Traits Of Commonalty

Both the Purusha and Prakriti are eternal realities, both of them are un-manifest, disembodied, without a beginning or origin, eternal, without a second, all - pervading and omnipresent.

Traits Of Diversity

Of the Purusha and the Prakriti, only the latter is non-conscious and possesses the three fundamental qualities of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. Prakriti performs the function of the seed or in otherwords she lies inherent as the seed or the primary cause in the latter phenomenal evolution of the Mahat etc. and contributes the maternal element in the conception, development and birth of the primordial cosmic matter (phenomenal universe), fecundated by the Purusha (self-conscious subjectivity) in its different stages of evolution. These stages are called Mahat, Ahamkára etc.; and Prakriti is not indifferent, as the Purusha is to the pleasures and misery of life. But the Purusha (units or atoms of consciousness), devoid of the threefold virtues of Sattva etc. are non-concerning hence non-producing and bereft of the seed-attributes of lying inherent in all as the primary cause of evolution. They are mere witnesses to the joys and miseries of life, and do not participate in their enjoyment though imprisoned in the human organism. 10

Since an effect is uniform in virtue to its producing cause, the evolutionised effects or products of the Prakriti such as the Mahat, Ahamkára etc. must needs partake of the three fundamental qualities (Sattva, Rajas and Tamas) which are predicated of the Prakriti. In other words, these Mahat, Ahamkára, etc. are but the modifications of the three fundamental qualities of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. Moreover, certain authorities hold that the Purushas are units of self-consciousness, possessed of the three aforesaid qualities owing to their antecedent conditions or causes (the gross material universe) being permeated with and characterised by them. II.

Metrical Text (Vaidyake.)

It is asserted in the Ayurveda that it is only the gross-sighted ones and men capable of observing only the superficial appearances, who confound eternal order or sequence of things and events (Svabhába), God (Isvara) * Time (Kála), sudden and unlooked for appearances of the phenomena (Yadrichchha), Necessity (Niyati) and transformation (Parináma) with the original Nature (Prakriti). The five different forms of matter (such as Ether etc.) are nothing but the modifications or transformed states of the original nature and are characterised by the three universal qualities of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, and all created things, whether mobile or immobile, should be considered as alike exponented by the same. In the Science of medicine the cause of a disease is the one sole aim to be achieved by means of administering proper medicinal remedies (matter), and hence the properties of matter are the only fit subject to be dealt with in a book on pharmacy. And further, because the immediately prior cause of the human organism is a proper and congenial admixture of the sperm and ovum (matter), the sense organs are the resultants of phenomenal - evolution of matter, and the objects of sense perception are equally material or phenomenal in their nature. 12 - 14,

Memorable Verse

A man by a particular organ of his body perceives the same matter which forms the proper object of that sense organ in as much as the perceiving sense organ and the perceived sensible are produced by the same material cause. The matter, which specifically forms the object of a particular sense organ, cannot be perceived by the other. We see a flower with the eyes and not with the nose. 15.

* The second factor according to Sankhya, in the order of cosmic evolution, which as the seed of the universe, was hid in the burning disc of the central, primordial Sun, out of which the different solar systems have come into being.

The Science of medicine does not lay down that the self-conscious Selves (Kshetrajna) are all pervading, but on the contrary it asserts that they are real and eternal and are born in the planes of divine, human or animal existence according to their good or evil deeds in life. The existence of these self-conscious entities can be ascertained duly by inference inasmuch as they are extremely subtle in their essence. The self-conscious self is possessed of infinite consciousness, is real and eternally subject to the process of being evolved out into a finite, organic individual through the dynamics of the combined sperm and ovum. The view is further corroborated by a dictum of the Sruti which holds that Purusha (individual) is nothing but a combination of a self-conscious self and the five kinds of matter (Mahá-bhutas) formed into an organic body. This Purusha or individual, which is called Individual of action (Karma-Purusha), falls within the scope of the science and art of medicine. * 16 - 17.

* Here lies the difference between Sankhya and Ayurveda. While the former discourses on in material character of the soul, the latter commences to discuss on the questions how the material environment in which the soul is said to inhabit is evolved, and how the inclusion of the spiritual within the material organism is effected.

Hence Sus'ruta's Physiology, like that of Charaka, is in the strictest sense of the word molecular and his science of life is an attempt at explanation of consciousness from the materialistic standpoint, which agrees with the views of modern western science. Intellect according to Sus'ruta is material and belongs to the same category which the Sánkhya system of philosophy in its explanation of evolution enumerates originally as seven. The soul, accordtng to Sus'ruta, is an independent existence and is often associated with what is called life. Where there is life, there is a soul, and it is not everywhere the same. The soul in Sus'ruta is individual