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The Philosophy of Vijñāna Bhikṣu [CH. (svo-pādhistha-nityā-nanda-bhoktặtram tu paramā'tmano'pi asti). When the scriptural texts deny the enjoyment of the experiences of pleasure and pain with regard to the Supreme puruşa, the idea is that though the Supreme puruşa underlies the ordinary puruṣas as their ground yet he is not in any way affected by their experiences (ekasminn era buddhāv avasthānena jīva-bhogataḥ prasaktasya paramā-tma-bhogasyai'ra prutisedhaḥ). So the Supreme puruşa has in common with ordinary purusas certain experiences of his own. These experiences of pure eternal bliss are due to the direct and immediate reflection of the bliss in the puruşa himself, by which this bliss is directly and immediately experienced by him. By such an experience the purusas cannot be admitted to suffer any change. Ile can, however, be aware of the mental states of ordinary persons as well as their experiences of pleasure and pain in a cognitive manner (such as that by which we know external objects) without being himself affected by those experiences. This enjoyment of experience is of course due to the action of God's mind through ihe process of reflection.
The monism of such a view becomes intelligible when we consider that the purusa, the mahat, the ahamkāra and ail its products exist in an undifferentiated condition in the very essence of God. The ultimate purușa as the supreme cognitive principle underlies the very being of puruṣas and the faculties such as the buddhi and the ahamkāra, and also all in later material products. For this reason, by the underlying activity of this principle all our cognitions become possible, for it is the activity of this principle that operates as the faculties of the origins of knowledge. In the case of the experience of pleasure and pain also, though these cannot subsist outside the mind and may not apparently be regarded as requiring any separate organ for their illumination, yet in their case also it is the mind, the buddhi, that behaves as the internal organ. So though pleasures and pains cannot be regarded as having an unknown existence, yet their experiences are also interpreted as being due to their reflection in the mind.
When the mahat becomes associated with the purusa and no distinction is felt between it, the purusas and the original groundcause, it is then that the cycle of world-existence appears. It is the super-consciousness of God that holds together the objective and the subjective principles. The objective principle, the praksti, and
