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XXII] A General Idea of Vijñāna Bhikṣu's Philosophy 453 in accordance with their karmas. God helps the process only by letting it go on in an unobstructed manner?. In another passage he says that God perceives within Himself as parts of Him the jīvas and their conditioning factors (upādhi) as associated with merit and demerit (dharma and adharma); associating these conditions with the jīvas He brings them out of Himself. He is thus the maker of souls, just as the potter is the maker of pots?
The self is regarded as being itself untouchable and devoid of any kind of association (a-sanga). The association between prakrti and puruşa, therefore, is not to be interpreted in the sense of a direct contact in the ordinary sense of the term, but the association is to be understood only as transcendental reflection through the conditioning factors which make the pure soul behave as a phenomenal self or jīva. The self has no knowledge as its quality or character, and is in itself pure consciousness, and there is at no time a cessation of this consciousness, which exists even during dreamless sleep. But in dreamless sleep there is no actual knowledge, as there is no content present at the time; and it is for that reason that the consciousness though present in the very nature of the self cannot be apperceived. The vāsanās or desires existing in the antahkaraṇa cannot affect the pure soul, for at that time the antaḥkarana remains in a dissolved condition. Knowledge of contents or objects is possible only through reflections from the states of the buddhi. The pure consciousness being identical with the self, there cannot also be the self-consciousness involving the notion of a duality as subject and object during dreamless sleep. The pure consciousness remains the same and it is only in accordance with changes of mental state that knowledge of objects arises and passes away. The jīvas are thus not to be regarded as themselves the products of the reflection of paramātman as the Sankarites suppose; for in that case the jīvas would be absolutely unreal, and bondage and emancipation would also be unreal.
i Vijñānā-mrta-bhāsya, II. I. 33.
2 Iśvaro hi svā-msa-sua-sarīrā-msa-tulyau jīva-tad-upādht svā-ntar-gatau dharmā-di-sahitau sākşād eva paśyann a-para-tantrah sva-līlayā samyoga-višeşam brahma-dīnām api dur-vibhāvyam kurvat kumbhakāra iva ghatam. Ibid. 11. 1. 13.
3 Ibid. 11. 3. 5.
