Mircea Eliade YOGA IMMORTALITY AND ... - Brihaspati.net

procession") under review. Other texts: Samkhya-Sutra, I, 129, II, 10, 15; Isvara Krsna,
Samkhya-Karika, 3, 40, 56; Vyasa. ad. Yoga-Sutra, II, 19, etc..
(Hence the expression of ahamkara; aham = ego). By adopting this apperceptive mass,
the process of "evolution" is divided into two opposite di-rection, of which one leads to
the world of phenomenological less objective, the other that of subjective phenomena
(sensitive and psychomental). The ahamkara has the power to transform qualitatively,
according to any of the three predominant guna.
When sattva predominates (the mode of brightness, purity and understanding) within the
ahamkara, make their appearance the five cognitive senses (jnanendruya) and sisters, "the
internal sense," the latter serves as a link of union between perceptual activity and the
activity biomotriz (Aniruddha, comment on Samkhya-Sutra, II, 40), base and receptacle
of all impressions, coordinates the biological and psychological, including the
subconscious. When, however, the equilibrium is dominated by the rajas (energy driving
experience that makes possible any physical or cognitive) are the five senses cona-tion
(Karmendriya) who are breaking through. Finalrnente when it comes to tamas (inertia of
matter, the darkness of the conscience, the barrier of the passions), are the five Tanmatra,
the five elements "subtle" (potential), the genetic core of the world fi-physical, they
appear. Of these Tanmatra derived as a process of condensation that tends to produce
increasingly coarse structures, atoms (paramanu) and molecules (sthulabhutani-literally,
"thick material particles), which in turn give rise to organisms We plant (vriksa) and
animals (sarira). Thus, the human body, as well as their "states of consciousness" and
even his' intelligent cia "are all creations of one and the same substance.
Observe that, according to the Samkhya and Yoga, the Universe-ob-jective or subjective
is but the evolution of an initial phase of nature (ahamkara), that where he first emerged,
homogeneous mass and energy the consciousness of individuality-ity, a apperception
illuminated by the ego. For a double process of development and creation, I think the
double ahamkara universe inside and outside, counting those two worlds with elective
mutual correlation. Each direction corresponds to a specific atom, the same as each atom
corresponds to a Tanmatra * But every
4 For example, the "sound-potential" (Sadbh-Tanmatra) produces, by agglutination with
the molecules' the atom space (akasa-anu) which correspond to each do these products
contain the three guna, but in unequal proportions; each product is characterized by the
supremacy of a guna, or, in the later stages of creation, by the predominance of a
Tanmatra.
It is important to understand the notion of evolution in the Samkhya. Parinama means
development of what exists potentially in the Mahat. It is not a creation, not a surpassing,
or realization of new forms of existence, but simply the actualization of the existing
potentials in the prakriti (beneath his housing-te mahat). Compare "the evolution" in the
Indian sense, a! Western-organism evolve, it would grow large contusion. No form is
new, says the Samkhya. exceeds the possibilities of existence-were already in the
Universe. In fact, for the Samkhya, nothing is created in the Western sense of the word.
The creation exists from eternity and shall not ever be destroyed, but will return to its
original appearance of absolute equilibrium (the vast resorption, Mahapralaya).
This concept of change is justified by a particular theory of causation. Because if the
effect exceeded the cause, which would have serious serial in quantum causes a non-