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NYÀYA THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
by the past experiences of a self in this or a previous life. Even the body and the senses cannot function unless they are connected with the self. Hence the self is called the guiding principle of the body and the senses (indriyādyadhisthātā). In the case of external perception the self comes in contact with the object through the medium of the mind and the external senses. When we have the perception of an external object, the self is in contact with the mind, the mind with the external sense concerned, and the external sense with the object of perception. In the case of internal perception the mediation of external sense is unnecessary. Here the object is in contact only with the internal sense, called manas. We shall consider internal perception later on.
Like the older school of Western realism, the NyāyaVaiseșika system accepts the substantialist theory of the self. But their view of the self differs from that of the realists in two important respects. For the realists consciousness or intelligence is an essential and inseparable attribute of the soul. The soul cannot exist without the attribute of consciousness. For the Nyāya-Vaišeşikas, bowever, the soul is in itself an unconscious substance. Consciousness is an accidental property of the soul, due only to its temporary connection with the body. Then, while the realists conceive the individual soul at least to be a limited substance, the Nyāya-Vaišeşikas take all souls ag unlimited and all-pervading substances (vibhu). But the Nyāya view of the self is untenable. If the soul be a substance we do not understand how it can exist without its distinctive attribute of consciousness and still be called the self. Without consciousness the soul is indistinguishable from matter. Again, to say that the soul is in itself pure
INS , 31.19 fi · BP., 47. 8 TB., p. 5.
