A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v2.c34.291

v2.c34.291

The Vedāntists resolve all activity, physical, vital as well as psychical, into modes of motion, subtile cosmic motion. (परिस्पन्द, सर्व्वलोकपरिस्पन्द—Saṅkara; वायोः परिस्पन्दात्मकत्वात्,—प्राणस्य परिस्पन्दात्मकत्वादेव—यद्वत्तं स्थूलं सूक्ष्मं च तत्त्वञ्च मनःस्पन्दितमात्रम्—Saṅkara); but they give a separate substantive existence to the agents, the vital principle (प्राण) and the mind (मनः), though these are also evolutionary transformations of the Súkshma Bhútas (forms of subtile matter). What is common to the Nyāya, the Vedānta and the Sāṅkhya is that Consciousness or Intelligence (चैतन्य) transcends Matter; but the Naiyāyikas as pluralists hold that vital and psychical activities are also immaterial and cannot be resolved into motion (परिस्पन्द);—the Vedāntists resolve these activities into subtile motion, but ascribe them to a substantive quasi-material Life Priciple and Mind, the all-mirroring Intelligence (चैतन्य) alone being immaterial and transcendent: and the Sāṅkhyas accept the substantive existence of the Mind Principle (मन:) as derived co-ordinately with the Sūkshma Bhūtas or Tanmātras from individualised Prakriti (Ahaṅkāra), but resolve Life into a mere resultant activity of the bodily organs, viz., the organs of sense and movement, and the psychic principle (मन:).