

All Allways Everywhere

The main kinds of karma-movements of atoms may be deduced, as a tentative hypothesis, as follows.

We have seen that the basic ultimate atom everywhere, in whichever world-system we take it, would be a sphere, though size and quality may vary; for it is formed by the aham-consciousness revolving round itself in the circle of the logion.

But, existing side by side as spheres, the forces of approach and recess work between them, as mutual attraction and repulsion. Every atom endeavours to approach and recede from every other simultaneously. The same atom would attract as well as repel another at the same time.

In other words, every atom would try to absorb another into itself for its own growth (corresponding to the intensification and expansion of the consciousness 'aham etat (asmi)', ('I-this-am)', and at the same time to resist being absorbed into that other and losing instead of intensifying its own self-existence and identity.

With attraction and repulsion coming into play, the self-revolving spheres would begin to move in straight lines towards or from each other. At this stage movements would become manifest.

Before this, (from the standpoint of the particular world-system we may be in) the self-revolution would not be apparent as movement; the atom would scarcely be apparent even as a something; that there would be in it, even then, a necessary movement of self-revolution, would be only a metaphysically necessary assumption.

The next stage would be, that, after one atom has secured and subordinated another, absorbed it into itself, (the why and how of which may appear afterwards), the two together, making a line, would now fall into the self-revolving movement of the stronger, and the circular-disc movement would result.

Lastly, the disc revolving on its own axis would become the sphere again, but a sphere, the sphericity and motion of which are manifest, instead of hypothetical as in the condition of the primary atom.



The three movements, of (straight-line-running-to-and-fro) piston, {circling) wheel, (revolving) sphere, seem to be the only elementary movements, of which, all possible other motions, however complex, are made up. Nature appears formidably complicated; but it is all only appearance, pretence, illusion; to her persevering devotee she uncovers her simple Beauty, 'like a loving bride to a loving bride-groom', jAyA iva patyuh, ushatI su-vAsAh.

The most unravellably tangled up skein of thread is still ravellable, given the needed unflagging perseverence; because, obviously, the whole tangle is the twistings, turnings, knottings, inter-lockings, of a simple straight thread. Electricity finds its way unerringly and instantaneously through the most inextricably tangled Gordian knot of wire which connects the switch and plug with the fan or lamp. And as electricity can, so can human fingers, if they are only sufficiently persevering; for, obviously, however tangled the knot, it all is the twistings and turnings of only one single thread.


We may consider here that as the shortest line is composed of two atom-points, and the smallest disc must, be made of such a line circling around itself according to the motion of the stronger atom, so the smallest solid sphere should be made of at least, and also at most, of three such lines crossing each other at the middle and revolving round that point on the axis made by the strongest line.

Metaphysic of Mathematics

In other words, the manifest sphere would consist of three double-atoms. Such is perhaps the metaphysic underlying the vague available statements of Nyaya-Vaisheshika, as to diatoms being first formed from atoms, then tri-diatoms from diatoms, and the world--our own world-system at least--from them. (See f.n. on p.389 supra.)

This order reproduces respectively, the Absolute, the duality of Self and Not-Self, and the triple duality (cognition-desire-action in soul and quality-substance-movement in body) of the Jiva-atom--the individual, the definite one (which most systems of numeral notation express by a line), formed by the junction of a self with a not-self. Intermixtures and modifications of these main movements, viz., linear, circular, and revolutional or spiral, make up the inevitable pseudo-infinite variations of movements in the World-Process.

As to variations of the dravya-aspect, it has been said that they accompany variations of the other two. It need only be added that the greater the number and the more restricted the area of the rhythm-movements, the revolutions, of the atom and the derivative molecule, the more firm, rigid, gross, and exclusive and resistant for others, and attractive and insistent for themselves, they would become; and per contra, the smaller the number and the wider the area of the movement, the subtler, more plastic and more evanescent, they would be.

The atom of each world-system being regarded as representing mere 'objectivity', Not-Self, Etat, This, it follows that it is uniform and unchanged throughout the life of that system.

Differentiation probably begins with diatoms, which may be regarded as coeval with guNas, these corresponding, in the Jiva-atom of a system, to what the tanmAtra (p.372, supra), would be in the consciousness of the Ishvara of that system, as may be seen later. The guNas referred to here are their special sense-qualities, sound, touch, etc., considered psychologically.

The differentiation may be considered as definitely marked at the stage of tri-diatoms, corresponding to the 'gross-elements', sthUla-bhUtas, defined and characterised by these sensations, viz., AkAsha, vAyu, etc., and to the respective outer sensory and motor organs of the living beings of that system.

These tri-diatoms may, then, for practical purposes, be regarded as representing that dravya-aspect of each thing which is variable. Before the development of these tri-diatoms (in the Vaisheshika, not the modern chemical, sense) there would be probably no manifest differentiation of the 'various tattvas', 'sense-elements', one from the other. Variations of such ultimate molecules of a world-system, as physical science is now gradually showing (in terms of 'atoms', however, rather than of 'molecules'), would correspond with variations of resistance and density, of number and kind of vibrations, and of special sense-qualities.

saidevo
01 June 2008, 02:05 AM
pp.395-399
Atom, Not Invariable

We see then, that the atom is not an invariably fixed quantity. Its fixedness is only an appearance, and exists only in connection with world-systems taken singly.



Bergson, Creative Evolution, p.214 : "When we observe that a thing really is where it acts, we shall be led to say, as Faraday was, that all the atoms interpenetrate, and that each of them fills the world;" in other words, 'All is everywhere'; but Bergson jibs at the remaining two words of the Vetdanta maxim, viz., 'and always'. He has his peculiar view of creative evolution as a 'durational' progress, in time. Still his views, and those, f.i., of Sir J.Jeans, that atoms can be "annihilated" by being "transformed into radiation", can be reconciled with the common atomic theory, by considerations like those advanced in the text. Jeans also says: "An electron must, in a certain sense at least, occupy the whole of space"; Mysterious Universe, p.71. Jevons' views have been noted before (p.180) to similar effect.

Just as a stone, a tree, an animal, a human being, have an appearance of permanence and continuance from day to day, and yet are changing incessantly from moment to moment; just as a whirling torch, or catherine-wheel, or gas-flame, has the appearance of a flat disc or sheet of fire, though something altogether different in reality; so an atom has only a pseudo-fixedness and sameness of size-duration-movement, etc., in space-time-motion. The appearance of fixedness in incessant change is due to the imposition of 'sameness' by a connected individual consciousness--the consciousness of the BrahmA the chief Individualised Cosmic Mind--in each world-system.

In other words, the nature of the Jiva, as Self, imposes (according to its own necessities, to be dealt with later), a certain sameness and continuance, while the nature of the atom, as Not-Self, requires incessant change; reconciliation is found in the constant repetition of the vibrations which maintain the other attributes together with themselves.

Infinite Variety of Atoms: Infinite in Infinitesimal

Apart from such appearance of fixity, there is truly a pseudo-infinite variety in every aspect of the atom, and a pseudo-infinite pseudo-infinity, pseudo-infinity within pseudo-infinity. Thus each size of atom, together with all its attributes and qualities corresponding to that size, is necessarily pseudo-infinite in number, and would be found in every part of space and time.

Yet, when the geometrical axiom, which applies to all things in space, says: "Two things cannot occupy the same space at once", how can all these pseudo-infinite sizes of atoms exist in the same space? The reconciliation is to be found in the fact that this apparent pseudo-infinity is a 'psychological', an 'ideal', infinity, entirely created and carried along with itself, wherever it goes, by the Consciousness of the Self as a foil to its own infinite-infinity.

The geometrical axiom does not apply to the Absolute-Consciousness which transcends and includes Space-Time-Motion, and creates all the infinite overlappings of individuality which have been mentioned before, and which correspond to the apparent overlappings of the atoms. [From the transcendental standpoint, all possible things imaginations) are contained in the single point (-sphere) of this Absolute Consciousness.]

Yet again, lest there should be even the appearance of a violation of the geometrical axiom, the various sizes, whenever and wherever examined by any one individual consciousness, would be found to fit one into another (as water in sand) and constitute the different and interpenetrating planes of the world-systems.

Worlds in Atoms

Thus it happens that what is an atom to one Jiva, within the limits, spatial and durational, of a solar system, may contain whole worlds within itself to a Jiva sufficiently minute. And, vice versa, what is a solar system to us may form only an atom to a Jiva sufficiently vast. The repeated and much emphasised statement in Yoga Vasishtha, that a world contains atoms; and each of these atoms a world; and that world, atoms again; and so on ad infinitum, is justified in this manner in a very literal sense.



Yoga Vasishtha speaks also of different kinds of 'space', especially three, mah-AkAsha, chitt-AkAsha, and chid-AkAsha, fitting one within the other, in somewhat the same sense as the different 'sizes' of atoms mentioned above, and corresponding to them, or to the three bodies.
Consider here what was said before, as to the chain of individualities in a single organism, and as to the VirAt-PuruSha; then the thought may become clear. The student will also be greatly helped by the researches of physical science, going to show that what has till now been regarded as the indivisibly ultimate atom, consists of hundreds of 'corpuscles', and by the tentative results of enquiry by budding superphysical senses, so far as they are publicly available. (Vide Annie Besant's Occult Chemistry)



The word 'atom' has been used here, throughout, as equivalent to the words '[B]aNu' or 'param-ANu' of Samskrt. The new word 'ion' is, it seems, nearer to 'aNu'; but it has not yet got a recognised position in western, science and philosophy, and is still competing with 'corpuscles', 'electrons', etc.

When the ideas and words have settled down in the course of a few years, it may perhaps be useful to change our nomenclature also. This 'settling down' is, however, not a very likely event, except in a very comparative sense. Like 'fashions' invented by the artistic-minded, first, then invaded and copied by the 'vulgar', then abandoned to them, after the invention of new fashions, to undergo a similar fate in turn; like the 'veil after veil' which will lift only to leave 'veil upon veil behind'; like the 'bodies' which BrahmA successively puts on and casts off to be taken up and occupied by different orders of beings, devas, asuras, fairies, gandharvas, human beings, etc., (Bhagavata, III, xx); like houses and institutions built up by some, and 'captured' and occupied successively by others; like these is the fate of words.

Other meanings than those originally intended usurp them, and new words have to be coined to accommodate those old meanings. In the meanwhile, the idea intended to be conveyed by the word 'atom', here, is that of a piece or particle of 'etat', 'this', 'matter', which, for the time, and in the particular world-system, and from the standpoint, with which we may be concerned at the moment, is ultimate and 'indivisible'. Sometimes, though very rarely, the word has been used here as equivalent to 'sheath' or 'body'; and this has been done because, in the particular connection in which the word has been so used, the sheath or body is the irreducible minimum which the jiva requires foe its manifestation.
How order is imposed on this infinity of disorder; how the World-Process is ever an organic whole, within whatever limits of space-time-motion we take it; and how this pseudo-infinity of pseudo-infinities is held together in co-ordination, in a system of planes within planes, lokas within lokas, by the mighty stress of the Principle of the Supreme Individuality or Oneness of the Universal Self this may all appear in the next chapter on the Jiva.

(end of chapter)