CHAPTER IV.

THE DEFINITION OF EMOTION AND THE PRINCIPAL EMOTIONS AND THEIR ELEMENTS.
We have said that Attraction and Repulsion , Like and Dislike, Love and Hate, are hwofved in ^e Primary> basic Desire-Emotions. A Emotion. rapid recapitulation of the facts involv- ed in these may be useful ; and in the course of the recapitulation, an important and necessary addition will be made to the general idea of the nature of Emotion outlined in the preceding chapter.
' Attraction,' ' Like/ ' Love ' implies : i. That contact, association, with another object has at some time been found empirically to result in pleasure. Though the general question as to which precedes the other, desire or pleasure, is incapable of solution here, there seems to be sufficient ground for assuming, for our present purpose, that, confining ourselves to a single life of a human being, the first experience of the new-bora
32 SCIENCE OF THE EMOTIONS,
infant is a general, vague, undefined craving, want, desire for nourishment, for something that will keep up its life. The mother's milk supplies this want, and from that moment of positive, definite pleasure, the indefinite want is specialised into a distinct desire, a liking for the milk. Therefore it does not appear to be incorrect to say generally that ' Attraction ' implies a previously experienced pleasure.
ii. It also implies that there is a memory of this past fact, and
iii. That there is expectation of a similar pleasure occurring in the future under similar circumstances. Lastly,
iv. (a) That there is in consequence a desire for repeated contact, for association, for union with that object. But that
0) While contact and association are possible, an absolute union is impossible. Where * union ' (though here too it is after all only comparative) is possible, as between the feeder and the food, the desire remains a desire only. It floes not advance into the condition of an Further emotion proper, which is the attitude of definition one Jiva towards another Jtva, between of Emotion. whjch two Jivas an absolute union is impossible, though an ever-closer approach to it is- possible, and is being always made in the world- process. An Emotion is, thus, a desire plus the
EMOTIONS AND THEIR ELEMENTS. 33
cognition involved in the attitude of one Jiva towards another.
As to what the real truth is of the apparently complete union between feeder and
^f PrYb f°°d ' a3 t0 wliether there is any truth m leras. the distinction of animate and inanimate ;
as to how subjects, Jivas, becoming embodied in u p a d h i s , sheaths, masses of the Not-Self, become objects to each other ; as to how and why each Jiva-atom carries in its very being and constitution both the powers of attraction and repulsion, whereby there results the impossibility of an absolute union or an absolute separation — these are questions for the Metaphysic of the Jivatma.1
But the facts enumerated above as being implied in all Emotion are based on that Metaphysic ; and it has to be mastered if they are to be understood in their entirety. These same facts, studied in the light of that Metaphysic, fully and truly explain the process of the growth of Individuality, of a h a m - k a r a , step by step, through the various l bodies/ 1 sheaths,' shariras,koshas,of Vedanta and theosophical literature.
To return : the expected pleasure pictured in imagination — imagination and expectation represent only slightly different aspects of the same mental process— interblending with the desire, and the
i See The Science of Peace, ch. xiii. 3
34 SCIENCE OF THE EMOTIONS.
two together constituting a special mental mood, have, as before stated, been taken generally as one Emotion-feeling, rather than one Emotion-desire ; attention having been more taken up with and fixed by the pleasure- element than the desire-element.
Feelings proper are, as already stated, only Pleasure and Pain, which are special degrees of •self -cognition, self-feeling, self-realisation, self- consciousness.
The very word Emotion, on the other hand, indicates that in the beginning, at the gi calmean- ^me tne word was formed, the desire- ing of element and the idea of the motion and Emotion. ,- t
action consequent on desire were more
prominently and truly present before the minds of the men who first framed and used the word. Emotion is only a form of motion ; motion towards an object, or away from it, in the mind, is Emotion. The current Samskrt word for Emotion, b h a v a , seems to have a similar significance. It implies a 4 becoming,' a somewhat prolonged intermediate condition of passing or changing from one state to another.
Let us see now how the first of these two simple primary forms of Emotion (defined as' a desire plus an intellectual cognition, as distinguished from a mere sense-cognition or sensation), this movement towards an object, Attraction, Like, Love, diffe- rentiates into and evolves the more complex forms, as between human being and human being.
EMOTIONS AND THEIR ELEMENTS. 35
The three i. Attraction— plus the consciousness
divUion?" of the ecluality with one's self of the of Attrac- attractive object, is Affection, or Love tion. proper.
ii. Attraction — plus the consciousness of the superiority to one's self of the attractive object, is Reverence.
iii. Attraction— plus the consciousness of the inferiority to one's self of the attractive object, is Benevolence.
How the distinctions of equality, superiority, and inferiority arise between self and self Hetaphy- Jiva and Jiva ; how the Peace of the lerns. ' Supreme is broken up into the dual of Pleasure and Pain ; how in its motion- lessness there appear Attraction and Repulsion ; what the true meaning of Power, Force, Ability to cause or undergo a change, Ability to attract or to repel, is ; how the One and the Many arise side by side in the Distinctionless ; for a solution of these intimately connected and intensely absorbing questions— without a satisfactory solution of which indeed final satisfaction is not possible— for such solution Metaphysic proper must again be referred to.1 For we are dealing here with relations between the existing and not with origins.
But it seems desirable, and possible also, at this i The Science of Peace, ch. x, xi.
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place to make an effort to explain what The mean- the meaning is of these cognitional periority, elements, the consciousness of equality, equality superiority, and inferiority, which play feriority. sucn an important part in the structure
and development of the Emotions, and which are indeed the sole cause of their differ- entiation from the homogeneity of Love or Hate into the heterogeneousness of numberless kinds, shades, and grades. A physical analogy will serve our purpose- Given attraction between two mag- nets properly placed, that which moves the other towards itself without itself displaying motion would be called the more powerful magnet ; while the other would as clearly be called the less powerful. But if the two should, both of them, move towards each other simultaneously and meet half-way, they would be called equal in power. The case is the same between Jiva and Jiva. Given attraction between two Jivas, that which moves towards the other first is so far the inferior ;. that which moves the other towards itself first, is in that space and time the superior. If the two should move towards each other simultaneously, then they are equal.
The same idea may be expressed in other words, thus : Love is the desire for union with the object loved, and, therefore, ever tends to bring subject and object to one level in order that they may unite andj become , one. The fact that one Jiva
EMOTIONS AND THEIR ELEMENTS. 37
possesses a quality which meets a want in another Jiva lies at the root of their mutual attraction ; it furnishes the common ground, the possibility of unity, of coming together, between them. Where these wants and their corresponding supplies are both about equally divided between two Jivas, so that each has wants that the other supplies, we may speak of them as equal ; for each is inferior to the other in his wants, superior to the other in his corresponding supplies, and these deficiencies and superfluities existing on both sides, their sums balance each other. Exchange will go on till de- ficiencies and superfluities alike have disappeared. Where the wants of one Jiva are his distinguishing characteristic in his relation to another Jiva, whose distinguishing characteristic is his power to supply those wants, we may speak of them as inferior and superior. Here also the action of Love gradu- ally leads to equalisation, as the superior fills up the deficiencies of the inferior, thus lifting him to his own level and making union possible.
Another and somewhat more metaphysical ques- tion may also be justly asked and dealt with here. HOWT is it ever possible for a superior to be attracted towards an inferior, if what has been said above is unreservedly correct ? An inferior, of course, re- ceives benefits and pleasures from a superior and so feels attraction towards him ; but what benefit and pleasure can a superior derive from an in- ferior that will initiate such attraction in him ?
38 SCIENCE OF THE EMOTIONS.
The answer to this question embraces two main considerations which, however, are connected with each other, (a] A pleasure is an empirical fact and not deducible in the ordinary sense of the word ; one man finds hot pepper pleasant, another sugar ; there is no law governing these facts except that persons are variously constituted ; the organism of one is more in assonance with one kind of objects, that of another with another. As to why one Jiva should have one kind of orga- nism and another another, we can only fall back upon the general metaphysical law that all Jivas, in- dividually as well as collectively, must pass through all possible experiences, individually in endless time, collectively in simultaneity ; for so only can the Perfect Equilibrium of the Absolute be main- tained. And, if pleasure and pain are such em- pirical facts, then it may well be that some so-con- stituted persons find it a positive pleasure to see the smile of happiness on an inferior's face after he has been helped, and a positive pain in the opposite case. Of course, it may be said that if this is so, the mother that wants and longs for her baby to smile at her and stroke her face with its tiny fingers is inferior to the baby. And, in a sense, this is so, and rightly, for democracy in the deepest and truest sense of the word is inherent in the very Nature of the Absolute, and no Jiva is in reality and essence superior to or inferior than any other. But for the practical purposes of the
EMOTIONS AND THEIR ELEMENTS. 39
relative and successive, we have differences of Superior and inferior also as indefeasible facts, and as these exist with reference to the multiplicity of the Not-Self, therefore material (and not the com- paratively mental or psychical or spiritual) wants and supplies are ordinarily made the basis of the distinctions. He who can give more of material things and of power over them, directly or indirect- ly, is ordinarily called the superior. (6) Jivas, as will be further explained in chapter viii, are always and invariably belonging to either the one or the other of two and only two classes, the d a i v a or divine and the a s u r a or demoniac, as they are technically called in the Bhagavad-Gfta,1 The class in which the One Self, the Pratyagatma, is predominant, by their very constitution, helplessly, find giving and helping to be pleasant. It may be noted in passing that the question will perhaps become clearer when the Metaphysic of subtler and grosser bodies is grasped. It may then appear that, in the exercise of benevolence, though the grosser outer sheath is diminished, the inner and subtler, with which the Self in the jiva is for the time identified, really expands, so that the self grows not only metaphorically but actually. As the banker's actual cash balance diminishes because of loans advanced, his credit, his assets, grow. In a certain sense it is true that absolutely disinterest- ed benevolence there is never. In most cases, at 1 xvi. 6 ; and the whole chapter generally.
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the present stage of evolution, the desire for re- turn, for reward of good actions, here or here- after, is obvious and unconcealed. But even when the donor himself can find no such desire in the deepest depths down to which he can probe his own consciousness, either to pay off a past debt by his present beneficent action (which is as much an interested motive as the other), or to re- ceive an adequate repayment in the future, still, even then, because of the fact of his being a separate individual, there is necessarily hidden in him such a desire sub-consciously.1 Otherwise* the beneficent action would be motiveless, causeless, and, in the realm of the Relative, there can never be an event without a cause. As the current Sams- krt proverb says, SRGTRShifF ^€RT^ u all this world, i.e., all Jivas, are bound together in the bonds of mutual debts, endlessly"— a fact which, as said before, follows directly from the very Nature of the Absolute and the ultimate identity of all jivas, and without which the endless story of the world-process were impossible. In practice, the Jivas that are comparatively the most disin- terestedly and truly benevolent will be the readiest to acknowledge that they should not entertain the pride, and inflict on the recipient of their charity
1 In such registration, by the inner sub- or super-con- sciousness, of all debts and assets, consist the .power and process of the law of Karma.
EMOTIONS AND THEIR ELEMENTS. 41
the humiliation, of forbidding a grateful return^ parents nurturing their babes— what actions more disinterested ?~yet thereby discharge their debts to their own parents, and may also rightfully expect, and do expect, service from their grown-up sons in their old age. The Highest Gods, the Hierarchs, the Masters, and mothers and fathers, expect a certain amount of reciprocation — in the immediate present also. The emanations, in subtler matter, that are the accompaniments of the finer emotions are the food of the Gods, and of the mental bodies of others generally. 1
These considerations may help to remove any mysteriousness or mysticism that may seem to hang about a mere statement that the self expands with compassion ; and to show that on the side of Love, the predominance of the Common Self ap- pears not only in the desire to help, known as Benevolence (active) and Magnanimity (more pas- sive), but also in the desire to repay and serve in some way or other which is the essence of Grati- tude (active) and Humility (more passive), which accompany all Reverence and Worship, when regarded as Emotions.
Repulsion, Dislike, Hate, may be analysed in exactly the same manner as Attraction, and yields the three principal sub-divisions of :
i- Anger— In the case of the equality of the object of it.
i Bhagavad-Gita, iii. 11.
42 SCIENCE OF THE EMOTIONS.
ii- Fear — In the case of the superiority of the object of it.
iii. Pride or Scorn — In the case of the inferiority of the object of it.
The definitions, given before, of superiority, equality and inferiority, in connection with the emotion of Love, apply also, mutatis mutandis, to the emotion of Hate. Briefly, as he who has more, is the stronger, and is willing to give voluntarily, is the superior, and he who has less, is the weaker, and is willing to receive if the gift is made voluntarily, is the inferior, on the side of Love ; so, he who is the stronger and desirous of taking away by force is superior, and he who is the weaker and liable to be deprived and made to lose against his will is the inferior, on the side of Hate. So, too, the exchange, in the condition of equality, is involuntary here.
All mental moods whatever which are by general consensus called Emotions — as also many which are not so called but which are in truth well deserving of being so-called — will, on close analysis, be found (a) either to fall under one or other of these two triplets which cover the six principal Emotions of humanity ; or, (M to be compounds consisting of elements taken from both. The mental moods which are not generally recognised as Emotions fail to be so recognised only because they are not so intense as the others, and are accompanied with a less degree of general excitement — expansion or contraction— of
EMOTIONS AND THEIR ELEMENTS. 43
the system (speaking physiologically) and of the self (speaking psychologically). In them the desire-element which stamps a mental mood as Emotion and induces urgently to action is weak, sometimes so weak as to be imperceptible ; while the cognitional, the intellectual element is strong and prominent. In the ordinary books on Psychology they are either not treated of at all, or are vaguely and loosely referred to the depart- ment of the intellect exclusively- Examples of them will appear later on.
Summing up, now, the progressive definitions Final defi §*ven aDOve> from time to time, we may nition of say : Emotion is the desire of one Jiva Emotion. towards another Jiva in one of two main forms, viz., either to associate with it, knowing it to be able to give to, or exchange with, or receive from itself, objects of sense or their derivatives (in the broadest and most comprehensive sense), under conditions of perfect voluntariness ; or, to dissociate from it, knowing it to be able to take away, or exchange with, or lose to itself similar objects of sense under conditions of involuntariness. A convenient abbreviation of this would, perhaps, be that : An Emotion is a desire in one Jiva to associate with or dissociate from another Jiva, plus an intellectual cognition of the latter's superiority, equality, or inferiority, with reference to possible voluntary or forcible exchange of pleasures or pains between them.
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If, in any given case, the definition appears to fail in any respect, it will probably be found, on analysis, that the difficulty is due only to a deeper intermixture in that case than usual of elements belonging to both sides, of Love as well as of Hate, and that when these are duly discriminated and sorted out the difficulty vanishes. This inextric- able mixture of " opposites " in the world-process, and consequent impossibility of absolute definition, •the impossibility of any other than comparative characterisation, is a fact which has always to be borne in mind and is to be met with in interpret- ing any and every experience and any and every object belonging to the realm of the Relative. Why this should be so is for Metaphysic to answer.
The above analysis and definition of Emotion The Evolu- neec^ no^ ^e confined to the emotions of tion of the human race, but may safely be Emotion. appiied to those of other races of beings
also, be they higher or lower than the human in the scale of evolution. Even apart from the metaphysical considerations which go to show that consciousness is a partless and unbreakable unity in essence, and uniform in manifestation though varying endlessly in degrees of unfoldment (parallel with the endless variations in the quantity, quality, and activity, the density or subtlety, pecu- liarity, simple or complex organisation, etc., of the vehicles of its manifestation, its sheaths or bodies) throughout the world-process, the facts, established
EMOTIONS AND THEIR ELEMENTS. 45
by modern investigations into the evolution of intelligence in the various kingdoms found on this earth, by themselves suffice to establish common features of consciousness in minerals, vegetables,1 animals and men, and to show that the differences are differences mainly of degrees of complexity and definiteness. Consciousness unfolds evenly in all three departments, cognition, desire and
l See J. C. Bose's Response in the Living and the Non- Living and Plant Response. It is remarkable how while one series of investigations tends to show that what was hereto- fore regarded as inanimate is as much animate as man, another series of experiments tends towards the apparently exactly opposite conclusion that the activities that were so long believed to be exclusively due to animate or conscious life are really inanimate and mechanical in their nature : (See, eg., J. Loeb's The Comparative Physiology of the Brain and Comparative Psychology, and his explanation of animate functions by geotropism, heliotropism, stereotropism, galvanotropism, etc.). The reconciliation is to be found, and the final why at the end of each series of experiments satisfactorily answered, only in the view, emphasised by the V e d a n t a and the S a n k h y a that even b u d d h i and m a n a s , reason and intelligence, are j a d a , unconscious and material, and that the only Conscious Fact is the One Self whose Consciousness maintains all the world-process. To- understand the full significance of this metaphysical doctrine, we should study, e.g., the accounts of ' photographs,' etc. , of the invisible emanations from human beings during special psychological conditions, taken by Dr. H. Baraduc of Paris, and of ' voice-figures,' * music-forms,' ' sound-colors,' etc., of which even professionally scientific journals are full now, to say nothing of theosophical literature.
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action, though, of course, one is generally pre- dominant and the other two subordinate, so that there is also an appearance of succession and con- secutiveness in the development of the three ; and as the first grows more and more defined into intellect and thought, so the other two also grow similarly complicated and developed into the most subtle emotions and the most wide-reaching industries. The history of the evolution of any one of these is also the history of the evolution of the other two.1
1 For various schemes of triplets, e.g., (a) Desire, Emotion, Passion, or (6) Desire, Craving, Will, etc., arising out of the mutual reaction and reflexion of cognition, desire and action, the reader may refer to the Pranava-Vada. For valuable details as to the developments and transformations of emo- tions, e.g., of the sex-passion into parental love, see A Study in Consciousness, by Annie Besant, Part II., ch. iv., s. I.