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TATTVA-KAUMUDĪ
(96) 'Objection':-"How can you assert the Spirit to be the reverse' of the Manifest and the Unmanifest; Objection-There when we see that there are points of similaare points of simi
larity also beween rity between the Spirit and the Unmanifestthe soul and the such as being without cause', 'eternal'
Manifest as well
as the Unmanifest and so on-as also between the Spirit and the Manifest-such as being multiform' ?"
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[X.96
Answer: 'Yet also similar';-that is to say, though there are points of similarity, such as being without cause' and the rest, yet there are points there are points of of dissimilarity also, in the form of being similarity as well as of dissimilarity devoid of the three Attributes and the rest.
The objection conceded to
(97) The Manifest and the Unmanifest have been described as having 'three Attributes'.* Now the question arisesWhat are these three Attributes, and what is their characteristic. The author answers this question in the following text:
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*This word 'Attribute' requires some explanation It stands for the Gunas of the Samkhyas-a term denoting the constituent elements of Nature or Primordial Matter;-as says Colebrooke-" These three qualities are not mere accidents of Nature, but are of its essence and enter into its composition. On this Davies remarks- Nature or Primordial Matter is described, in the system of Kapila as formed by the Gunas, which were primarily in equilibrium, and so long as this state existed. there was no emanation into separate forms of matter." And, as we shall see later on, this inert condition of Nature is disturbed by the subsequent predominance of the Attribute of Rajas. Davies has rendered this im. portant word-'Guna'-by 'Mode'. This is apt to mislead. For Mode, as understood by Western philosophers, is an affection of a substance, quality which it may have or not, without effecting its essence or existence." The Guna of the Samkhyas, however, is almost the reverse of this-it belongs to a substance as constituting its very essence. I have preferred to translate Guna as Attribute'-using the latter term in the sense imparted to it specially, by Spinoza, who thus distinguishes between Attribute and Mode: "By Attribute, I understand that which the mind perceives of substance as constituting its essence; by Mode, I understand the affections of substances, etc."
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