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Appendix - D: Sárikhya System
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Prakrti and its products are not self-manifested but depend for their manifestation on the light of Puru şa. Pleasure and pain which we experience really belong to Buddhi. Puruşa’ is unrelated to Praksti. It is a mere witness, a passive spectator. All this is consistent with the Sárkhya view that 'Puruşa’ is Kūšastha'.
Then the problem is how this mere witness and a passive spectator which the Puruşa is, comes to be bounded by karmas. This is a paradoxical situation the solution of which, as offered by Sā likhya, has not satisfied many philosophers.
Shri S. Radhakrishnanl explains this problem as under :
“Vijñanabhikṣu says that 'Puruşa’ with Aharikára is the 'Jiva', and not ‘Puruşa’ in itself. While the pure self remains beyond Buddhi, the reflection of Puruşa in Buddhi appears as the ego, the cogniser of all our states, pleasures and pains included. We have the notion of self in Buddhi when we do not know that the self is beyond Buddhi and different from it in character and knowledge.” The learned author further writes :
*Activity belongs to the Buddhi, one of the products of Prakrti, nevertheless, on account of its union with Puruşa, the indifferent Puruşa appears as an actor. Actual agency belongs to 'Antaḥ-karana' or the inner organ, which is lighted up by Puruşa. The unconscious ‘Antah-karana' cannot by itself be an agent, but is invested with consciousness....... Praksti acts and Puruşa enjoys the fruit of action. Happiness and misery belong to the modes of Praksti and Puruşa is said to be experiencing them through its ignorance ......Puruşa passively observing the working of Praksti, forgets its true nature, and is deluded into belief that it thinks, feels and acts. It identifies itself with a particular finite form of existence, animal body, and is thus shut out from the true life...... When Praksti acts, the Puruşa experiences the fruits, since the acti
1. Radhakrishnan, S. : Indian Philosophy, Vol. II, p. 283, 2. Ibid, pp. 285-286.
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