SAIVA-SIDDHANTA

VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. 6 1
mere opening of the month. The tongue has to be brought
into contact with the palate to pronounce k and this same
act cannot produce the vowel. So the vowel cannot be said
to cause the consonant, nor the consonant the vowel. Nor can
we call the consonant and the connection themselves as false, and
as a mere illusion or delusion. So neither the principle of Parinama
nor Vivartana can apply to this connection. All that we
can say of it is, that they are so connected and inseparable, and
that no language can be possible, by vowels alone nor by conso
nants alone, and every consonant is at the same time a vowelconsonant,
in which the vowel is
apparent or non-apparent and
;
though we can conceive of the vowels standing alone, to think
of consonants as existing by itself is an utter impossibility.
Now apply
all this to the case of mind and body. Mind is the
vowel, and the body (matter) is the consonant. Mind and body
are as widely contrasted as vowel and consonants are. One
cannot be derived from the other by Parinama or Vivartana.
Yet both are inseparably united, and though the mind occupies
an independent position, can be pure subject at times, the body
cannot subsist unless it be in conjunction with mind. Mind is
always implied in body mind underlies
; it, supports
it and
sustains it, (if all this language derived from material cognition
is permissible). When the mind is
pure mind, the body is not,
it is asat (Simyam). When it is
pure body, mind is present but
non-apparent, it has become one with the body. The mind is
there, but it conceals its very self, its very identity, and it is as
good as absent. And except at rare intervals, our whole
existence is
passed in pure objectivity, without recognizing
the presence of the true self, the mind. The whole truth of
these two analogous cases, the only two, are brought out in
Tamil, in the most beautiful manner, by the same words being
used to donote vowel and consonant as also mind and body. See
what a light bursts when we name a-ofl/f,
Q^oJ* (e_L_6\)).
The
word * 3L.uS//r ,
means both a vowel and mind (soul) and l Qu>uj
;
both body and consonant. Dr. Bain observes that the sense
of similarity is the sense of invention and true discovery. The