From the vibratory or magnetic state the atoms of the various elements are formed, which first appear in a diffuse, extensible form, a gaseous form that fills the universe, the simplest image of which, for us, is air. Molecules in a gaseous state communicate by contact, by a magnetic sensation of proximity, which, for us, corresponds to the sense of touch and keeps them at an equal distance from each other. Without this ability to communicate, they could not organize themselves. Touch is therefore the form of perception, the sense, related to the gaseous state. It is in this state that the gaseous clouds give birth to the stars.
With the concentrations of atoms caused by gravitation, visibility and heat, the igneous state, appear. It is then that the suns and the constellations are formed. Light waves are only characterized as such with respect to our organ of vision. Essentially, they are no different from other waves (which we today call infrared, radio, gamma rays, etc.), not normally perceived by man but perceived by other species. It is through light and similar waves that constellations communicate with each other, just as living beings detect each other by sight.
The liquid state depends on temperature, therefore on the igneous state. It is at the level of the melting or liquid state that the principle of life appears. It is especially perceived by man in the element water, which plays a fundamental role in the structures of living beings. It is associated with the sense of taste and the phenomenon of assimilation. Life originates from water. The characteristics of life are the consumption of energy and its transformation, which is expressed in man by the functions of feeding and reproduction, from which comes the importance of the sense of taste. Nonliving cells gather and combine. Living cells devour one another and reproduce themselves. It is in this sense that the sun is a living being, like all the stars, in a liquid state of consumption, production, and dispersion of energy.
Finally, the solid state appears, called earth, perceived by all the senses, to which the sense of smell is added. The sense of smell is related to the phenomenon of attraction and repulsion. The earth is seen as a womb, the starting point from which will develop all the forms of life in the world of which we are a part. It is called the mother. But it is also the prelude to death, for when all elements are reduced to the solid state, the universe becomes a desert without light or life.
The Powers of Perception and Action (Indriyä)
FROM the point of view of the human being,
the universe appears to be formed from only sixteen Tattvä(s), sixteen indentifiable aspects stemming from the principle of individuality. These are the five modes of interaction (tanmaträ[s]), the five forms of perception, and the five forms of action that correspond to them. To these fifteen constituents is added a sixteenth, which coordinates them, the mental (manas, seat of consciousness and thought). [Ibid.]
All living species possess senses and organs of perception and action that are developed to different degrees. Their relative predominance varies according to the species. As far as man is concerned, both types of senses are five in number. The number five is an essential characteristic of the structures that constitute the state of life. This is why man possesses five organs of perception of matter, which therefore appears to him to be formed from five elements which he perceives and which, from a certain point of view, he creates. (The importance of the factor five is not unexpected, since the living being is born from the association of a ternary masculine principle and a binary feminine principle.)
Particular species, subtle or living, can have another vision of the world, possess other organs that refer to a more or less extensive perception of the vibratory spectrum. In fact, all the senses are potentially present from the beginnings of existence, but are developed to a lesser or greater degree. In man, the five organs of perception and the five organs of action are as follows: for sound, the organ of speech (the vibratory element of ether) whose receptor is the ear and whose organ of action is the mouth; for touch (corresponding to air), the receptive organ is the skin, and the organ of action is the hand; for sight (the igneous element), related to directional movement, the receptive organ is the eye, the organ of action is the foot; for taste (related to the aqueous element and to the phenomenon of assimilation and reproduction), the receptive organ is the tongue and the organ of action is the genitals; for the sense of smell (related to the solid element and to the phenomenon of repulsion), the receptive organ is the nose and the organ of action is the anus.
In man, the sense organs work in association with the treble internal organ (the mental-intellect-ego). Perception can be instantaneous or gradual. The same applies to the perception of the invisible (distant, past, or future). The impulses of the senses (vritti) only function with a view to the realization of man's reason for existence (Purushârthä) (such as being a witness, etc.). They are an expression of the universal plan (Purushä) but are not directly controlled by it. [Sâmkhyä–Kâriâ, 30-31]
The Living Being
ALL beings issuing from Prariti, Primordial Nature, display comparable characteristics and are organized on the basis of a definite number of archetypes, fundamental mathematical graphs (mudrâ[s]), or geometric patterns (yanträ[s]), according to which all the structures of the universe are formed. However, all beings are not necessarily in similar conditions of materiality, or relative time or space. "The gods, spirits, men, and animals were originally born of the same formulae, of which they are different applications" (Commentary on the Sâmkhyä-Kârikâ, 40). "The thirteen constituents which are the basis of the development of all beings are the same" (Commentary on the Sâmkhyä-Kârikâ, 44–45)—whether we are speaking of a cell, a bacterium, or a complex being, a plant, animal, or man.
Animals perceive the elements, the stars, the harmony and beauty of the natural world, and possibly sense the presence of subtle forces that govern it. Animals anticipate earthquakes, the approach of death, and disasters. Man, like animals, perceives a particular aspect of the external world and has an intuition of the existence of the subtle world. Genetically, he inherits the senses, faculties, and modes of individual and social conduct necessary for his survival and his continuation as a species. But this set of abilities and knowledge is limited to the external aspect of things.
The role of living beings in creation is one of witnesses. It is their perceptions that give a visible reality to the divine dream. They form the audience for the divine play (lîlâ) of creation.
The principle of consciousness, of perception, is therefore the center around which living beings are constituted. However, the potentials of perception and knowledge operate within narrow limits corresponding, in each case, to a specific vision of the world. For this reason, the senses are instruments of perception, but also barriers that restrict its range. Beings living in conditions of different duration and dimension inevitably have different images of the world, which allow them to testify to another of the many facets of the divine game. Man's role as witness is more extensive than that of other living beings. It is man who possesses the potential to perceive, to try to figure out, the inner nature, the plan, of creation. He is an intermediary being between an animal and a god.
4
The Exploration of Man's Inner Universe
The Being of Flesh and the Being of Knowledge
MAN HAS A DOUBLE NATURE, A DOUBLE ROLE IN CREation; he is at once actor and spectator. Like other animals, he is the representative of a species whose harmony and beauty make up part of the spectacle, the theatrical diversion (lîlâ) of the creator. He transmits and develops the characteristics of his species through the genetic formulae contained in what the Sâmkhyä calls his Sexual Body (Lingä-Sharirä) or Transmigrant (or Transmittable) Body. On the other hand, he is inhabited by a consciousness and is the bearer of a heritage of knowledge that enables him to play his role of witness at the different stages of his evolution, to become aware of the various aspects of the world spectacle, and to discover little by little their secret nature. He thus accumulates a knowledge that he formulate
s and transmits from individual to individual by means of the symbols of language, thereby giving an overall role to his species.
Himself impermanent, man transmits his physical and mental characteristics through the genetic chain and, in parallel with this, the basis of his understanding of the cosmic world and its laws through the initiatic chain. There is an evolution on the one hand of his physical being and on the other of his cultural being.
The evolution of the physical being, the growth of the human species, like the progress of knowledge, does not occur in a single day. The development of the human animal takes place in the course of a long evolution, which follows a route parallel to the progress of knowledge.
There exists a concordance between the physical being and the intellectual and moral being. To be able to receive and transmit the heritage of knowledge, the individual must be qualified (adhikâri), that is, possessed of a physical harmony, and the moral virtues and capacities that form part of his genetic heritage, his transmittable Sexual Body. This is why man's destiny is determined by two factors, his membership in a physical line, which makes a good receptacle (pâträ) of him, and an initiatic line, which makes use of this receptacle.
Within man's destiny, it is the progress and transmission of knowledge that predominate and determine his destiny.
The Sexual Body (Lingä-Sharirä) or Transmittable Body
THE permanent transmittable element, the code that defines the possibilities of development of each individual, each link, is contained in the seed that transmits it. It is part of the plan, considered as a male principle, realized in the female matrix. Similarly, the universe is considered as issuing from the Lingä, the divine phallus fecundating Prakriti, the world substance. This is why the Sâmkhyä calls the living being's set of transmittable characteristics the Sexual Body.
The principle of life is symbolized by a column encircled by a serpent. The column, or phallus, is the image of Purushä (the male principle), that is, the plan or program; whereas the spiral, or serpent, represents Prakriti, substance, the feminine principle.
The moral, intellectual, and spiritual characteristics of the human being are profoundly linked to his physical being and cannot be separated from it.
The Lingä-Sharirä, the Sexual Body (as the plan or model of a species) preexists the physical development of its carrier. It emigrates and evolves. But it can only function when it be comes incarnate, although it remains independent of the body. It is characterized by a Dharmä, a goal to be accomplished, which continues when it leaves one body to take on another. [Sâmkhyä Kârikâ, 40]
The Lingä-Sharirä cannot subsist without a material support, without a physical body which lodges it, without a series of impermanent carriers, just as a picture cannot exist without a support, a shadow without a pillar. [Ibid., 41]
The Sexual Body is formed essentially of innate elements, but can, to a certain degree, acquire new ones. (This is why species can evolve. The development of the innate elements is achieved by the age of sixteen in the male. After this, one can only add acquired elements to them.) The capacities, tendencies, and intelligence of the living being are thus innate but can be modified by knowledge and virtue (dharmä), that is, by the conformity or nonconformity to the role given to the species. Furthermore, the habitat of the sexual body, the physical and mental substance of the living being which develops starting from the food it receives as an embryo, is perishable. [Ibid., 39, 43]
The individual depends for his development upon the terrain which nourishes the seed, which materializes the plan, that is to say, upon the maternal breast, then upon the fruits of the earth. The earth continues the role of the mother. The earth is identified with the female principle. It is the nourishing mother of living beings.
It is fundamental Nature, Pradhânä, present in the feminine aspect of all things, which determines the manner in which the data of the genetic code, the Lingä-Sharirä, unfold, more or less favorably, in the physical body. [Gaudpadä, Commentary on the Sâmkhyä Kârikâ, 40]
To accomplish the goal which is assigned to it in the creation ... the Sexual or Transmigrant Body, incarnated by the power of Nature (Pradhânä), behaves like an actor who plays one role after another. [Sâmkhyä-Kârikâ, 42]
The Nature of the Transmigrant Body
The Transmigrant Body is formed of thirteen components: the mental (manas), which discusses and invents; the intelligence (buddhi), which enregisters, chooses, and decides; and the notion of the "I" (ahamkarä), to which are added the five modes of perception manifested in the five senses and the five principles of the elements or states of matter. [Gaudpadä, Commentary on the Sâmkhyä-Kârikâ, 39]
This group of faculties forms "the internal organ" (antah-karanä). "Discussion (sanchayä), decision (nishchayä), memory (smaranä) and pride (garvä) or the sense of the "I", are the activities of the internal organ" (ibid., 40).
Intelligence, the organ which registers, selects, and retains the data of perception, is called Buddhi. Memory is a part of Buddhi.
The Mental (manas) is the organ that discusses, combines, and utilizes the data accumulated by Buddhi. It is the organ of thought, cogitation, and the formation of ideas.
Buddhi and Manas are physical organs. They form part of the body, and their structures are transmittable through the genetic code, although their contents, memory in particular, are, with rare exceptions, destroyed with the death of the physical body.
Consciousness (cit) also makes up part of the internal organ, but the Sâmkhyä considers that consciousness, the principle of all perception, remains an integral part of Mahat, the omnipresent universal consciousness found in every atom, every cellular organization, every astral system, every living organism. Although present in the Transmigrant Body, it is not a part of it. It can be compared to the space enclosed in an urn, which is never really distinct from the space which surrounds it and into which it dissolves when the urn is broken.1
Normally, we have no control over the functioning of the different organs of the enormous machine that constitutes our body. We can at the very most remedy the poor functioning of some of its wheels, oil a joint or two, aid the healing function of an injured organ, and practice physical and mental exercises to prevent the machinery from becoming rusty. The organized cells that form our body, acting in a totally independent manner, each play their role with a remarkable intelligence and autonomy over which we have no power and of which we have no consciousness. In fact, our consciousness, as an entire being, only concerns our social role.
Our internal organ can be compared to the driver of an automobile who is completely outside of the functioning of the motor's organ, constructed according to a preestablished plan, but which he must treat with care, nourish with fuel, and drive in the traffic among the dangers of terrestrial life. This "I" drives several cars, just as the Lingaä-Sharirä guides one body after another and perfects the art of driving in the course of its transmigrations. The used cars are sent to the demolition site to become parts for other machines. The driver in due course also dies. This marks the end of a line, a species. The elements that compose the Lingä-Sharirä then return to the general store, since, for the Sâmkhyä, the "In is but a temporary knot that forms between the various materials which constitute the internal organ. It dissolves at the time of death. Nevertheless, certain acquired elements have been able, accidentally, to impress the genetic memory and can be transmitted with it. This gives rise to the experience of déjà vu, impressions of previous lives, and the like.
For the person who has no descendents, who breaks the lineage of his ancestors, the "I" disappears at death, although it may sometimes attach itself for a time to certain subtle elements, producing phantoms.
At the end of a lineage, when the genetic plan is not transmitted, each subtle element returns to the general stock: the intellect to the universal intellect, the consciousness to the universal consciousness to be reused, just as the matter of the body returns to be used again in other bodi
es.
It is in regard to the nature of what eventually survives and the duration and density of the group of faculties which constitute the human person that, in India as elsewhere, the profound divergences between religions and theological and philosophical systems appear.
5
The Being of Knowledge
Universal Law (Sanâtanä Dharmä) and the Heritage of Knowledge
CERTAIN FORMS OF KNOWLEDGE, ALONG WITH THE SEcret of the rites and practices that connect man to the different levels of the natural and supranatural world, make up part of his role in creation. This role varies for the different ages of each of the species, thus presenting different mirrors in which universal consciousness contemplates its work. In order for humanity as a whole to play its role, an intellectual heritage must be transmitted in parallel with the genetic heritage, even if its transmission can only be made through a few individuals under a veiled and secret form in what is called the occult tradition. However threatened this knowledge, together with the principle of language which is its vehicle, may be, it can never completely disappear.
While the Gods Play Page 8