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344 OUTLINES OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY the jiva is spirit as immanent in the antah-karana, while the sāksin is spirit as transcendent.
By jñāna or knowledge in general we must understand in the system neither a vịtti of the internal organ nor the sāksin by itself, but a blend of both--the vștti as inspired by the sāksin. In jñāna thus understood, the vrtti element is contingent; the other, viz. the element of consciousness, is eternal, being intrinsically Brahman itself which, owing to its association with the vrttis that appear and disappear, only seems to be characterized by change, but is really untouched by it. It is sometimes termed sākşi-ināna to distinguish it from yrtti-jñāna or empirical knowledge which is a result of the interaction of subject and object. It is present always and it is impossible to think it away. It is the light of all our seeing' and does not cease to be even in deep sleep. The antah-karana may have modal transformations (pariņāma) other than vștti-jñāna, such as pain and pleasure. In fact, all internal states are viewed as its modes. But the system does not in theory regard those other states as states of consciousness so that they have to be known through a vrttijñāna. This distinction does not mean that pain and pleasure, for instance, may exist and yet be not experienced; for as states or modes of the internal organ they are necessarily illumined by the sākşin and are therefore known as they arise just as jñāna itself is. It only shows that the doctrine differentiates the cognitive from the other phases of the mind. If we take this explanation with what we have already stated, viz. that except in states like sleep the internal organ will be ceaselessly operating we see that the jiva is never without some jñāna or other.
Knowledge may be mediate or immediate, the distinction between the two being that while in the former only the 'that' of an object is known, in the latter, the 'what' also is revealed.3 Both kinds of knowledge are alike vsttis of the
This is expressed as follows in Sanskrit:-Antah-karana-visişto jivah; antah-karnopahitaḥ sāksi: VP. P. 102. · VP. PP. 79-82. 3 Mediate knowledge removes only the ignorance concerning the
