Indian Philosophy

Author(s): Sukhlal Sanghavi
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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World : The Non-Conscious Element
to sense-perception there is absolutely no difference of opinion about positing them. Similarly, conceived as the substratum of the four elements in question the element ether too is posited unanimously. As denoting these five elements there came to be employed the word 'bhūta' -- implying thereby that these elements do exist and are also real. Just as a tree stands fixed on its stem (=skandha) so also does this world-canopy stands fixed on these five bhūtas. Hence it is that these five bhūtas were also called skan. dhas. The word “dhātu' too has a similar connotation. Whatever sustains (=dbārana) or nourishes the world is dhatu-understood exactly in the same fashion as the fact that wind, phlegm and cough are called dhātu inasmuch as they sustain or nourish body. The word "kāya' connotes an organized configuration, and the five elements in question are also called kāya because they constitute so many configurations of this world. And since these very elements exhibit a current or flow (=drava) of the various qualites and actions observable on the standing-board of space and time they are also called 'dravya'. Thus came into existence the assumption that the world is made up of five bhūtas. These five bkūtas are found mentioned in Upanişads as also in the old texts of Buddhists, Jainas etc.
However, as research proceeded further and turned its attention towards a subtle cause lying at the back of the sense-perceptible gross physical world the philosophical sect positing five bhūtas stood isolated. It just stagnated and began to demonstrate that there exists nothing besides the five bhūtas. This view is known by the name 'Barhaspatya', 'Lokāyata', 'Paurandara' or 'Cārvāka'. In the course of time there arose within it a tradition according to which there exists just four bhūtas-that is, the above five minus ether, The Philosophical Trends Seeking for a Subtle Cause
The philosophers who did not rest content with a consideration of the sense -perceptible elements alone began to bestow thought on the cause of these elements themselves. They realized that the visible physical elements come into existence and go out of existence. Moreover, whatever thing is of the form of an effect must possess a cause while an effect can in no case be dissimilar to its cause-taking recourse to such a principle of causal relationship and a principle of similarity they began their causal investigation. Among them, those who chiefly had a predilection for the elemeat air posited air in the form of the root-cause and on the basis thereof accounted for the observable world-creation, Similarly, those who venerated the element water, fire or ether posited one of these as the single root-cause and accounted for the world-creation in their respective manners. Tous came into existence various philosophical trends in connection with
1 See Ajitakesakambali's view in Samaññaphalasutta; Sūtrakstānga 1.1.17 and 'Bhutāni
yoniḥ'--Svetasvataropanişad 1.2.