Charaka-Samhita — trans. Kaviraj Avinash Chandra Kaviratna

What is meant by saying that the soul becomes a ‘ dehin * i. e., vested with body , is that it becomes vested with bodies. Though in reality the Soul is one, it appears, in conseqence of birth, as infinite in number.

* Hindu philosophers maintain that the Soul is 1 sarvvageta ’ (omnipresant) and ‘ vibhu ’ (of unrestricted puissance). These attributes follow from its very nature. Where, i. e., in what part of the body, does it reside ? No particular part of the body, nor even the whole body, can be named in answer to tnis question. The Soul is not matter. Being immaterial, nothing can confine it. Whar, again, are its proportions ? Can any measure, such as we are acquainted with in connection with matter, be assigned to it ? Hence, it is regarded as Mahan, i.e., vast or great, all-filling, omniscient, and omnipotent. The attribute of ‘ vibhutwa ’ (unrestricted puissance) follows from the Soul being All-pervading and Great.

If the senses with Manas as their controller, and Buddhi (understanding) and the rest, be restrained by yoga, or in ‘ samadhi ’ meaning withdrawal from everything external or connected with the external, the Soul returns for the time being to its own original unperverted nature. The knower, the known, and knowledge become united, and universal knowledge or omniscience arises.

The Manas follows acts and body ; the meaning is that as birth in a particular form is determined by acts, viz., the acts {viz., the acts of the previous life), the nature or kind of the new body also is determined by acts. The Manas that inspires*that

p. 24

CHAR AKA SAM HIT A

The Self has no beginning. The succession, one after another, of Not-self also is without beginning. As both are without begin¬ ning, it cannot be said which is first (in the order of time).*88

The Knower is said to be Witness, and not that which does not know. Hence, Self (which is knower) is witness.

All phenomena of all existent beings have Self for their witness. f89 The Self which inspires Beings, when alone, can never be ap¬ prehended by the aid of indications. Of the Self which, when alone, is incapable of being apprehended, there is no distinguish¬ ing attribute.91

The union of Purusha is regarded as the distinction determined by knowledge of pleasure'and pain.

There is distinction where the knowledge of pleasure and pain is inherent ; and that distinction is determined by that knowledge itself.!91 new body is determined, as regards its character, by that body and the acts which cause that body. The Manas of human beings would differ from that of the lower animals. As regards human beings, again, the Manas of a particu¬ lar individual would differ from that of another individual. Hence, Manas is ‘ dehakarmanupati,’ i. e., follows or is dependant upon both body and acts.

Connection is of various kinds, such as union, fusion, co-existence, adjuncts etc. The connection between the Soul and Manas is that both are inseparable adjuncts of each other. Mere co-existence is implied.

The Soul, which is the inseparable adjunct of Manas, should be regarded as truly dwelling in all forms though apparently dwelling in a particular form* In other words, the Soul, though individualised, is truly universal.

* Of the four and twenty principles that constitute the being called Person, the first is Self ; the remaining three and twenty are Not-self. The universe consists of Self and Not-self. Self is unmanifest ; Not-self is manifest. Self is knower ; Not-self is knowable. — T.

t Phenomena are transient. They are known or witnessed by Self which is constant. Self is the link that connects phenomena as they rise one after another. Phenomena exist or appear as known by the Self. When Self succeeds in dissociating itself from all phenomena, it regains its own original nature, that is, attains to Emancipation. — T.

^ ‘ Bhutatman ’ (the Self which inspires Beings), meaning the one Supreme Soul, when alone, (tliatfis, before creation), is unknowable. It has no distinguishing

CHARAKA SAMHITA.

p. 25

The physician treats pain appertaining to the past, the present, and the future. Listen now to the reason for which some are of this opinion.34

“ It is that head-ache which has come back ; it is that fever which has re-appeared ; it is that severe consumption ; it is that vomiting, which has come back.”98

By these well-known forms of speech it seems to be the opinion of. people that it is the past that comes back ; that the time of diseases that are past has re-appeared.94

The medicine that is administered in view of such re-appearance, in point of time, of the disease, is regarded as an alleviative of disease that is past.95

It is that flood, by which the crops were formerly destroyed, that has re-appeared. A dam is constructed after the same manner (as before), and similar remedies are adopted.96

Observing the symptoms, during the period of incubation, of diseases that are about * to come, the treatment that is adopted, allaviates the pain that is future.*97