History of Indian Philosophy

SR No.: 007593
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Surendranath Dasgupta
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication Year: 1922
Total Pages: 2517
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 125 MB

Page 2219

XXXIII Ontology
403 and the word is used in various senses in various contexts; it may mean the essential power, the external power, and it has also the sense of pradhānal.
The author of the Șat-sandarbha denies the ordinary Vedāntic view that the Brahman is pure consciousness and the support (āšraya) of the objects (vişaya or māyā or ajñāna). He regards the relation between māyā and Brahman as transcendental and suprarational. Just as various conflicting and contradictory powers may reside in any particular medicine, so also various powers capable of producing manifold appearances may reside in Brahman, though the manner of association may be quite inexplicable and unthinkable. The appearance of duality is not due to the presence of ajñāna (or ignorance) in the Brahman, but through His unthinkable powers. The duality of the world can be reconciled with ultimate monism only on the supposition of the existence of the transcendent and supra-rational powers of God. This fact also explains how the power of God can transform itself into the material image without in any way affecting the unity and purity of God. Thus both the subtle jīvas and the subtle material powers of the universe emanate from Paramātman, from whom both the conscious and the unconscious parts of the universe are produced. Paramātman, considered in Himself, may be taken as the agent of production (nimitta-kārana), whereas in association with His powers He may be regarded as the material cause of the universe (upādāna-kāraņa)3. Since the power of God is identical with the nature of God, the position of monism is well upheld.
On the subject of the relation between the parts and the whole the author of the Șat-sandarbha says that the whole is not a conglomeration of the parts, neither is the whole the transformation of the parts or a change induced in the parts. Nor can the whole be regarded as different from the parts or one with it, or as associ
tadevam sandarbha-dvaye sakti-traya-vivrtih kṛtā. tatra nāmābhinnatajanita-bhrānti-hānāya samgraha-ślokāḥ māyā syād antarangāyām bahirangā ca sa smrtā
pradhāne'pi kvacid drstā tad-vrttir mohini ca să, ädye traye syāt prakytis cic-chaktis tvantarangikā śuddha-jive' pi te drste tatheśa-jñāna-viryayoh. cinmayā-sakti-urtyos tu vidyā-saktir udiryate cic-chakti-urttau māyāyām yoga-māyā samā smrtā pradhānāvyákytā-vyaktam traigunye prakşteh param
na māyāyām na cic-chaktāv ityādyūhyam vivekibhiḥ. Ibid. p. 245. 2 Ibid. p. 249.
3 Ibid. p. 250.