The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus c4.s1.t2.41

c4.s1.t2.41

The question is,—how does one and the same Bhúta, of the same formal structure, comprise different kinds of elements, with different atomic masses and different characteristic properties? And the answer is not far to seek. The properties of a thing are only the energies that are manifested in the particular collocations of the three Guṇas—Mass, Energy, and Essence; and a tri-Tanmátric or a penta-Tanmátric atom, *i.e.* an atom composed of three or five kinds of Tanmátras, may differ from another of the same class in respect of the number of constituent Tanmátras of any particular kind, as also of their collocation or grouping, and therefore in mass as well as in generic and specific characters.