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The Third Lesson: The Sankhya System.1173
psychic instruments of sensation and action, and also Manas—the Purusha,
of course, being at the centre of the Soul, as Spirit or Atman. This subtle
body (linga sharira) is invested with a grosser body, composed of the five
gross elements, and which gross body perishes at death, while its subtle
counterpart survives in Samsara, going through incarnations and changes
of physical bodies, etc.
The action of Prakriti is two-fold; First it has its own action inspired
by the laws of its own nature, which act in a more or less automatic and
unconscious fashion, according to an orderly trend resembling instinctive
action. But Intelligence and consciousness it has not, nor can it have until it is
illuminated by the involved Purushas.
The Sankhyas hold that the process of the creation of the material
universe, with its forms of life, and energy, is occasioned by the beginning
of each period of creative Activity, or Day of Brahm, by a subtle stirring in
the bosom of Prakriti owing to some law of its nature and influenced by
the accumulated Karma of past creations, and whereby the Purushas are
attracted even as the bees and flies are attracted by “sugar-water,” or syrup.
Flowing into the fluidic undifferentiated Prakriti, enticed by the subtle
attraction of her illusory charms, the Purushas come—and once entrapped
the results of the combination ensue. First there appears in the substance
of Prakriti an Awareness or state of Universal Consciousness, which is called
“Mahat, or the Great,” which gradually shades into a Cosmic Determinative
Consciousness on the part of the Whole Principle of the Prakriti. This is
followed by the development of the consciousness of Separateness, or Selfconsciousness,
or Egoism, called by the Hindus, “Ahamkara,” and which is
not, as some have supposed, a conscious realization of each Purusha of its
own real nature and individuality, but rather a false consciousness of itself
as a Personality, distinct from all else, and partaking of Avidya, or Ignorance
concerning its own true nature as Pure Spirit, or Purusha. From thence on
there is an Involution of Enfolding into Prakriti of the Purushas, sinking deeper
and deeper into the illusory existence, and even causing the Prakriti to take