The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus c9.s6.9

c9.s6.9

The intoxicating power in liquor is a force, *i.e.* a tendency to motion, and this is the resultant of the tendencies (or subtile motions) present in the particles of the fermented rice, molasses, etc. A motion, or a tendency to motion, can in this way be the resultant of several other motions or tendencies. But consciousness (चैतन्य) is not a motion, and cannot be the resultant of (unconscious) natural forces or motions. Neither can the consciousness of the Self, or of the organism as a whole, be supposed to be the resultant of innumerable consciousnesses vested in the innumerable constituent particles of the body. One central abiding intelligence is a simpler and therefore more legitimate hypothesis than an assemblage of consciousnesses latent in different Bhûtas or particles, *cf.* Vijnâna-bhikṣu's comment on the Sûtra. मदशक्तिवच्चेत् प्रत्येकपरिदृष्टे सांहत्ये तदुद्भवः (Sûtra 22, Chapter III.) ननु यथा मादकताशक्तिः प्रत्येकद्रव्यावृत्तिरपि मिलितद्रव्ये वर्त्तते एवं चैतन्यमपि स्यादिति चेन्न प्रत्येकपरिदृष्टे सति सांहत्ये तदुद्भवः सम्भवेत्। प्रकृते तु प्रत्येकपरिदृष्टत्वं नास्ति ... ननु समुचिते चैतन्यदर्शनेन प्रत्येकभूते सूक्ष्मचैतन्यशक्तिरनुमेया इति चेन्न । अनेकभूतेषु अनेकचैतन्यशक्तिकल्पनायां गौरवेण लाघवादेकस्यैव नित्यचित्स्वरूपस्य कल्पनौचित्यात् । *Cf.* also भूतगतविशेषगुणानां सजातीयकारणगुणजन्यतया कारणे चैतन्यं विना देहे चैतन्यासम्भवात् । (*ibid.*).