The Sānkhya Kārikā, with the Bhāshya of Gauḍapāda — trans. H. T. Colebrooke and H. H. Wilson (1837)

Consciousness is egotism. Thence proceeds a twofold creation.
The elevenfold set is one: the five elemental rudiments are the

other. BHASHYA. / The elevenfold set: the eleven organs. The five elemental rudiments : elementary matter of five kinds, or the rudiments, sound, touch, form, flavour, and odour. What sort of creation proceeds from that which is thus defined is next explained.

COMMENT.

The third category is here specified, and described as the source of the senses and their respective objects.

The term here given as the synonyme and definition of ‘ egotism,’ ahankdra +, is abhimdna t, translated ‘ consciousness.’ The ordinary sense of both words is pride, and the technical import is ‘the pride or conceit of individuality ;’ ‘ self-sufficiency ;’ the notion that ‘I do, I feel, I think, IT am,’ as explained by Vacnespati: ‘I alone preside and have power over all that is perceived and known, and all these objects of sense are for my use. There is no other supreme except I; I am. This pride, from its exclusive (selfish) application, is egotism ||.’ The principle, therefore, is something more in Hindu metaphysics than mere consciousness,

* fernaqrard dae arr strafifn =f aeare taafivara: | lay wearestfan aa a wareafirga: we: way ae wart free: aw arinnfinge: afacerea far tishitara: Asana NT |p. 92 or conscience. It might be better expressed, perhaps, by ‘le moi,’ as it adds to the simple conception of individuality the notion of self-property, the concentration of all objects and interests and feelings in the individual.

The other synonymes of this category express rather modifications of it, as the next stanza intimates. Taijasa, ‘the active’ or ‘the ardent,’ from ¢éjas *, ‘ light, splendour, ardour,’ refers to its animating or exciting influence on human actions, in connection with the quality of foulness. Bhitddi}, ‘ primitive element,’ and vaikritat, ‘the modified,’ as explained in the Bhashya, on the next verse, regard its being, in connection with darkness and goodness, the principle from which the organs and objects of sense proceed: for it must not be forgotten, that this category of egotism or consciousness has a physical, not a metaphysical character, according to the Sinkhya philosophy, being the organ or instrument by which the impression of individuality is conveyed to soul. It is in this capacity that it may be considered the primary element, the parent of the rudiments of the elements, or the objects of sense, and of the organs by which they are perceived. It is, in fact, the same with both these, as it is only by the application of our own senses to the objects of sense that we can become conscious of individual existence.

XXV. From consciousness, affected by goodness, proceeds the good elevenfold set: from it, as a dark origin of being, come elementary particles: both issue from that principle affected by foulness.

BHASHYA.

When goodness predominates in egotism over darkness and foulness, that egotism is of the pure kind; the name of which, according to ancient

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teachers, was vaikrita, ‘the modified.’ From this modified egotism the class of eleven organs is produced. The good set: perfect organs; adequate to their functions: the set is thence called good. Again; from it, as a dark origin of beings, §c—When darkness predominates in egotism over goodness and foulness, that egotism is called dark, or, as it was named by the old masters, ‘ primitive element,’ bhdtddi. From it come elementary particles; the fivefold set. The first element of the elements is darkness; therefore it is usually called the dark: from that primitive element the fivefold rudimental set proceed. Both issue from that principle affected by foulness: that is, the egotism in which foulness predominates over goodness and darkness takes the denomination ¢aijasa, ‘ the active ;’ and from that both proceed; both the eleven orgaus and five rudiments. For the pure egotism, which is vaikrita, ‘the modified, becoming so modified, produces the eleven organs: but to do this it takes active egotism for its assistant ; for pure (sd¢wika) egotism is inert, and is only able to produce the organs when combiied with the active. In like manner the dark egotism, or that which is called ‘ primitive element,’ is inert, and becomes active only in union with the active, when it produces the five rudiments. Therefore it is said, both the organs of sense and their objects issue from the modification of egotism affected by foulness. The good elevenfold set proceeds from modified egotism, or that which is affected by the quality of goodness. They are next particularized.

COMMENT.

The products of egotism are here described as proceeding from three modifications of that principle, varied by the influence of the three qualities.