79. SAIVA BASIS OF ABHINAVA'S ÆSTHETICS 87

SAIVA BASIS OF ABHINAVA'S ÆSTHETICS 87

The voluntarist answers these questions from a strict logical point of view. 1. The question "how can we get over the contradic- tion involved in the voluntarist's position that the Ultimate manifests the diversity externally from itself but still the diversity is within it and rests in it ?" is answered as follows :- Consciousness of both "being" and "not-being" of the object of consciousness depends upon its being a fact of consciousness. Unless the object be a fact of consciousness, there can be no determinate cognition either of its being or of its not-being. And being a fact of consciousness means identity of the object with consciousness. The statement that objects shine (Prakasante) means that they are in the same relation with the consciousness as the individual subject is with the universal. Just as the individual subject, though in relation of identity with the Universal, is yet the individual, so the object of conscious- ness, though in identity with the consciousness, is yet an external object. Externality does not mean not-conscious- ness. For, that would mean its essential difference from consciousness and landing into the difficult position of the dualist : because what is not-consciousness and, therefore, does not shine, can never be made to shine. The essential nature never changes: and if it changes it is not essential. Hence, according to the voluntarist, external manifes- tation of the objective world does not mean that it is not- consciousness. And if it is essentially non-different from consciousness how can the essential identity of the Ultimate and its manifestation be denied ? Thus the objective variety is represented to rest in the Ultimate conscious principle, because it shines as related