Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c16.158

c16.158

Like these external and internal organs, the *Chitta*, too, being itself an object of consciousness, is not self-luminous (natat svābhāsaṁ dṛiśyatvāt). The Mind is not self-conscious (svābhāsa), as it is the outcome of the unconscious Prakriti, as explained above. In this sense, the Mind is itself a form, the highest form, of Matter. It is the Purusha which is the cognizer and enjoyer of the Mind. The essence of the Purusha is consciousness. The self-luminous Purusha is reflected upon the unconscious Mind and mistakes the state of the Mind for its own state. Thus in the Sāṁkhya dualism of conscious *Purusha* and unconscious *Prakṛiti* or primal nature, there is a place for an intermediate reality, the Buddhi, as the highest form of evolution from Matter or Prakṛiti in the infinite series of its modifications of different grades and as approximating most to Purusha at the other end. Buddhi is thus the missing link between Spirit and Matter, the conscious Purusha and unconscious Prakṛiti.¹