89. SAIVA BASIS OF ABHINAVA'S ÆSTHETICS 99

SAIVA BASIS OF ABHINAVA'S ÆSTHETICS 99

sentient beings is established as follows :- It is a fact of experience that the insentients do not shine independently. The supposition that they do so is beyond experience and as such it is inadmissible. When- ever and wherever the insentients shine, they are related to self-consciousness, they rest on it. The insentients, there- fore, are without self-consciousness. The sentients alone possess it. This self-consciousness, as such,is identical with the universal and is free from temporal and spatial limitations ; for, they apply to what is objective in nature, such as bodyn and vital airs, which, as we have just stated, do not shine independently. How can they, which have no independent "being", delimit that, on which their being depends ? Thus, the Absolute, the universal self-consciousness, Mahesvara, is the self-consciousness in all the sentients. He is "free", He manifests within Himself all the multiplicity that is referred to as "this" and, therefore, He is perfect (Pūrna), because the whole of "This" is within Him and shines as identical with and not as external to Him.1

THE INDIVIDUAL SUBJECTS.

Here the following question arises :- If the Absolute (Mahesvara) is the self-consciousness in all the sentients and is free from limitation, there is no question of bondage, for liberation from which the Saiva system is propounded ? aema'T (iti)

This is replied as follows :- The process of manifestation is the process of concreti- sation of the Universal. And concretisation means the rise of distinction, differentiation and limitation. It means splitting up of the unity into multiplicity, breaking of "this" into 1. I. P. V., Vol. II, 250-1. ancjaiowog ontis bao ,t5 fdea Inobivibnt odt

100 SOITAHT CHAPTER H 1BA8 AVIA "thises". Amongst Thises" there are body, intellect (Buddhi) and vital airs (Prana). The concretisation of the Universal self-consciousness consists in identification with the multiplicity of "thises" severally and consequent rise of multiplicity of self-consciousnesses as limited by different bodies, intellects and vital airs. It involves ignorance of the essential and true nature of self-conscious- ness. It is what is technically called "Svarupakhyati". This ignorance of the essential nature of Self-consciousness and identification with body etc., constitutes the indivi- dual subject. As there is multiplicity of objects of identifi- cation so there is multiplicity of individual subjects. They are in bondage, because they are ignorant of the real nature of self.consciousness. The system, therefore, is meant for their liberation. THE QUALITIES OF INDIVIDUAL SUBJECTS. We know that, according to the Saiva, the Absolute, in the context of knowledge and action (Jnana and Kriya), has three powers (i) of knowledge (ii) of action and (iii) of obscuration or concretisation (Jñana, Kriyā, Māyā). When, therefore, the universal individua- lises or concretises, as we have explained in the preceding section, these universal powers also get delimited and are called not powers but qualities (i) Sattva (ii) Rajas and (iii) Tamas.

POWER AND QUALITY DISTINGUISHED. If Sattva, Rajas and Tamas are nothing more than the powers of Mahesvara, with the only distinction that they are limited in the case of the individual subjects, the question arises "Why are they looked upon as distinct from the individual subject, and are not called powers (Saktayah)