Structural Evolution and the Doctrine of Karma

Author(s): Harisatya Bhattacharya
Publisher: Z_Vijay_Vallabh_suri_Smarak_Granth_012060.pdf

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ACĂRYA VIJAYAVALLABHASŪRI COMMEMORATION VOLUME
evolution, the Adřsta as conceived in the Nyāya system, is absolutely free from it. For, although in direct opposition to the Sankhya doctrine, the Nyāya thinkers hold that the Sense-organs are Bhautika i.e. evolved from Matter, they admit a distinctly super-physical principle as the 'efficient cause of the organic evolution. A foetus is, no doubt, developed from the seminal fluid of the parents; but the seminal fluid does not in all cases develop the foetus. From this, the Nyāya thinker argues that in order that the foetus may grow out of the seminal matter, the hypothesis of Adřsta is necessary. This Adrsta is a super-physical principle, working from two directions, upon the germinal substance. On the one hand, Adrşğa is inherent in the parents,-a force which works upon the germinal matter of the parents towards the production of an offspring; on the other, there is the Adrsta of the future offspring, a pre-natal force, operating upon the parental germinal fluid, for its embodied emergence. According to the Nyāya philosophers, no foetus can grow out of the germinal substance, without the operation of this bilateral Adrsta and they contend further that each congenital peculiarity in an individual foetus is to be accounted for by the supposition of a corresponding peculiarity in the pre-natal Adřsta.
As regards the nature of Adrsta, the Nyāya thinkers have left us in no doubt. The Sănkhya philosophers held, as we have seen, that Adrsta was a force, inherent in Ahamkāra, a materio-vital principle, tinged with a form of reflected Consciousness. The Nyāya way of thinking avoids this somewhat ambiguous position and points out in clear terms that Adịşta is inherent in the Atmā or the conscious principle, which persists through its varied embodiments. To this Atmā, the Nyāya thinkers attribute, as we know, conscious desire', 'aversion', 'effort', 'feelings of pleasure and pain' and 'cognition', so that Adrsta attaching to Atmā and at the back of the organic evolution, implies that all congenital developments of and peculiarities in the embryo, are due to a pre-natal subconscious force, working upon the parental germinal matter, in accordance with its pre-determined inclinations and tendencies.
The Nyāya view of the Adřsta is opposed to the doctrine that Adrsta is inherent in the Manas-a view, which is attributed to the thinkers of the Sănkhya school. We may also recall in this connection that we have called the principle that transcends the purely material basis, the principle of 'Life-cum-Consciousness'. For reasons which need not be discussed here, Manas, as conceived by the Naiyāyikas, may be taken