The Samkhya System: A History of the Samkhya Philosophy c11.38

c11.38

Together with the organs the fine elements form part of the Liṅga, the psychic apparatus, which passes from life to life. The Liṅga, however, includes as a necessary part of it the subtle parts of the gross elements, which serve as the seed whence the physical body springs. These subtle portions are as necessary to the psychic apparatus as the canvas to a picture or, by a less appropriate simile, a pillar to a shadow. This psychic apparatus, which is incorporeal, and is prior to the conception of time, accompanies the souls throughout transmigration, from body to body, in accordance with the rule of causality, playing like an actor various parts, a power which it possesses since it shares in the property of all pervadingness which belongs to nature. This conjunction of spirit with the psychic apparatus is the cause of misery, and lasts until the attainment of true insight.