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

By ‘intellectual creation,’ pratyaya serga*, is to be understood the various accidents of human life occasioned by the operations of the intellect, or the exercise of its faculties, virtue, knowledge, dispassion, power, and their contraries. Pratyaya properly means ‘trust,’ but is here considered to be synonymous with buddhi. It may be understood as implying ‘notion ;’ and pratyaya serga is the creation or existence of which we have a notion or belief, in contradistinction to bodily or organic existence, of which we have an idea or sensible perception; the bhita sergat, or ‘elemental creation.’

Existence then, dependent on the faculties of the intellect and their consequences, is further distinguished as of four kinds: 1. ‘ Obstruction,’ viparyaya, is explained by VAcuespatt ‘ignorance’ (ajndna), by Gaurapapa ‘ doubt’ (sansaya): 2. ‘ Disability,’ asakti, is imperfection of the instruments or senses: 3. Tushéi is ‘acquiescence’ or ‘ indifference :’ and, 4. Siddhi is‘ complete or perfect knowledge.’ ‘In the three first are comprised the seven intellectual faculties, virtue and the rest (see p. 88), all except knowledge, which is comprehended in perfectness{.’ S. Tatwa Kaumudi. This is the collective or generic division. Each genus is again divided so as to form fifty species, according as they are affected by the three qualities, or the predominance of one, and the depression of another |. The species are enumerated in the succeeding verse.

* yeraet: | t arent: baefauatarafegticg wrath ana ward eTaastranira: fet « gTaeifir | | vawenfirerore ward vaRergater CATs |

p. 148

XLVII.

Tuere are five distinctions of obstruction; and, from defect of instruments, twenty-eight of disability: acquiescence is ninefold ;

perfectness eightfold. BHASHYA.

Five distinctions of obstruction; namely, obscurity, illusion, extreme illusion, gloom, and utter darkness: these will presently be explained. There are twenty-eight kinds of disability from defect of instruments; which also we shall describe. Acquiescence is ninefold, being the kinds of knowledge partaking of the quality of foulness in an ascetic. Perfectness is eightfold, which in holy men consists also of the kinds of knowledge partaking of the quality of goodness. These will all be explained in order; and first of obstruction.

COMMENT.

We have here the fifty varieties of intellectual creation, or conditions dependent upon the faculties of intellect, simply enumerated under each head respectively.

The text in each case is limited to the enumeration of the number of the varieties, leaving their designations and descriptions to be supplied by the scholia: accordingly we have in the Bhdshya the five distinctions of obstruction specified. They are referred to in the text, in the succeeding stanza, for the purpose of enumerating their subdivisions, and it is unnecessary therefore to enter upon the detail here.

XLVIII. Tue distinctions of obscurity are eightfold. as also those of illusion; extreme illusion is tenfold; gloom is eighteenfold, and so is utter darkness.

p. 149

BHASHYA.

Obscurity is eightfold ; final dissolution being so distinguished through ignorance ; as when a person thinks that soul merges into the eight forms of prakriti, or the five rudiments, egotism, intellect, and nature, and thence concludes, I am liberated : this is eightfold obscurity. The same is the number of kinds of illusion; in consequence of which, Indra and the gods, being attached to the possession of the eight kinds of superhuman power, such as minuteness and the rest, do not obtain liberation, but upon the loss of their power migrate again: this is called eightfold illusion. Extreme illusion ts of ten kinds, accordingly as the five objects of sense, sound, touch, form, taste, and smell, are sources of happiness to the gods or to men. In these ten objects (or the five objects of sense twice told) consists extreme illusion. Gloom is eighteenfold—The faculties of superhuman power are eight sources, and the objects of sense, human or divine, are ten, making eighteen; and the feeling that makes men rejoice in the enjoyment of these eighteen, and grieve for the want of them, is gloom. Utter darkness has in like manner eighteen varieties, originating with the eightfold superhuman power and the ten objects of perception ;/ but it applies to the profound grief felt by one who dies amidst the abundance of sensual delights in the season of enjoyment, or who falls from the command of superhuman faculties: that is utter darkness. In this manner the five varieties of obstruction, obscurity and the rest, are severally subdivided, making sixty-two varieties.

COMMENT.

The five kinds of obstruction, ignorance, or uncertainty, alluded to in the preceding stanza, are here specified, and their subdivisions enumerated.