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CONFLUENCE OF OPPOSITES
(7) The data of sensations are then projected and constitute the perceptible world.
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(7) The data of sensations, i. e., the subtle elements of smell, etc., are transformed into the five gross elements, ether, air, fire, water and earth of which the phenomenal world is composed.
It is thus clear that the metaphysical inspiration of Kapila was derived from the simple analogy of an awakening consciousness. It must be now evident that Kapila knows nothing of an outside world apart from the projections of his own mind, i. e. the transformations of his own sensations, touch, smell and the like. Unfortunately for this view, it never seems to have occurred to Kapila that a sensation did not wholly originate in the mind, and that there was such a thing as external stimulus which played an important part in our sensations. Had he noticed this distinguishing feature of sensation, he would not have described the gross elements, fire, water, etc., as transformations of the subtle tanmåtras of sensations.
Time does not permit my going into the further inaccuracies of the system of Sankhya about the correspondence of elements and sensations, the relations of elements amongst themselves, and the like. You will find some of them dealt with in my Key of Knowledge to which I am content to refer you for further information.
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