Nyaya Science of Thought

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown

Page 22

16
NYAYA.
soul, in the same manner as all kinds of statues remain unmanifested in a slab of stone, they cannot be described as being created in the same way. There is no question of carving out anything in the case of an impression on the soul-substance, but only of a' waking up of a dormant state, or a setting free of that which was previously held in bonds.
Hence, all kinds of impressions, or states of consciousness, lie latent in the soul, and only need the removal * of causes which prevent their coming into manifestation, to emerge from the sub-conscious state.
For the foregoing reasons sense-perception implies no more than the resonance of an already existing impress, or idea-rhythm, set free to vibrate in response to the incoming stimulus. It is this responsive resonance of its own rhythm, hence, a state of its own consciousness, which is felt by the soul at the moment of cognition. It should be stated that the soul has no other means of knowing its own states than feeling them, though the word feeling is here used in its widest
* It will be seen that impressions arise not only from perception, but also from the activity of thought, since whenever a new idea is formed as the result of perception or inference a new impression is dis-covered' to onrich the stock of one's knowledge.