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III ADHYÂYA, 3 PÂDA, 54.
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trained as he may be, cannot mount on his own shoulders. As little could consciousness, if it were a mere quality of the elements and their products, render them objects of itself. For form and other (undoubted) qualities do not make their own colour or the colour of something else their objects; the elements and their products, on the other hand, whether external or belonging to the Self (the organism) are rendered objects by consciousness. Hence in the same way as we admit the existence of that perceptive consciousness which has the material elements and their products for its objects, we also must admit the separateness of that consciousness from the elements. And as consciousness constitutes the character of our Self, the Self must be distinct from the body. That consciousness is permanent, follows from the uniformity of its character (and we therefore may conclude that the conscious Self is permanent also; as also follows) from the fact that the Self, although connected with a different state, recognises itself as the conscious agent-a recognition expressed in judgments such as I saw this,'--and from the fact of remembrance and so on being possible 1
The argumentation that consciousness is an attribute of the body because it is where a body is, is already refuted by the reasons stated above. Moreover, perceptive consciousness takes place where there are certain auxiliaries such as lamps and the like, and does not take place where those are absent, without its following therefrom that perception is an attribute of the lamp or the like. Analogously
1 The nityatvam ka' of the text might perhaps be connected directly with 'atmano.' Ananda Giri on the entire passage: Bhavatu tarhi bhūtebhyo tiriktà svâtantryopalabdhis tathâpi katham âtmasiddhis tatrâha upalabdhîti, kshanikatvat tasya nityâtmardpatvam ayuktam ity âsankyâgânatas tadbhedâbhâvâd vishayoparâgât tadbhânâd asâv eva nityopalabdhir ity aha nityatvam keti, kim ka sthQladehâbhimânahînasya svapne pratyabhigñânâd atiriktâtmasiddhir ity aha aham iti, svapne sthåladehântarasyaivopalabdhritvam ity asankyâha smrityâdîti, upalabdhrismartror bhede saty anyopalabdhes nyasya smritir ikkhâdayas ka neti na tayor anyatety arthah.
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