Philosophies of India

SR No.: 007309
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Heinrich Zimmer, Joseph Campbell
Publisher: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd
Publication Year: 1953
Total Pages: 709
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 34 MB

Page 346

SANKHYA PSYCHOLOGY
Praksti is primal virgin matter, on which no change, transformation, or evolution has yet been brought to pass. Conversely, sars-kļ means "to transform something, to adorn, to grace, to decorate.” The vernacular speech of the uneducated is known as prakṣta (Engl. "Prakrit") while sarskȚta (Engl. "Sanskrit") is the classic language of the rules of established, correct grammar, based on the holy tradition of the priestly language of the Vedas-which in turn was a reflection of the language of the gods, and so a natural vehicle of divine truth. The verb sarsky means "to purify a person by means of scriprural ceremonies," i. e., to change him from an ordinary person, a mere human being, into a member of the sacramental, magic community, divested of his former crude impurities, and made eligible to participate in traditional ceremonials. Saṁskāra therefore is "purification, purity; investiture with the sacred thread of the twice-born,” 40 or, in general, any purificatory rite or sacred ceremony; but also "cooking, the dressing of food (to make it more palatable and attractive, depriving it of its natural, unappetizing, indigestible 'raw nature, prakyli), the polishing of a stone or jewel; education, cultivation, training, embellishment, decoration, ornament, and make-up" (the lack of make-up is permissible for housework, labor, and rustic toil, but not for meeting people; for it would indicate a lack of respect and selfesteem). Sarskāra, thus, is a rich and highly suggestive term. Its connotations cluster about the concept of "that which has becn wrought, cultivated, brought to form." But this, in the case of the individual, is the personality-with all its characteristic adornments, scars, and quirks-which for years, indeed for lifetimes, has been in the process of concoction.
Praksti, undeveloped, primitive matter, if left to itself, would
49 The members of the three upper castes are the "twice-born." The ritual of investiture with the sacred thread, performed at puberty, symbolizes the transformation which in the Christian tradition is associated with the baptismal font.
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