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470 The Philosophy of lijñāna Bhikṣu (CH. association be regarded as the consequence of some causal condition, it may well be said that such causality may be found in the mental states themselves. At least this would be a much simpler supposition than the primary assumption of a relationship of avidyā with pure consciousness and then to assume the operation of the mental states to dissolve it. The association of a veil with the mental states has to be admitted at least in the case of deep sleep, swoon or senility. Thus, if the veil has to be associated with the mental states, as the instrument of knowledge, it is quite unnecessary to assume it with reference to the self or pure consciousness. Patañjali, in his Yoga-sútra, has defined avidyā as a mental state which apprehends the non-eternal as the eternal, the impure as the pure, the pleasure as sorrow. It is not, therefore, to be regarded as a separate substance inseparably associated with pure consciousness. In the same way it is wrong to define knowledge as the cessation of avidyā, which belongs to the purusa in this capacity. The proper way of representing it would be to say that knowledge arises in the purusa with the cessation of avidyā in the mental states. With the rise of the final knowledge as “I am Brahman” towards which the whole teleological movement of the prakrti for the purusa was tending, the ultimate purpose of the prakrti for the sake of the purusa is realized, and that being so the teleological bond which was uniting or associating the buddhi with the purusa is torn asunder and the mind or the buddhi ceases to have any function to discharge for the sake of the puruṣa. With the destruction of false knowledge all virtue and vice also cease and thus there is the final emancipation with the destruction of the integrity of the buddhi. Avidyā (false knowledge), asmitā (egoism), rāga (attachment), dveșa (antipathy), abhiniveśa (self-love) may all be regarded as avidyā or false knowledge which is their cause, and avidyā may also be regarded as tamas which is its cause. This tamas obstructs the manifestation of sattva and it is for this reason that there is false knowledge. When the tamas is dominated by the sattva, the sattra manifests through its instrumentality the ultimate self. The words "knowledge" (jñāna) and "ignorance" (ajñāna) are used in the scriptures to denote sattva and tamas. The word tamas is used to denote ajñāna and there is no such ajnūna as indescribable or indefinite entity as is supposed by the Sankarites. In ordinary experiential knowledge this tamas is only temporarily removed, but
