Samayasara

Author(s): A Chakravarti
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 78

SAMAYASARA
earth from smell, water from taste and fire from visibility or light. Thus the five bhutas are respectively derived from the five Tanmatras, the basic categories of the physical universe. This line of development from ahmkara to the world of physical things represents only one side of the process. There is another process of development from the same source--from ahamkāra or the principle of individuality. We have the principle of building up the organic. This process of building up the organic body consists in the evolution of the five buddhindriyas or organs of sense-perception and five karmendriyas or the organs of activity and manaindriya--the organ of thought. The five organs of sense-perception are the five familiar sense organs--Eye, ear, nose, tongue and the skin. These sense-organs according to the Samkhya system are evolved out of the principle of individuality, ahamkara. So also are the five Karmendriyas which are the vocal organs for speech, the hands, the feet, the organs of excretion and the generative organs. These five Buddhindriyas and the five Karmendriyas together with the manas are the eleven Indriyas derived from Ahamkara. Thus the pri. meval cosmic principle Praksti evolving upto ahamkāra branches off into two lines of development one leading upto the cosmos and the other to the building up of the body which serves as the temporal tabernacle for the Purusa. Thus the Samkhya Tattvas which are derived from Praksti are 24 in number. These together with Puruşa constitute the 25 Samkhya Tattvas.
The Nature of Prakyti—Praksti is otherwise called Avyakta or the unmanifest or Pradhana or the primary basis of existence. When we look to the process of evolution of the different Tativas enumerated above we find this Praksti as the fountain source of not only the elements that go to build up the physical universe but also of those that lead to the origin of organised living bodies. This primeval subtle matter Praksti may be some kind of Ether which early Samkhyas may be said to have imagined. This is the connecting link between the gross matter on the one hand and lifeactivity on the other, the fountain source of both the inorganic and the organic. Even according to modern Science Ether is the primeval source of matter. According to what is known as the electron theory of matter, the physical atom is a complex system of electrons. Thus the physical basis of matter is traced to Ether which is the basis of forces like electricity, magnetism, light, heat, etc. The process of development of physical science is interesting in this respect. Towards the close of the 19th century there was the wonderful analysis of the physical realm into a definite number of chemical elements out of which the whole cosmos was built, Science then recognised two fundamental concepts mass and energy as constitutive of matter. The speculation of Maxwell and Thompson ultimately indicated that Mass was but a derivative concept, Energy being the primary one. The next step was reached when the electrical theory of matter was propounded. This leads to the complete identity of all forms