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

XXVIL.

(Is this set is) mind, which is both (an organ of sensation and of action). It ponders, and it is an organ as being cognate with the rest. They are numerous by specific modification of qualities, and so are external diversities.

BHASHYA.

Here, as one of the class of organs, mind is said to be both. Among the organs of sensation it is one of sensation, and among those of action it is an organ of action also, As it performs the function of the organs of sensation and of those of action it belongs to both. Jt ponders (or purposes); whence the term sankalpaka. It is also an organ as being cognate with the rest; for such is the meaning of the word sddhermya. The organs of sensation and action being (cognate or) preduced, along with mind, from egotism affected by goodness, have this (property, of origin) in common with mind; and from this common property mind is an organ likewise.

Thus eleven organs are produced from egotism affected by goodness. What, then, is the function (rrit¢i) of mind? Reflection (sankalpa) is its function. Sound and the rest are the functions of the organs of sensation. Speech and the rest are the functions of the organs of action. Now are gZ various objects, so created by Aswara?

these various organs, apprelien or are they self-generated ! since nature, intellect, and egotism, are devoid of sense; and soul is devoid of action. Thence, according to the Sankhya doctrine, a certain spontaneity is the cause (of the variety of the senses). Therefore it is added, They are numerous by specific modification of qualities, and so are external diversities: that is, the several objects of these eleven

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organs, or sound, touch, form, flavour, and odour, which are the objects of five; speech, manipulation, motion, excretion, and generation, the objects of other five; and reflexion, the object of mind ; these all proceed from specific modification of qualities. From the variety (or special difference) of such modifications of the qualities the multifariousness of the organs proceeds, as well as the diversity of external objects: consequently this variety is not the work of Iswara, nor of egotism, nor of intellect, nor of nature, nor of soul; but from modification of the qualities, produced by spontaneity. It does not proceed designedly (it is not the result of a will to act), because the qualities are non-sentient (unconscious or irrational). How then does it take place? This, as will be afterwards explained, is in like manner as the secretion of milk is for the growth of the calf, so the proceedings of nature take place for the liberation of soul, without soul's being cognizant of them ; so the unconscious qualities become modified by the existence of the eleven organs, and their varieties are thence derived. Hence the eye is placed in its elevated orbit for the purpose of looking up to heaven; and in like manner the nose, the ear, the tongue are commodiously situated for the apprehension of their respective objects: the organs of action are also distributed conveniently for the discharge of their several duties of their own nature, through the modification of the qualities, not as their objects; as it is elsewhere said, “ Qualities abide in qualities; that which is the function of the qualities is their object.” External diversities, therefore, are to be regarded as made by the qualities: this is the meaning of the text. Of which nature is the cause.

The several functions of the organs are next specified.

COMMENT.

After defining mind as an instrument both of sensation and of action, this verse explains how it is that there are various organs and objects of sense ; and it is said to depend in both cases upon specific modifications of the qualities of nature.

Mind is an instrument both of sensation and of action. Its function is sankalpa, a word that more commonly means ‘resolve, purpose, expectace

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