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The Buddhist objection that there was no permanent self could be well warded off by the Vedanta by appealing to the verdict of our notion of self-identity—which could not be explained on the Buddhist method by the supposition of two separate notions of a past ‘‘that self” and the present “‘T am.” Nor can consciousness be regarded as being nothing more than a series of passing ideas or particular awarenesses; for on such a theory it would be impossible to explain how we can react upon our mental states and note their differences. Conscious- ness has thus to be admitted as permanent. Against the second opponent, the Naiyayika, the Vedanta urges that the self is not the inferred object to which awarenesses, volitions or feelings belong, but is directly and immediately intuited. For, had it not been so, how could one distinguish his own experiences as his own and as different from those of others? The internalness of my own experiences shows that they are directly intuited as my own, and not merely supposed as belonging to some self who was ' the possessor of his experiences. For inference cannot reveal the 72 The Sankara School of Vedanta [cH. internalness of any cognition or feeling. Against the third opponent, the Mimamsaka, the Vedanta urges that the self-revealing character belongs to the self which is identical with thought—as against the Mimamsa view, that thought as a self-revealing entity revealed the self and the objects as different from it. The identity of the self and thought and the self-revealing character of it are also urged; and it is shown by a variety of dialectical reasoning that such a supposition is the only reasonable alternative that is left to us. This self as pure consciousness is absolutely impersonal, un- limited and infinite. In order to make it possible that this one self should appear as many individuals and as God, it is supposed that it manifests itself differently through the veil of maya. Thus, according to the Siddhanta-lesa, it is said in the Prakatartha- vivarana that, when this pure consciousness Is reflected through the beginningless, indescribable maya, it is called ISvara or God. But, when it is reflected through the limited parts of maya containing powers of veiling and of diverse creation (called avidya), there are the manifestations of individual souls or jivas. It is again said in the Tattva-viveka of Nrsimhasrama that, when this pure con- sciousness is reflected through the pure sattva qualities, as domi- nating over other impure parts of prakrti, there is the manifestation of God. Whereas, when the pure consciousness is reflected through the impure parts of rajas and tamas, as dominating over the sativa part of prakrti (called also avidya), there are the manifestations of the individual selves or jivas. The same prakrti in its two aspects, as predominating in sattva and as predominating in rajas and tamas, goes by the name of maya and avidya and forms the con- ditioning factors (upadhi) of the pure consciousness, which on account of the different characters of the conditioning factors of maya and avidya appear as the omniscient God and the ignorant individual souls. Sarvajfiatma Muni thinks that, when the pure consciousness is reflected through avidyd, it is called Igvara, and, when it is reflected through mind (antahkarana), it is called jiva. These various methods of accounting for the origin of indi- vidual selves and God have but little philosophical significance. But they go to show that the principal interest of the Vedanta lies in establishing the supreme reality of a transcendental principle of pure consciousness, which, though always untouched and un- attached in its own nature, is yet the underlying principle which xI] Vedantic Cosmology 73 can explain all the facts of the enlivening and enlightening of all our conscious experiences. All that is limited, be it an individual self or an individual object of awareness, is in some sense or other an illusory imposition of the modification of a non-conscious principle on the principle of consciousness. The Vedanta is both unwilling and incapable of explaining the nature of the world- process in all its details, in which philosophy and science are equally interested. Its only interest is to prove that the world- process presupposes the existence of a principle of pure conscious- ness which is absolutely and ultimately real, as it is immediate and intuitive. Reality means what is not determined by anything else; and in this sense pure consciousness is the only reality—and all else is indescribable—neither real nor unreal; and the Vedanta is not interested to discover what may be its nature. Vedantic Cosmology. From what has been said above it is evident that maya (also called avidya or ajfdna) is in itself an indefinable mysterious stuff, which has not merely a psychological existence, but also an ontological existence as well. It is this ajfiana which on the one hand forms on the subjective plane the mind and the senses (the self alone being Brahman and ultimately real), and on the other hand, on the objective plane, the whole of the objective universe. This ajfiana has two powers, the power of veiling or covering (avarana) and the power of creation (viksepa). The power of veiling, though small, like a little cloud veiling the sun with a diameter of millions of miles, may, in spite of its limited nature, cover up the infinite, unchangeable self by veiling its self-luminosity as cognizer. The veiling of the self means veiling the shining unchangeable self-perception of the self, as infinite, eternal and limitless, pure consciousness, which as an effect of such veiling appears as limited, bound to sense-cognitions and sense-enjoy- ments and functioning as individual selves!. It is through this covering power of ajfdna that the self appears as an agent and an enjoyer of pleasures and pains and subject to ignorant fears of rebirth, like the illusory perception of a piece of rope in darkness as a snake. Just as through the creative power of ignorance a piece of 1 yastuto jndnasyatmachadakatvabhave ’pi pramatr-buddhimatrachadakatvena - ajnanasyatmachadakatvam upacarad ucyate. Subodhini on Vedanta-sara, p. 13, Nirnaya-Sagara Press, Bombay, 1916. 74 The Sankara School of Vedanta [cH. rope, the real nature of which is hidden from view, appears as a snake, so does ignorance by its creative power create on the hidden self the manifold world-appearance. As the ajfana is supposed to veil by its veiling power (avarana-sakti) only the self-cognizing and self-revealing aspect of the self, the other aspect of the self as pure being is left open as the basis on which the entire world- appearance is created by the creative power thereof. The pure consciousness, veiled as it is by ajf#ana with its two powers, can be regarded as an important causal agent (nimitta), when its nature as pure consciousness forming the basis of the creation of the world- appearance is emphasized ; it can be regarded as the material cause, when the emphasis is put on its covering part, the ajadna. It is like a spider, which, so far as it weaves its web, can be regarded as a causal agent, and, so far as it supplies from its own body the materials of the web, can be regarded as the material cause of the web, when its body aspect is emphasized. The creative powers (viksepa-sakti) of ajfana are characterized as being threefold, after the manner of Samkhya prakrti, as sativa, rajas and tamas. With the pure consciousness as the basis and with the associated creative power of ajfana predominating in tamas, space (@kasa) is first produced ; from @kasa comes air, from air fire, from fire water, from water earth. It is these elements in their fine and uncompounded state that in the Samkhya and the Purdnas are called tan-mdtras. It is out of these that the grosser materials are evolved as also the subtle bodies!. The subtle bodies are made up of seventeen parts, 1 As to how the subtle elements are combined for the production of grosser elements there are two different theories, viz. the trivrt-karana and the pajici- karana. The trivrt-karana means that fire, water and earth (as subtle elements) are each divided into two halves, thus producing two equal parts of each; then the three half parts of the three subtle elements are again each divided into two halves, thus producing two quarter parts of each. Then the original first half of each element is combined with the two quarters of other two elements. Thus each element has half of itself with two quarter parts of other two elements. Vacaspati and Amalananda prefer trivrt-karana to pafici-karana; for they think that there is no point in admitting that air and a@ka@sa have also parts of other elements integrated in them, and the Vedic texts speak of trivrt-karana and not of pafici-karana. The pajici-karana theory holds that the five subtle elements are divided firstly into two halves, and then one of the two halves of these five elements is divided again into four parts, and then the first half of each subtle element is combined with the one-fourth of each half of all the other elements excepting the element of which there is the full half as a constituent. Thus each element is made up of one-half of itself, and the other half of it is constituted of the one-fourth of each of the other elements (i.e. one-eighth of each of the other four elements), and thus each element has at least some part of other elements integrated into it. This view is supported by the Vedanta-paribhasa and its Sikhamani commentary, p. 363. XI] Vedantic Cosmology 75 excluding the subtle elements, and are called siaksma-Sarira or linga-sarira.