सङ्गीतरत्नाकर: प्रथम भाग (शार्ङ्गदेव - स्वरगताध्याय सविस्तार व्याख्या व अनुवाद सहित)

54 Treatment of Svara
The organs of sense-perception have Brahman for their
source,¹⁶ while others take them to be material (in nature).
(53ab)
The inner instrument called 'individual nature'¹⁷,
differentiated by the type of character, is considered to be
threefold. (53 cd)
The author, according to 'S', has enumerated memory, illusion and
choice as some of the functions of the intellect. Memory includes know-
ledge and illusion is ultimately an error of judgement or a perversion of
perception. Choice as related to action has already been explained as
the function of buddhi.
'S' quotes Vacaspatyam which says that the mind and the intellect
(i. e., manas and buddhi) combined together make for the apparent
feeling, 'I exist'. In other words, mind and intellect are responsible for
'self-consciousness'.
Here obviously the author is elucidating the principle of individual
predisposition.
Antaḥkaraṇa comprising the mind (manas) and the intellect (buddhi),
or in other terms, will and practical reason, operates at the conscious
level in modern terms. Apart from this the individual has another ins-
trument in terms of consciousness, that functions at a deeper level.
16. 'S' elucidates this point as under :—
"The Vedāntins consider Brahman to be the cause of (the
power of ) the 'indriya-s' (i.e., the sense organs and the organs
of action including the inner instrument) for indeed they
consider Brahman to be the cause of entire appearance of the
world phenomenon. Alternatively, the Sāṅkhya-s would
interpret the phrase brahmayonīni in the sense that they are not
material. Others, i.e., the Vaiśeṣika-s consider these organs to
be material, since they are produced from the five elements
such as earth, water, etc., which are physical."
However, the elucidation of 'S' with reference to Vedānta
is based on very general grounds and thus loses significance.
The Sāṅkhya philosophy considers entire prakṛti as inert; and,
therefore, it is not understood how the Sāṅkhya-s can consider
the organs to be immaterial. Actually the Sāṅkhya system
considers puruṣa to be absolutely inactive. Consequently
ahaṁkāra, i. e., the cause of self-consciousness is considered to
be the cause of senses. Again in the Vedāntic view the world
is an appearance of Brahman, which in its cit aspect can be
considered to be the cause of sense perception.
17. Sattva, literally means—nature, essence, natural character,
inborn disposition, mind and consciousness. In this context,
'S' takes it to be consciousness, as the third aspect of antaḥ-
karaṇa, the inner instrument.

---

Section 2 : The Genesis of the Human Embodiment 55
The guṇa-s are sattva, rajas and tamas, i.e., purity¹⁸,
activity and inertia. From the mental disposition¹⁹ of
According to the Sāṅkhya system, the inner instrument is threefold
comprising the mind, the intellect and consciousness as the cause of self-
awareness. Sattva is defined by 'S' as svabhāva, i.e., individual nature
or predisposition Three types of individual dispositions are discerned
here on the basis of the predominance of any one of the three guṇa-s.
Guṇa is an ingredient or a constituent of prakṛti as spoken of in the
Sāṅkhya system of Indian philosophy. Prakṛti is manifestation and Puruṣa
is the intelligent principle involved. It will not be relevant to go into
the philosophical exposition of the Sāṅkhya doctrine here, but it is
perhaps necessary to point out that it visualises two states of being, viz.,
the one of dissolution in which the three guṇa-s of prakṛti are in equili-
brium and the intelligent principle Puruṣa is dissociated from it; and the
other of creation, when the equilibrium of the guṇa-s is disturbed and
by their varied predominance in association with the intelligent princi-
ple Puruṣa, they create the phenomenon of names and forms. So, the
individual nature of the individual is instrumental in the individual
creation to the intelligence involved in the individual being. Thus the
mind, conscious and unconscious, is conceived here as the inner instru-
ment for the functioning of the consciousness of the individual. There-
fore, the individual consciousness as associated with the predominance
of any one of the three guṇa-s is discerned to be of three types. The
three guṇa-s seem to represent, what in our terms, we would understand
as the two opposites and the centre of their axis, the centre being
the sattva.
It is interesting to compare Suśruta (Śā. Sthā. 1.19) on this subject.
"An absence of all-killing and hostile propensities, a judicious regimen
of diet, forbearance, truthfulness, piety, a belief in God, spiritual know-
ledge, intellect, a good retentive memory, comprehension and the doing
of good deeds irrespective of consequences are the qualities which grace
the mind of a person of a sāttvika temperament. Feeling of much pain
and misery, a roving spirit, non-comprehension, vanity, untruthfulness,
non-clemency, pride, an overweening confidence in one's own excellence,
18. Rajas and tamas have been rendered here as activity and inertia
which are not only opposite in nature but are also relative
while sattva is rendered as purity being free of the extremities.
There are other sets of words in which too the three guṇa-s are
rendered into English but the essential point is that they imply
the two opposites and the transcendental principle of sattva.
19. The three types of inner disposition or consciousness have one
of the three guṇa-s as its predominant factor conditioning the
entire consciousness.