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XXIV] Kapila's philosophy in the Bhāgavata-purāņa thus not a product of prakyti but the transcendent activity of God, through which the unmanifested prakrti is transformed into the gross world and by which all the discrete entities appear as wholes. In God this time exists as His inherent power of activity. It has been pointed out in the last section how Jiva considered time to be the active element of the māyā and the guņas the passive element.
The first category evolved from the praksti is mahat, which contains the germs of the entire universe; it is pure translucent sattva (also called citta and Vāsudeva according to the terminology of the Bhāgavata cult). From the category of mahat the threefold ahamkāra, viz. vaikārika, taijasa and tāmasa, was produced. In the terminology this ahamkāra is called Samkarşana. All activity, instrumentality and transformatory character as effect is to be attributed to this ahamkāra. The category of manas is produced from the vaikārika ahamkāra, and it is called Aniruddha in the terminology of the Bhāgavata cult. The Bhāgavata cult here described believed in three vyūhas of Vāmadeva, Samkarsana and Aniruddha, and therefore there is no mention here of the production of the Pradyumna-vyūha. Pradyumna in this view stands for desire; desires are but functions of the category of manas and not a separate category. From the taijasa-ahamkāra the category of buddhi is evolved. It is by the functions of this category that the functioning of the senses, the cognition of objects, doubts, errors, determinateness, memory and sleep are to be explained. Both the conative and cognitive senses are produced from the taijasaahamkāra. From the tāmasa-ahamkāra the sound-potential (sabdatanmātra) is produced, and from it the element of ākāśa is produced. From the element of akāśa the heat-light-potential (rūpatanmātra) is produced, and from that the element of light, and so on.
The puruşa is immersed in the prakrti, but nevertheless, being unchangeable, qualityless and absolutely passive, it is not in any way touched by the qualities of prakyti. It has already been pointed
1 This view of time is different from the yoga view of time as moments (as explained by Vijñāna-bhikṣu in his Yoga-vārttika, III. 51). There a moment is described as the movement of a guna particle through a space of its own dimension, and the eternity of time is definitely denied. Time in that view can only be the discrete moments.
2 Ibid. III. 26. 27. yasya manasaḥ sankalpa-vikalpābhyām käma-sambhavo varttata iti kāma-rūpā vrttilaksanatvena uktā na tu pradyumna-vyūhotpattih tasya sankalpädi-kāryatvābhāvåt. (Sridhara's comment on the above.)
3 Those who believe in four vyūhas call this the pradyumna-vyuha.
