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Prakṛti and its modifications
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generate quite another kind of measure in the trasa-reņu. The world cannot thus be accepted as due to the conglomeration of atoms or trasa-reņus. Prakyti containing the three qualities of sattva, rajas and tamas has thus to be admitted as the primal matter. The state of it just preceding ahaņkāra and just following its state as prakṛti (the state in which, all its three qualities being the same, there is no manifestation of any particular quality) is called mahat. The next state, which follows mahat and precedes the senses, is called ahaṇkāra. The mahat and ahaṇkāra are not subjective states of buddhi or ego, as some Samkhyists would think, but are two successive cosmic stages of the prakṛti, the primeval cosmic matter. The ahaṇkāra is of three kinds, sāttvika, rājasa and tāmasa. The senses are not products of elements, as the Vaiseṣika supposed, but represent the functional cognitional powers in association with the eye, nose, skin, etc. It is manas whose states are variously called imagination, determination, etc. Lokācārya describes prakṛti as being of three kinds, namely (1) that which contains the purest sattva characters and forms the material of the abode of Isvara; (2) that which contains the threefold characters of sattva, rajas and tamas and forms the ordinary world for us. This is the field of Isvara's play. It is called prakṛti because it produces all transformations, avidya because it is opposed to all true knowledge, and māyā because it is the cause of all diverse creations. As we have mentioned before, the gunas of prakṛti are its qualities, and not the Samkhya reals. Creation is produced by the rise of opposite qualities in the prakṛti. The tan-matras are those states of matter in which the specific elemental qualities are not manifested. The order of the genesis of the tan-matras is described by some as follows: first the bhūtādi, from it sabda-tan-matra, and from that the ākāśa; again, from ākāśa comes sparśa-tan-mātra (vibration-potential), followed by vayu; from vāyu comes the rupa-tan-mātra (lightpotential) and from that tejas (light and heat); from tejas comes rasa-tan-mātra (taste-potential), and thence water; from water comes gandha-tan-matra (smell-potential), and from that earth. Other theories of the genesis of the bhūtas are also described, but we omit them here, as they are not of much value. Varavara says that time is regarded as the prakṛti without its sattva quality, but Venkatanatha speaks of time as existing in the nature of Isvara as a special form of His manifestation. Space (dik) is not an entity different
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