________________
OUTLINES OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY
psychologically the theory is realistic. When the vṛtti coincides with the object, perceptual knowledge arises. The coincidence of these two, since the vṛtti is a mode of the internal organ, is really the coincidence of the jiva and the object. They thus come to have the same ground; or the being of the object, as it is stated, ceases then to be different from the being of the subject. It is their identification in this manner that constitutes the third and the last of the conditions for an object being known immediately. Perception as conceived here is accordingly the result of a communion between the knower and the known; and it would therefore be more appropriate to describe the object as felt then rather than known. In the case of internal perception, when the first two conditions are satisfied, i.e. when the object is perceivable and is actually present at the time, the last condition is invariably fulfilled, for internal states like pain or pleasure are not, as already explained, different in fact from the vṛtti through which they are supposed to be experienced. So if those states admit of being directly perceived at all (yogya),3 they do become immediately known whenever they exist. If knowledge occurs when one or more of these conditions are lacking, it will be mediate. The table beyond the wall can be known only mediately, for the vṛtti cannot flow out to it to bring about the needed relation, contact with one or other sensory organ being a necessary condition for the starting out of the antaḥ-karana towards the object. But even here, we should remember, a vṛtti is recognized, though it remains internal.
The above view of knowledge implies a classification of objects into those that can be directly known and those that cannot be so known. They may belong to the external world or may be states or modes of the internal organ. External I VP. p. 77.
346
2 'The theory of perception adopted by the Advaita Vedanta is rather crude on the scientific side, though its metaphysical insight is valuable.' IP. vol. ii. pp. 492-3.
3 For example, religious merit (punya) and demerit (papa), which also are regarded as modes of the antaḥ-karaṇa, are not perceivable because they lack this condition of yogyatva or fitness. They are only inferable or knowable through verbal testimony.
