CHAPTER XIV.

JivA-AxoMS— OBJECTIVELY, /".
After the above general treatment of the Jiva- atom we may now take the two aspects of it separately and in a little more detail. And of these two we may dispose of the particular, the atom-aspect, first, leaving for later treatment the other aspect of the individual, the Jiva, the discussion of which is the main purpose of the rest of the work, reference to the material side of life being made only as necessary to explain and illustrate the spiritual side.
In the first place, the attributes common to the Jiva and the atom, viz., size,1 life, and vibra- tion, may be further particularised with respect to the atom.
Size, in this reference, may be said to break up into the triplet of ' bulk or volume,' ' shape or form,' and ' measure, magnitude, or dimen- sion-,' as including both the others. And these again may be looked at as ' large, small,
1 The significance of the word size in reference to the Jtva is explain d at the outset of the next chapter.
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average,' ' long, round, ovoid,' ' linear, plane, cubical,' &c.
A hypothesis may be advanced here as to form.
It has been said above that, under the stress of the necessity embodied in the logion, etats appear in pseudo-infinite number as constituent points of the manifold Mula-prakriti. It has also been said that by that same necessity they are never actually points without magnitude but points with magnitude, with definite volume and form and measure and are therefore atoms. Atoms would be without volume and form and measure if the Etat were not limited. But the Etat is limited, consequently they must have volume and form and measure. And if they must have these, or, rather, as is enough to say, form (for all three are only different ways of looking at the same thing, measure being limitation pure and simple, while form is limita- tion from outside, and volume limitation from within), the sphere ought, apparently, to be their primal form, because the only universally non- arbitrary form is the sphere. A form which embodies the essence of pointness — that it is the same however looked at — can only be a sphere, which presents the same appearance from whatever side it is seen. Of course the law of non-arbitrariness requires and necessi-
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tates the existence of all possible pseudo-infinite 'kinds of forms and figures in the world-process, but the difference between the non-arbitrariness of the sphere on the one hand, and that of ' all possible figures ' on the other, is the difference (if such an expression may be used without fear of misunderstanding) between the Pratyag-atm^ on the one hand, and the pseudo - infinite contents of its consciousness, the varieties of the Not-Self, on the other. The Pratyag-atmS is everywhere and always, but the contents of its consciousness, made up of interminable and intermixing not-selves, are in definite times, spaces, and motions ; so the sphere (when we abolish the periphery of limitation) may be said to have its centre potentially everywhere and always, while its contents — all possible figures made up of the numberless interlacing radii, interlacing because the centre is everywhere, each corresponding to a not-self — are only in definite times, spaces, and motions. Because of this fact most figure-symbology represents the self-centred Pratyag-atma as the point, differentiated matter, spirit-matter, as the line or the cross of two lines, and the whole, the Absolute, as the circle ; the line or the cross of two lines and the circle being used to meet the exigencies of script in place of what ought, in strictness, to be, apparently, the cross of three
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lines meeting at right angles to each other, and the sphere, respectively. The correspondence of the point and the line to the Self and the Not-Self respectively should be noted, and may prove of use hereafter. It may appear at first sight that there is no such opposition between the line and the point as there is between the other pair, the Self and the Not-Self, inasmuch as the line is only a production, a prolongation, of the point. But the opposition is there. From all that has gone before it will be clear that the Not-Self is nothing independent of the Self, nothing else than a production and a lengthen- ing, a limitation and definition, of the Self, that is to say, a going of the immovable Self out of itself into a denial, a negation, of itself. Even so the lines are the first denial of the non- magnitude of the point ; and out of such denial all the endless multiplicity of figures grows in the metaphysic of the Negation, i.e., mathe- matics, as all the endless multitude of not-selves grows out of the denial of the Self in the complete metaphysic. In describing these imaginary lines, by rushing to and fro, the point without magnitude may be said to be seeking to define itself, to give itself a magnitude, even as the Self appears to define itself by entering into, by imposing upon itself, imagined not- selves and saying, ' I am this,' ' I am this.'
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Corresponding to this triple sub-division of size, we may note a triple sub-division under duration also. The words in this reference have not such a recognised standing as those con- nected with size. But we may distinguish ' period ' corresponding to form as limited from without ; ' filling ' to volume as limited from within ; and ' rate ' as limitation proper corre- sponding to measure. Each of these again manifests as ' long, short, average," ' well-filled, ill-filled, occupied,' ' fast, slow, even,' etc.
We may similarly distinguish under vibration (tentatively, as in the case of duration), the three aspects of ' extent, rate, and degree,' and sub- divide each of these three again into ' great, little, mean,' ' high, low, even,' and ' intense, sluggish, equable,' etc.
In the above - mentioned arrangements of triplets we see illustrated the fact that all the things of the world-process fall into groups of three in accordance with the primal trinity that underlies and is the whole of the universe. And these groupings are not mechanical or empirical but organic. It may appear to the cursory observer that there is no ' why ' apparent in them. But the ' why ' is there, and in a very simple way too. Each member of a trinity reflects in itself each of the three and so pro- duces three trinities ; and this process is a
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pseudo-infinite one ; hence the whole content of the world-process is only a pseudo-infinite number of groups of such trinities and triplets. All these, it must be remembered, are simul- taneous from the standpoint of the Absolute, and not growing one out of another in time. If we would know why there is such a thing as this reflection, we should reconsider the argu- ments in the preceding chapters, whereby the necessity of both changelessness and change, of timelessness and time, spacelessness and space, simultaneity and succession, unity and diversity, the reality of non-separateness and the false appearance of separateness and distinguish- ability, are established. The three are one and yet three, and the result of this apparent anti- nomy is that they reflect each other, each carries the image of the others in its very heart, to prove its oneness with it, and all do this endlessly.
To show that these endless multiplications, seemingly so tangible in their multitude, are, in reality, on close scrutiny, found to be very unsubstantial, we may consider a little more fully what has been parenthetically hinted above, viz., that volume and form mean the same thing. Form is nothing else than a negation of continuity, a denial, a limitation, a cutting short of continued existence on all sides.
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Volume means evidently the same thing looked at from within ; it is an inability to extend further. Hence only are form and volume liable to change. If they were anything real, actual, having being, then how could they change, i.e., pass from being inlo nothing and from nothing into being ? " There is no being to that which really is not, nor non-being to that which truly is." l And such change is apparent every second, every millionth of a second, of our lives. The solution lies in the fact that, in all change, what really changes is only mere form (and it will appear on analysis that all other aspects or qualities of the atom are also on the same level with form), which is simply negation looked at as above ; and that what remains behind is the pseudo-thing-in- itself, the ' substance ' which is ' indestructible,' the essence of which we regard as ' resistance.' Resistance is nothing else than the power of attraction and repulsion embodied in a Not-Self, an etat, as exclusiveness, separateness, separate self-maintenance. It is the reflection of the affirmative-negative, attractive-repulsive energy of ichchha in the Self. This 'resistance,' 'self- maintenance,' like desire (of which indeed it is but another name in the objective language
1 Bkagavad-Gitd. ii. 1 6.
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belonging to the atom, as distinguishable from the subjective language belonging to the Jiva), has no overt form of its own and therefore, in a strict and abstract sense, never changes, remain- ing ever the same in totality. It is the energy that physical science recognises as remaining constant in the universe. Its overt form is the multitude of changing forms and actions. And yet again, lest it should be said that even form is after all not pure and utter negation, but has an appearance at least, has an ex-t's-tence, outer- being, and so should not be capable of destruction, the law makes provision for this also, and ordains that no form, however ephemeral, shall be destroyed beyond recall. As it has only pseudo-being, so it shall not have fixedness, but it shall have unending possibility, and therefore actuality, of recall and repetition. The remarks that apply to ' forms ' apply also to ' actions,' ' motions,' ' movements,' which constitute the essence of change.
We see thus that these reflections add nothing to the primal trinity, but are included in it. Their details constitute all the universe, and may not be comprehended by any single individual mind and in any single particular book, however large they may be. As the extent of these is, such will be the amount of detail comprehended. But the main principles
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may be grasped, and as new details are brought forward by empirical experience, they may be classified and put away, as a matter of con- venience, in accordance with those main principles.
We may conclude this line of observations by noticing another series of triplets very important in itself, and also illustrative in a high degree of the principle of reflections and re- reflections.
The attributes, size, life, and vibration, com- mon to both aspects or halves of the Jiva-atom, all considered with special reference to the primal, twofold (or threefold) motion of alterna- tion involved in the Negation, which constitutes the swing of the world-process, yield us these parallel triplets, viz. :
(1) 'increase, decrease, and equality' in respect of matter ; and ' liberality, narrowness, and tolerance ' in that of spirit ;
(2) ' growth, decay, and continuance ' in respect of body ; and ' pursuit, renunciation, and indifference or equanimity,' in that of soul ;
(3) ' expansion, contraction, and rhythm ' in respect of the sheath ; and ' pleasure, pain, and peace ' in that of the Jiva.
We may also note that, in special relation to Mula-prakriti, the triplet of size, etc., takes on the form of ' quantity, quality, and mode.' Its
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transformation with reference to Pratyag-atmS, also may be described by the same three terms in the absence of other well-recognised ones, though the difference of connotation in the two cases is great ; for they cover the different triplets mentioned by Kant under the heads of quantity, etc., in connection with the 'categories' and with 'logical judgments' respectively.
We may now proceed, in the second place, to specify the attributes that appear in the atom with reference to the primary attributes of Mula-prakriti.
These are : —
(a) Dravya, Tjpq, substance, or iJ^Tpsr, dravya- tva, substantiality, mass, power of self- main- tenance, that which constitutes it a something having a separate existence, that which makes it ' capable of serving as the substratum of move- ment,' ' capable of being moved,' l the immediate manifestation of this substance, this ' compacted energy ' being movement.
(b) Guna, ipff, all qualities whatsoever, and
(c) Karma, eR^,2 activity, vibration, incessant movement.
2 These three terms belong specially to the Vaisheshika- system of Indian philosophy which deals with this part of metaphysic predominantly ; but as with most of the other
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This triplet of dravya, guna, and karma is, as has been already indicated more than once, a reflection and reproduction of more primal triplets. The mergence of Pratyag-atma and Mula-prakriti, producing the Jiva-atom, also reproduces therein their two triplets of attributes in this most familiar and therefore most important form. Sattva, rajas, and tamas become respectively transformed into guna, karma, aud dravya ; and sat, chit, and ananda respectively into kriya, jfiana, and ichchha, which again correspond to karma, guna and dravya respectively. Jfiana, ichchha, and kriya will be treated of in the next section in connection with the Jiva-portion of the Jiva-atom.1
Samskrit words used in this work, so wilh these, though they themselves are more or less current, yet the connotations that have been put into them here would often not be recognised, in some cases would be strongly repudiated, by the authors of most of the current Samskrit works in which they are to be met with. The present writer believes, however, that these are the real original connotations, and that they were lost with the growth of the spirit of separatentss and selfishness in the people, and the consequent gradual loss of the deeper metaphysic which unified and organised the various systems of philosophy as different chapters of a single work, clues to which are endeavoured to be rediscovered in these few pages, all loo poor and frag- mentary as they are.
1 Hints, and more or less veiled statements, regarding these correspondences, are scattered over the Devt-Bh&gavata, especially in Pt. III. vi. — ix., VII. xxxii., and IX. 1., and are also to be found in the Kapila-Gtt& and other works OD Tantra-Shastra.
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(i) Guna, then, is that in the atom which corresponds to the elements of chit or cognition, and sattva or cognisability, in Pratyag-atma and Mula-prakriti respectively. It is the qualities of matter, which alone we know and can know, and never the thing-in-itself, as that expression is used by western psychologists and philosophers ; for that thing-in-itself, so far as it has a being at all, a pseudo-being, as substance, is the object of desire and not of knowledge. Guna may be sub- divided again into three classes : (a) the *^JT, mukhya, chief, ^JN^cff. vyavartaka, distin- guishing or differentiating, ^THTfaoR or UToRfjT«F, svabhavika or prakritika, natural, ^raniTW, asadharana, uncommon or special, or essential, i.e., properties, or differentia, or propria, e.g., special sensuous properties, sound, touch, colour, taste, or smell, etc., which would form part of definitions ; (b) the jftjrr, gauna, secondary, ^ircirf^RoB, akasmika, accidental, 3TVIT3T, sa- dharana, common, or non-essential, i.e., qualities, which would foim part of its descriptions ; and (c) \p., dharma, c?SRT, lakshana, attributes, which would generally include both, for, in reality, the distinction between essential and accidental rests only on greater or less persistence in space time and motion. We might perceive again in this triplet a general correspondence to the Self the Not-Self and the Negation respectively.
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With reference to (a) we may note, that in our human race only five senses are working at the present time, and hence we have the five well- known sense-properties under the sub-head of ' essential '. The varieties of each of these again are many, and if we had the necessary informa- tion as to the details of the subject, we should be able to throw these into triplets, corresponding with and reflecting each other endlessly. Thus, under sound, we have : soft, harsh, grave, low, loud, rounded, shrill, sonorous, deep, light, heavy, even, piercing, rolling, crackling, bursting, tear- ing, thunderous, whistling, screaming, roaring, rushing, dashing, moaning, groaning, rasping, grinding, etc., etc., sounds. Tacts are smooth, rough, even, silky, flowery, velvety, hard, soft, firm, cool, warm, damp, dry, clammy, moist, etc. Colours are white, black, red, yellow, blue, brown, golden, violet, orange, grey, green, purple, etc., etc., with their endless shades and combinations. Tastes are sweet, salt, acid, astringent, hot, bitter, acrid, pungent, putrid, etc. Smells or scents are fragrant, malodorous, stimu- lating, rose, jasmine, violet, parijata, malati, sugandha-raja, (the ' king of scents ', also called rajani-gandha the 'night-scent'), lemon, lily, lotus, the blooms of myrtle, neem, and mango, etc. These sub-varieties must necessarily be endless in accordance with the endlessness of the objects
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of the senses ; but humanity possesses definite names only for those that it u.ces and expe- riences most frequently.
(b} The non-essential qualities are, by their very nature, more difficult to fix. They are, generally speaking, those which describe the relation and position of an object, to and amidst other objects ; thus, well-built, ill-built, near, distant, commodious, insufficient, etc. Many of the properties mentioned above as amongst the essential, may, perhaps, on sifting, be found to be non-essential, or vice versd. Reference to the purpose in hand decides generally whether a quality is non-essential or otherwise.
(c) Attributes, partaking of the characters of both, may be instanced as 'heat, cold, temperateness ', ' lightness, heaviness, weighti- ness, softness, hardness, firmness, plasticity, rigidity, elasticity, pressure, suction, support, etc.,' ' shape, size, duration ', etc. These attri- butes have an obvious reference to the latent and patent aspects of energy, and to Negation, as the others, properties and qualities, have to the Self in itself, and to the Not-Self as many, respectively. Such considerations are, clearly, capable of endless and useful elabora- tion. But we have not the opportunity and means for that elaboration here, and so must pass on.
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From the psychological standpoint we may note in passing, every sense-property is some- thing sui generis, on the same level and side by side with every other. As sense-properties, all are equal and independent, and none is grosser or subtler than any other, whence the current saying: "The experience of the musk's fragrance cannot be communicated by any amount of oaths and affirmations " j1 i.e,y it must be smelt person- ally to be known. Thus each sense-property, and each shade of it, must be experienced directly in order to come within the precise cognition and recognition of any Jiva. This is the many- ness, the separateness and exclusiveness of sensations. The remarks made and figures given at p. 480, vol. iii., of The Secret Doctrine will be found very suggestive in this connection, and read together with what has gone before may help to show some consistency in the apparently very inconsistent statements made on this subject in the Puranas. Thus, it is declared that in our world-system, the first ' element ' to come forth (to say nothing of the still earlier adi or mahat-tattva, and the anupadaka or buddhi tattva, which are only vaguely alluded to here and there) was akasha, with the guna of sound ; then vayu, with the
ft m^w »
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guna of touch ; then fire, with light and colour ; then water, with taste ; and, lastly, earth, with smell ; and it is added that each succeeding one was derived from the next preceding, and retained the quality of its originator besides developing its own special quality. Again it is said that the order of evolution of the elements and qualities is entirely different in different cycles, mahS-kalpas, of this and other world- systems. It is also said that the number of the elements and corresponding senses and sensa- tions differs actually (as Voltaire only fancied in his Zadig et Micromegas) in different worlds, there being eighteen in some, thirty-six in others, and so forth,1 as there are only five known to us in this world. Such also seems to be the meaning of the statement that " this world-system of ours is crowded round with infinite other systems governed by Brahm^s having five, six, seven and more up to thousands of faces." 2. Still again, it is said, in the doctrine of q^"^TW> panchikarana,3 quintuplication, the mixing of each of the five tattvas with each of the other four in certain proportions, that, at present, each material object has in it all five
1 Yoga-V&sishtha.
3 Trip&d-vibh&ti-mah&-n&r&yana-upanishat. vi. 3 Panchadasht. i. 26-30, and PancMkarai^a-vivaratta.
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elements, and, therefore, the possibility of being cognised by all five senses ; but the most prevailing element gives it its best-recognised nature. And as a matter of fact we find that beings having different constitutions of the same sense, and the same being during different conditions of the same sense, receive different sensations from apparently the same sense- object. Thus it is now recognised that certain rays that are dark to men are luminous to ants, and vice versd.
All this means again, in brief, that each atom having in it the common guna of sense- cognisibility, sensibility, has also therefore in it what is necessarily included in this universal quality, viz.y every possible particular guna ; but only one or some are manifest and others latent, in different conditions of time, space, and motion, to different Jivas, Jivas being regarded as ' lines of consciousness.' That is to say, one kind of atom will mean one thing at one time and space to one kind of Jiva, and will, simultaneously and in that same position, mean a pseudo-infinite number of things to pseudo-infinite other kinds of Jivas ; and it will also mean pseudo-infinite kinds of things to the same kind of Jiva in the pseudo- infinite succession of time and space.
(ii) We may now turn to the karma-aspect
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of the atom corresponding to the sat and rajas aspects of Pratyag-atmS. and Mula-prakriti respectively.
It may at first sight appear that sat, being, should correspond with dravya rather than karma. But if what has been said before, from time to time, on the nature of sat and ananda, and again of rajas and tamas, is care- fully considered, it will appear that sat properly corresponds to karma and not to dravya. 1 Being ' is what we are inclined to regard as the innermost, the most important, factor in the constitution of an object, because it primA facie appears to be the most permanent ; and dravya, as shown above, is such in the case of the atom ; the idea therefore comes up strongly that dravya should be connected with ' being.' But the first premiss here is not accurate. It does not discriminate between ' being ' and ' existence.' What is being, sat, in the Pratyag-atma, is ' existence,' ' outer-is- ness,' in matter. And in the Pratyag-atma (if such a distinction may be permitted where there is truly and strictly none possible, and where all are aspects and all absolutely equally necessary and important), ananda, bliss, is even more ' inner ' than ' being ' ; it is, so to say, the feeling of own-being ; the difference between a man looking at himself with eyes open and again
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with eyes shut. In this sense ananda may be said to be even more 'being' than is 'being' itself. And karma, therefore, corresponds not to this innermost being of ananda, but to the outer being, the existence, the manifestation of sat. And existence, reality, appearance, manifestation, is all in and by action and movement. A very good physical illustration of this is the fact of natural history, that most insects and birds and quadrupeds, in wild life, are often so completely concealed by their mere protective colouring that their existence is not recognised at all, that they remain as it were non-existent, even when they are quite close to and right under the eye of the observer ; but become manifest at once, i.e., existent, with the slightest shake, motion, or action.1
Having thus shown that karma represents sat, we may proceed to note again that it is inseparable from the atom, is in fact one of its essential constituents. The consequence is that every atom is in unceasing motion.
Karma falls also into three kinds : (a) expansion, MM Kill, prasarana (corresponding to the boundlessness of the Self) ; ( tion, «rie£5H, akurichana (corresponding to the
1 This point,has lately been much emphasised in a psychological eference by the distinguished psychologist, Prof. Ladd, of America.
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separate, mutual, repelling and restricting of not-selves) ; (c] *TF^fc5»!, andolana, rhythmic vibration, corresponding to the (affirmative-) negation which sums up both movement and counter-movement in itself, and holds the two others together in the conjunction of alternation. The gunas specially arising out of karma are : 377, vega, speed, j?t"#, mandya, slowness or dul- ness, and nfff, gati, velocity. Minor varieties under each of the three are endless, as in the case of gunas : thus, rapid, slow, steady ; ?tihTRrr, urdhvagamana, upward motion, ^nftiTJTff adho- gamana, downward motion, finfrPTH«T, tiryag- gamana, sideways motion ; TfSjtunj ut-kshepana, uplifting, -wrq^i^Tf apa-kshepana, repulsing or casting away, ^777, atana, wandering ; vertical horizontal, oblique ; etc., etc.
(iii) Lastly we come to the dravya-aspect of the atom which, it is clear from the reasons already given, represents the ananda and tamas aspects of the Self and the Not-Self respectively. It is the ' etat-ness,' the mere ' this-ness ' of the atom, in a strict sense. It is that in the atom which is the heart of the thing, its substance, its inertia, its mass and weight and resistance, all that makes it a something existing in and for itself, so far as it can have such a pseudo- existence-in-itself at all. It appears mysterious and unresolvable only when and if, after asking :
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"What is this?" we try fallaciously to answer the question in terms of something else than guna and karma. The answer to that question must always be in terms of guna and karma, or, otherwise, merely the reiteration : ' It is a this' Three aspects make up the fact of the atom — 3^1, idam, ' this' (dravya), ^?*F(> ittham, ' such ' a this (guna), and ^qfir, evam, ' thus ' (karma), and they can never be separated from each other.
Dravya too may be sub-divided into : (a) sub- stances with positive weight (predominant), in the aspect of attraction ; Jj^, guru, heavy ; (b) those with negative weight (predominant),1 in the aspect of repulsion ; JJTT, laghu, buoyant ; (c) those with inertia, dead weight, positive- negative or passive-active resistance to all change, self-maintenance, in whatever condition the thing happens to be ; fwr, sthira, stable. The sub-divisions of these, as of the others, are endless : mahat, buddhi, akasha, vayu, tejas, apas, prithivt, solids, liquids, gases, ethers, metals, non-metals, organic, inorganic, minerals, vegetables, animal substances, etc., etc. Some of the qualities arising out of these sub-divisions have been already noticed before in the guna- aspect.
1 See Dolbear Matter, Ether, and Motion. P. 91.
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We have noted before that resistance is of the very essence and nature of dravya, and we see now that it has the dual form of attraction-repulsion. This makes further clear, if such clarification were needed, that dravya represents the ananda and tamas aspects, which again correspond to the Shakti-energy of the first trinity. We desire a thing, we know its qualities, and we act upon, change or modify, its movements.
The three sub-divisions of dravya may also, as before, be regarded as corresponding, in the order in which they are stated above, to the Self and sattva, to the Not-Self and rajas, and to Negation and tamas respectively.
It will have come to the notice of the reader that the task of expressing these correspond- ences precisely becomes more and more difficult as we enter into greater and greater details and sub-divisions, and the same triplet is repeated under more than one head. The aspects become gradually so intermingled that they cannot be distinguished easily, and the assignment of triplets in a table of correspondences may naturally and reasonably vary, if the students differ in standpoint and in the amount of attention paid to each factor, some regarding one aspect as the predominant one and others another. In this last case, for example, if
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attraction be regarded as active affirmation, attention being specially directed to the activity, and repulsion as passive and steady negation of others, of manyness, then the two appear reasonably to correspond to rajas or Not-Self, and sattva or Self, respectively. But if attraction be regarded as unification, and repulsion as separation, it would be right to say, as said above, that they cprrespond to sattva or the Self, and rajas or the Not-Self respectively. Still again, if attention were paid to the fact that the unification of attraction, when it appears in the limited atom, is a false and not a true unification, that it is the assertion in reality of the Not-Self, which is then only masquerading as the Self, while the separation of repulsion is the diminution of such a false self and therefore an advancement of the true Self, then we would go back to the corres- pondence of attractive weight with the Not- Self, and of negative weight with the Self. The view of this particular correspondence put forward here as the main one, viz., of positive weight to the Self, of repulsive weight to the Not-Self, and of inertia to the Negation, proceeds upon the consideration that the fact of the unity and of the principle of unification present in the atom is more characteristic, in the present reference, than the fact that the
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atom is only masquerading as a one and a self.
This should not confuse the careful student, but should only help him to look at every question from many sides and standpoints, and so recognise the harmonising elements of truth in each view rather than the discordant elements of error.
The laws previously ascertained apply to this triplet of aspects of the atom. As these three cannot be separated from each other, though, turn by turn, one is predominant and the others in the back-ground, so the three sub-divisions of each are also contemporaneous in this way: that one appears to be more manifest from one standpoint, while the other appears to be more manifest from another standpoint at the same time. This last statement applies especially to the sub-divisions of dravya and karma, as to which it is well-known that what is solid and immovable to one individual may be pliable as a liquid or a gas to another, and vice versd; and, again, that what appears to be linear motion from one standpoint appears as rotatory or curved from another, and vice versd. Provision for the limitation, in time, space, and motion, for the death and re-birth of these aspects of the atom, even in the midst of their persistent continuance, is made by the fact of
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change, absorption and transformation of each into other kinds of gunas, karmas, and dravyas, and yet again recovery of their previous con- dition, in an endless manner. Ample illustration of this will be found in physical science, in connection with the doctrines of the pseudo- indestructibility of matter, the pseudo-eternity and conservation of energy and motion, showing how substances (energies proper), attributes, and vibration, are being constantly transformed, all the while retaining the possibility of recovering their older shapes.
The concomitance of these three aspects, dravya, guna, and karma, and, by inference, of all their subdivisions, from the metaphysical standpoint of the whole, is especially important and significant to bear in mind. It will help to show the underlying truth in each, and reconcile all, of many conflicting hypotheses of physical science. Thus : some hold the view that atoms are nothing substantial but only vortices, pure motion, vortices of nothing^ one may fairly say, for even when the holders of this theory say that the atoms are vortices of ether, they, in order to avoid an obvious petitio principii, take care to describe ether in terms the opposite of those used in describing matter, and so practically reduce ether to nothing '; others say that they are substantial, whether they have or
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have not a vortical or other motion besides. So too, the first theory of light was corpuscular, that light is corpuscles ; then it was discarded in favour of the undulatory theory, that light is undulations ; with the discovery of new metals, radium, etc., and observations of their behaviour, the radiatory theory is being reinstated again.1 So again, one extreme view is that all sensations are merely vibrations of the objects sensed, transmitted to animal nerves ; another extreme is that they have nothing to do with vibrations, which may or may not be a parallel coincident, but are things sui generis. The scientists who have trained themselves in philosophy also, as many are beginning to do now, look at the question impartially from both poiuts of view, and therefore readily see the defects of each extreme, and acknowledge that nothing yet known explains how a certain number of vibrations at one end of a nerve should appear as the sensation red, or blue, or yellow, at the other end of that nerve. The inconclusiveness of all such theories lies in their exaggeration, their one-sidedness, and their attempt to reduce
1 Dr. Hiibbe-Schleiden (of Dohren bei Hannover, Germany) suggests the following as a more exact statement of these theories: — " i. Light is emission of corpuscles (Newton). 2. Light is vibration of ether (Huyghens, Fresnel). 3. Light is emission of electrons. "
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all the aspects of the atom to only one aspect, gunas and karmas to dravya only, or dravyas and karmas to guna only, or gunas and dravyas to karma only. The truth is that all three aspects are always and inseparably concomitant; that an atom is ever a something, an etat, a this, which has always a certain motion, a certain kind of vibration, which motion or vibration again is always accompanied by a special sense-property. " The three aspects are inseparable and are the expression of all that happens in the physical world. Given one of the three in all its details, the other two would be known."1
A few more concrete, if somewhat cursory, observations may be of use to illustrate the simultaneity and concurrence of all aspects of the atom. Thus, though, at the present stage of evolution, volume and form appear to be specially, indeed, even almost exclusively, con- nected with the sense of vision amongst all the senses, yet it is not so, in reality. Kven the current usage which employs words having a spatial reference, in connection with all senses, shows this, and is not merely metaphorical.
1 Max Verworn. General Physiology. P. 546 ; his three aspects, however, are ' Substance, form, and transformation of energy, ' form being substituted for sense-quality, and trans- formation of energy for motion.
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We speak of bulky or extensive or voluminous or massive sounds and touches and tastes and smells ; also of their forms. The words are so employed because of a fact in nature ; sounds, touches, tastes, and smells also have volume and form ; they belong to sense-objects, to etats, are in space, time, and motion. The words quantity, measure, magnitude, etc., apply to all sense-objects and with a clear meaning. The pitch and loudness and timbre of sounds ; the freshness or staleness, strength or weakness, insipidity and vapidity or acuteness and intensity of tastes ; lightness or heaviness of touches ; sweet sounds, sweet sights, sweet scents, and sweet tastes ; beautiful voices, beautiful forms and colours, beautiful smells ; rough and smooth tones as well as touches ; all these are illustrations of the fact. Because of such common features hiding behind diverse features, under guna as well as dravya and karma, is it possible to translate the sensations of one sense into those of another, under special circumstances and conditions, the manipulation of which belongs to that region of science which is only just opening up to the public, under the names of hypnotism, mesmerism, animal magnetism, psychism, telepathy, clairvoyance, etc. The cases of psychics able to experience any sensation with or at any part of the body s
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are now recognised by most persons. The ill- understood vedantic doctrine of the quintuplica- tion of the five tattvas or sense -elements, akasha (ether), vayu (air), tejas (fire), apas (water), and prithivi (earth), seems also to refer to this subject. It seems to be the completion of the physics of the universe begun by the Vaisheshika and the Nyaya systems in their statements as to trcg, arm, atoms, sngcR, dvyanuka, diatoms, ^H^^, trasarenu, tri- diatoms, etc. This is not clear now in the absence of details, but the suggestion that they are such completion comes unmistakably and unavoidably to everyone who will approach the old books in the genuine spirit of the even- minded student. Working at this suggestion and comparing the apparently conflicting state- ments in the Puranas, the student may succeed in making up some at least provisionally satisfactory system of the essential principles of chemistry, physiology, and cosmogony, pending knowledge of details through development of special faculty by yoga.1
We see, then, that all three aspects run on indefeasible parallels, even as thought, thing,
1 The student will find much help and suggestion on this point in theosophical literature generally, and in The Secret Doctrine of H. P. Blavatsky, and Ch. I. of the Ancient Wisdom of Annie Besant especially.
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and motion always accompany each other though distinguishable, and that change in any of the three will necessarily bring about a change in the other two also. In a sense, it is true, there should not be any change in the dravya ; a mere ' this ' will remain only ' this ' ; and dravya constitutes the pseudo-per- manent element in the atom, as has been said before ; yet, seeing that each etat is inseparably connected with a quality and a motion, it happens that there is, as common observation shows, a sort of change of nature in the substance also. The substance is no longer recognised as the same. The energy has also changed its form. Water becomes gas, and people naturally and not unreasonably say that the substance has changed, as well as motions and qualities. In this sense, the tattva, the ' that-ness,' the element, may properly be said to change. Rigorously speaking, there can be no change in mere, pure, ' this ' (dravya) ; but no more can there be any change in mere, sheer, ' such ' (guna), or in mere, abstract, ' thus ' (karma). What changes is the particularised condition of each as limited and made concrete by necessary relativity to the others.
We have now generally defined and described the three universal attributes of the atom. Wherever an atom is, there must be present
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these three also. Whatever its variations, these must accompany it. Let us now try to find out something more about the variations of the atom generally. These variations will naturally be most prominently connected with the guna and the karma, though change in these will cause the appearance of change in the dravya also.
Under guna, we have inferred that in respect of form, corresponding to the Not-Self, etats have, by reflection of the unity and com- pleteness of the Self, one universal underlying form, the sphere, and a pseudo-infinity of other forms made up of the intermixture of points and lines. In respect of volume corresponding to the Self, the common fact is only this, that there must be ' bulk,' ' triple - dimension,' ' extension,' some size, and the detail is that the etat must have every possible size. Thus we have atoms of all possible sizes, each size oi atom (with corresponding other qualities, vibra- tions, substantial nature, etc.) constituting one plane of matter, and each plane constituting the ' outer ' sheath, the material, of a pseudo- infinite series of world-systems on the same level with each other, and the next minuter size constituting the ' inner ' spiritual ' or ' ideal ' counterpart and core thereof and therein. The case is the same with special qualities. The
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presence of some one quality, of ' sense- cognisability," is common and inevitable ; but there is no restriction what that must be. Reason and the law of non-arbitrariness require that the whole of all possible qualities must be present in the whole and every part of the world-process, manifesting, of course, to any one Jtva, only in succession.
The main kinds of the karma -movements of atoms may be deduced, as a tentative hypothesis, as follows. We have seen that the basic ultimate atom everywhere, in whichever world-system we take it, would be a sphere, though size and quality may vary ; for it is formed by the aham-consciousness revolving round itself in the circle of the logion. But, existing side by side as spheres, the forces of approach and recess work between them, as mutual attraction and repulsion. Every atom endeavours to approach and recede from every other simultaneously. The same atom would attract as well as repel another at the same time. In other words, every atom would try to absorb another into itself for its own growth (corresponding to the intensification and expan- sion of the consciousness 'aham — etat (asmi),' and at the same time to resist being absorbed into another, so losing instead of intensifying its own self-existence and identity. With
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attraction and repulsion coming into play, the self-revolving spheres would begin to move in straight lines towards or from each other. At this stage movements would become manifest. Before this (from the standpoint of the par- ticular world-system we may be in) the self- revolution would not be apparent as movement ; the atom would scarcely be apparent even as a something ; that there would be in it, even then, a necessary movement of self-revolution, would be only a metaphysically necessary assumption. The next stage would be that after one atom has secured and subordinated another, absorbed it into itself (the why and how of which may appear afterwards), the two together, making a line, would now fall into the self- revolving movement of the stronger, and the circular-disc movement would result. Lastly, the disc revolving on its own axis would become the sphere again, but a sphere the sphericity and motion of which are manifest instead of hypo- thetical, as in the condition of the primary atom. We may consider here that as the shortest line is composed of two atom-points, and the smallest disc must be made of such a line circling around itself according to the motion of the stronger atom, so the smallest solid sphere should be made of at least, and also at most, three such lines crossing each other at the
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middle and revolving round that point on the axis made by the strongest line. In other words, the manifest sphere would consisj: of three double - atoms. Such is perhaps the metaphysic underlying the vague available statements of the Nyaya and Vaisheshika systems as to diatoms being first formed from atoms, then tri-diatoms from diatoms, and the world — our own world-system at least — from them. This order reproduces respectively, the Absolute, the duality of the Self and the Not- Self, and the triple duality of the Jiva-atom, — the individual, the definite one (which most systems of numerals express by a line), formed by the junction of the self with a not-self. The intermixtures and modifications of these main movements, viz., the linear, circular, and revolutional or spiral, make up the necessary pseudo-infinite variations of movements in the world-process.
As to the variations of the dravya-aspect, it has been said that they accompany the variations of the other two. It need only be added that the greater the number and the more restricted the area of the rhythm-movements, the revolu- tions, of the atom and the derivative molecule, the more firm, rigid, gross, and exclusive and resistant for others, and attractive and existent for themselves, they would become ; and vice
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versd, the fewer the number and the wider the area of the movement, the subtler, more plastic and more evanescent they would be. The atom of each world-system being regarded as representing the mere 'objectivity,' the Not-Self, the Etat or This, it follows that it is uniform and unchanged throughout the life of that system. Differentiation probably begins with the diatoms, which may be regarded as coeval with the gunas, these corresponding, in the Jiva-atom of a system, to what the rPWni, tanmatra, would be in the consciousness of the Ishvara of that system, as may be seen later. The gunas referred to here are their special sense-qualities, sound, touch, etc., considered psychologically. The differentiation may be considered as definitely marked at the stage of tri-diatoms, corresponding to the elements, the sthula-bhutas, defined and characterised by these sensations, viz., akasha, vayu, etc., and to the respective outer sensory and motor organs of the living beings of that system. These tri-diatoms may, then, for practical purposes, be regarded as representing that dravya-aspect of each thing which is variable. Before the development of these tri-diatoms (in the Vaisheshika and not the modern chemical sense) there would be probably no manifest differen- tiation of the various tattvas, the sense-elements,
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one from the other. The variations of such ultimate molecules of a world-system, as physical science is now gradually showing (in terms of ' atoms,' however, rather than of ' molecules'), would correspond with variations of resistance and density, of number and kind of vibrations, and of special sense-qualities.
We see then that the atom is not an invariably fixed quantity. Its fixedness is only an appearance, and exists only in connection with world-systems taken singly. Just as a stone, a tree, an animal, a human being, have an appearance of permanence and continuance from day to day, and yet are changing in- cessantly from moment to moment ; just as a whirling torch, or catherine-wheel, or gas-flame, has the appearance of a flat disc or sheet of fire, though something altogether different in reality ; so an atom has only a pseudo-fixedness and sameness of size, duration, movement, etc., in space, time and motion. The appearance of fixedness in incessant change is due to the imposition of 'sameness' by a connected individual consciousness — the consciousness of the Brahma — in each world-system. In other words, the nature of the Jiva, as Self, imposes (according to its own necessities to be dealt with later), a certain sameness and continuance, while the nature of the atom, as Not-Self,
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requires incessant change ; and the reconcilia- tion is found in constant repetition of the vibrations which maintain the other attributes together with themselves. Apart from such appearance of fixity there is truly a pseudo- infinite variety in every aspect of the atom, and a pseudo-infinite pseudo-infinity, pseudo- infinity within pseudo-infinity. Thus each size of atom, together with all its attributes and qualities corresponding to that size, is necessarily pseudo-infinite in number, and would be found in every part of space and time. And yet, when the geometrical axiom, which applies to all things in space, says : " Two things cannot occupy the same space at once," how can all these pseudo-infinite sizes of atoms exist in the same space? The reconciliation is to be found in the fact that this apparent pseudo- infinity is a ' psychological,' an ' ideal,' infinity, entirely created and carried along with itself, wherever it goes, by the consciousness of the Self as a foil to its own infinite-infinity. The geometrical axiom does not apply to the Absolute-consciousness which transcends and includes space and time and motion, and creates all the infinite overlappings of individuality which have been mentioned before, and which correspond to the apparent overlappings of the atoms. And yet again, lest there should be even
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the appearance of a violation of the geometrical axiom, the various sizes, whenever and wherever examined by any one individual consciousness, would be found to fit one into another and constitute the different and inter-penetrating planes of the world-systems.
Thus it happens that what is an atom to one Jiva, within the limits, spatial and durational, of a solar system, may contain whole worlds within itself to a Jiva sufficiently minute. And, vice versd, what is a solar system to us may form only an atom to a Jiva sufficiently vast. The repeated and much emphasised statement in the Yoga Vdsishtha, that a world contains atoms, and each of these atoms a world, and that world atoms again, and so on ad infinitum, is justified in this manner in a very literal sense. Consider here what was said before, as to the chain of individualities in a single organism, and as to the Virat-Purusha, and the thought may become quite clear. The student will also be greatly helped here by the latest researches of physical science, going to show that what has till now been regarded as the indivisibly ultimate atom consists of hundreds of ' corpuscles,'1 and by the tentative results
1 The word ' atom ' has been used here throughout as equivalent to the words ' anu ' or ' param-anu ' of Samskrit. The new word ' ion ' is, it seems, nearer to ' anu ' ; but it has
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of enquiry by budding superphysical senses so far as they are publicly available.1
How order is imposed on this infinity of disorder ; how the world-process is ever an organic whole, within whatever limits of space and time and motion we take it ; and how this pseudo - infinity of pseudo - infinities is held together in co-ordination, in a system of planes within planes, lokas within lokas, by the mighty stress of the principle of the individuality and oneness of the universal Self — this may all appear in the next chapter on the Jiva.
not yet got a recognised position in western science and philosophy, and is still competing with 'corpuscles', 'electrons', etc. When the ideas and words have settled down in the course of a few years, it may perhaps be useful to change our nomen- clature also. In the meanwhile the idea intended to be conveyed by the word ' atom ' here is that of a piece or particle of ' etat ', ' this ', ' matter ', which, for the time and in the particular world- system and from the standpoint with which we may be concerned at the moment, is ultimate and ' indivisible '. Sometimes, though very rarely, the word has been used here as equivalent to ' sheath ' or ' body ', and this has been done because, in the particular connection in which the word has been so used, the sheath or body is the irreducible minimum which the Jiva requires for its manifestation.
1 Vide Annie Besant's paper on ' ' Occult Chemistry " in Lucifer (now The Theosophical Review) for November, 1895 (xvii. 216).