90. SAIVA BASIS OF ABHINAVA'S ÆSTHETICS 101

SAIVA BASIS OF ABHINAVA'S ÆSTHETICS 101

but qualities1 (Gunas) ?" PATAN AVITAB

Reply may be stated as follows :- While the Naiyayikas maintain the power and its posses- sor to be essentially distinct from each other, the Saivas hold them to be identical (Sakti Saktima- torabhedah). Further, the characteristic lof the powers of knowledge and action is that their manifestations are not distinct from but identical with them. It is their essential nature to manifest their objects without any gap or intermis- sion and their objects are identical with them. Therefore, if Sattva, Rajas and Tamas were accepted to be the powers of individual subjects (i) their knowledge and action would have to be admitted to be eternal and without any gap, but they are not so, (ii) freedom of the individual subject from them would have been impossible, because power and its possessor are identical and inseparable (iii) The last twenty- three categories of the Saiva (Manas, Buddhi, Ahankāra, ten senses, five subtle and five gross elements) are the effects or manifestations of Sattva etc. But if the Sattva etc. were powers of the individual and as such identical with him, the world of nature would have been regarded as mani- festation of the individual and would have shone as identical with and not as distinct from him. In such a case he would cease to be individual and would be Mahesvara. The Saivas, therefore, admit Sattva etc. to be qualities and not powers. The distinction between them consists in this that while the latter are identical with the possessor, the former are distinct or separate from and external to the subject; they are only the means (Upakarana). In the context of discussion on the individual subject, whose individuality is due to non-recognition of his true nature, Sattva etc. are to be regarded as qualities and not as powers. 1. I. P. V., Vol. II. 255-6

102 aorranras CHAPTER İL 8 AVIAG

SATTVA, RAJAS AND TAMAS AND PLEASURE, PAIN AND SENSELESSNESS. We have stated in an earlier section that the powers of knowledge, action and obscuration (Jnana, Kriya and Maya) of the Absolute appear in the case of the individual subjects as Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. This point is presented in a subsequent verse in another way as follows :-

The Supreme Lord is free to bel (Bhavane Svatantrah). This freedom to be is technically called "Satta" "Sphuratta"and is inseparable from cons- ciousness "Vimarsa" which refers to nothing else than this very freedom to be and, therefore, may be called "action" (Kriya). Action in this context includes the activity of knowing also. For, the difference between Jnana and Kriya is confined to greater predominance of the objec- tive manifestation in the case of the latter than in that of the former. This very Vimarsa is called Ananda also, inasmuch as it refers to nothing external and is character- ised by the rest on the inseparable aspect of itself, "Prakāsa" or "Satta".

Now in the case of individual subject, the in- separable "Prakasa" and Vimarsa" or "Satta" and "Ananda" appear as its qualities, because they are obscured by Maya, so that there is negation of both "Satta" and "Ananda". The limited appearance of Satta and Ananda in individual subject is the quality of Sattva. It is limited light of knowledge. It has limited objective reference. It illumines some object to the exclusion of the rest. This much is due to the limited "Prakasa" aspect. But "Prakasa" is inseparable from Vimarsa : and Vimarśa, resting on "Prakasa", is "Ananda". Therefore, the other

1. I. P. V., Vol. II. 257-8. a ces 11 JoV V.I J.1