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LOKÄYATA-MATERIALISM.
891
TEXTS (1865-1868).
"TO ASSERT THAT CONSCIOUSNESS RESIDES IN THE FETUS, ETC. IS SHEER AUDACITY; NOTHING CAN BE COGNISED AT THAT STAGE, AS THE SENSE-ORGANS ARE NOT THERE; AND CONSCIOUSNESS CAN HAVE NO FORM OTHER THAN THE COGNITION OF THINGS ; IT IS FOR THIS SAME REASON THAT THERE IS NO CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE STATE OF Swoon. NoR CAN CONSCIOUSNESS EXIST THERE IN THE FORM OF A LATENT POTENOY; BECAUSE NO POTENCIES CAN EXIST WITHOUT A SUBSTRATUM ; AND AS THERE IS NO SOUL THAT COULD BE THAT SUBSTRATUM OF CONSCIOUSNESS, THE BODY IS THE ONLY SUBSTRATUM POSSIBLE FOR IT. SO THAT AT THE END, WHEN THE BODY HAS CEASED TO EXIST, WHEREIN COULD THE CONSCIOUS
NESS SUBSIST?"-(1865-1868)
COMIENTARY.
"The Sense-organ and the Object are the cause of the birth of Consciousness; because Consciousness consists only in the apprehension of things ; at the foetus-stage of the Body, neither the Sense-organs nor the Objects are there; how then could there appear the effect of these, in the form of Oonsciousness? Thus it is proved that on account of the absence of the Cause, there can be no Consciousness, even in a swoon-Such is the upshot of the whole.
* It cannot be right to assert that at that stage the Consciousness is there in the state of latent Potency. Because at that stage, there is no substratum for such a Potenoy, either in the shape of the Soul' postulated by the Naiyāyika, or in that of the Chain of Cognitions' (postulated by the Buddhist); and Potency cannot be there without & substratum. Hence it follows that on the ground of sheer capacity, the Body alone can be the substratum of Consciousness. For the simple reason that there is nothing else that could be the required substratum, either in the shape of the 'Chain of Cognitions or the Soul'. Consequently, at the end, when the Body dies, the substratum in the shape of the Body having ceased to exist, how could the Consciousness exist without a substratum ?
** Thus it is proved that there can be no Future Birth."-(1865-1868)