8

MANAS OR THE INWARD SENSE: THE TEN EXTERNAL FACULTIES OF SENSATION AND ACTION

IN ITS LIST OF THE _tattvas_, after individual consciousness (_ahaņkāra_), the Sāņkhya goes on to describe the five _tanmātras_, subtle elementary determinations, incorporeal therefore and outwardly imperceptible, belonging to the same group of productive productions. In an immediate sense they constitute respectively the principles of the five _bhūtas_ or corporeal and sensible elements and receive their finite expression in the particular conditions of individual existence prevailing at the level of the human state. The word _tanmātra_ literally means an 'assignment' (_mātra_, 'measure', 'determination') delimiting the proper sphere of a given quality (_tad_ or _tat_, neuter pronoun, 'that', taken here in the sense of 'quiddity', like the Arabic _dat_)^[1] in universal Existence; but this is not the place to enter into fuller details on this subject. We will merely remark that the five _tanmātras_ are usually indicated by the names of the sensible qualities: auditive or sonorous (_shabda_), tangible (_sparsha_), visible (_rūpa_, with the double sense of form and color), sapid (_rasa_), and olfactory (_gandha_); but these qualities must be looked upon here as existing in a relatively principial and 'non-developed' state only, since it is through the _bhūtas_ alone that they will be actually manifested in the sensible order; furthermore, the relation of the _tanmātras_ to the _bhūtas_ is analogous, in its relative degree, to that of 'essence' to 'substance', so that the term 'elementary essences' could be applied accurately enough to the _tanmātras_.^[2] The five _bhūtas_, in the order of their production or of their manifestation (an order parallel to that just indicated for the _tanmātras_, since a corresponding sensible quality goes with each element), are Ether (_Ākāsha_), Air (_Vāyu_), Fire (_Tejas_), Water (_Ap_), and Earth (_Prithvī_ or _Prithivī_): and it is from these that the whole of gross or corporeal manifestation is made up.

Between the _tanmātras_ and the _bhūtas_, and constituting along with the latter the group of 'unproductive productions', there are eleven distinct and specifically individual faculties which proceed from _ahaņkāra_, and which, at the same time, all participate in the five _tanmātras_. Of the eleven faculties in question ten are external, five of sensation and five of action; the eleventh, which is concerned with both these functions, is the inward sense or mental faculty (_manas_), and this is directly attached to consciousness (_ahaņkāra_).^[3] It is to _manas_ that we must refer individual thought, which belongs to the formal order (and which includes reason as well as memory and imagination);^[4] it is in no way inherent to the transcendent intellect (_Buddhi_), the attributes of which are essentially formless. It is worth remarking in this connection that, for Aristotle also, pure intellect is of a transcendent order and can claim knowledge of universal principles as its proper object; this knowledge, which is not discursive in any respect, is acquired directly and immediately by intellectual intuition. To avoid any misunderstanding it should be added that this intuition has nothing at all to do with the so-called 'intuition' of a merely sensitive and vital order, which plays such a prominent part in the decidedly anti-metaphysical theories of certain contemporary philosophers.

As for the development of the different faculties of individual man, it is enough to quote the teaching of the _Brahma-Sūtras_ on this subject:

> The intellect, the inward sense, and also the faculties of sensation and action, are developed [in manifestation] and reabsorbed [into the unmanifested] in a similar sequence [except that reabsorption proceeds in an inverse order to that of development],^[5] and this sequence always follows that of the elements from which these faculties proceed as regards their constitution ^[6][with the exception, however, of the intellect, which is developed in the formless order prior to the determination of any formal or properly individual principle]. As to _Purusha_ [or Ātmā], its emanation [insofar as it is regarded as the personality of a being] is not a birth [even in the widest meaning of the word],^[7] neither is it a production [implying a starting-point for its actual existence, as is the case for everything that proceeds from Prakriti]. One cannot in fact, assign to it any limitation [by any particular condition of existence], since, being identified with the Supreme Brahma, it partakes of its infinite essence [implying the possession of the divine attributes, at least virtually and even actually insofar as this participation is effectively realized in the Supreme Identity, not to speak of all that lies beyond any attribution whatsoever, since here we are contemplating the Supreme Brahma, which is nirguna, and not merely Brahma as saguna, that is to say Ishvara]. It is active, but only in principle [therefore 'action-less'],^[10] for this activity [kartritva] is not essential to it nor inherent in it, but is simply eventual and contingent [merely relative to its states of manifestation]. As the carpenter, grasping in his hand his axe and his other tools and then laying them aside, enjoys tranquillity and repose, so this _Ātmā_ in its union with its instruments [by means of which its principial faculties are expressed and developed in each of its states of manifestation, and which are thus nothing but the manifestations of these faculties with their respective organs], is active [although this activity in no way affects its inmost nature], and, in relinquishing them, enjoys repose and tranquillity [in the 'inaction' from which, in itself, it never departed].^[11]

The various faculties of sensation and action [indicated by the word prāna in a secondary acceptation] are eleven in number: five of sensation [buddhīndriyas or jñānendriyas, means or instruments of knowledge in their own particular sphere], five of action [karmendriyas], and the inward sense [manas]. Where a greater number [thirteen] is given, the term _indriya_ is employed in its widest and most comprehensive sense, distinguishing within _manas_, by reason of the plurality of its functions, the intellect [not in itself and insofar as it belongs to the transcendent order, but as a particular determination relative to the individual], the individual consciousness [ahaņkāra, from which manas cannot be separated], and the inward sense properly so called [what the Scholastic philosophers term sensorium commune].

Where a lesser number [usually seven] is given, the same term is applied in a more restricted manner: thus, seven sensible organs are specified, the two eyes, the two ears, the two nostrils and the mouth or tongue [so that, in this case, we are dealing merely with the seven openings or orifices of the head]. The eleven faculties mentioned above [although indicated collectively by the term prāna] are not [as are the five vāyus of which we shall speak later] simple modifications of the _mukhya-prāna_ or principal vital act [respiration, with the assimilation ensuing from it], but distinct principles [from the special point of view of human individuality].^[12]

The term _prāna_, in its most usual acceptation, really means 'vital breath'; but in certain Vedic texts it serves to describe something which, in the universal sense, is identified in principle with _Brahma_ itself, as when it is said that in deep sleep (_sushupti_), all the faculties are reabsorbed into _prāna_, since 'while a man sleeps without dreaming, his spiritual principle [Atmā viewed in relation to him] is one with _Brahma_,'^[13] this state being beyond distinction and therefore truly supra-individual: that is why the word _svapiti_, 'he sleeps', is interpreted as _swam apito bhavati_, 'he has entered into his own [Self].'^[14]

As to the word _indriya_, it really means 'power', which is also the primary meaning of the word 'faculty'; but, by extension, it comes to mean, as has already been pointed out, both the faculty and its bodily organ, which are thus described by one and the same word and which are considered as constituting in combination a single instrument, either of knowledge (_buddhi_ or _jñāna_, these terms being here taken in their widest sense), or of action (_karma_). The five instruments of sensation are: the ears or hearing (_shrotra_), the skin or touch (_tvach_), the eyes or sight (_chakshus_), the tongue or taste (_rasana_), the nose or smell (_ghrāna_), being enumerated thus in the order of development of the senses. which is that of the corresponding elements (_bhūtas_); but, to explain this correspondence in detail, it would be necessary to discuss fully the conditions of corporeal existence, which we cannot undertake to do here. The five instruments of action are: the organs of excretion (_pāyu_), the generative organs (_upastha_), the hands (_pāni_), the feet (_pāda_), and lastly the voice or organ of speech (_vāch_),^[15] which is reckoned as the tenth. _Manas_ must be regarded as the eleventh, fulfilling in its own nature a double function of service both toward perception and toward action, and partaking in consequence of the properties of each, which it centralizes to a certain extent within itself.^[16]

According to the _Sāņkhya_, these faculties with their respective organs are (distinguishing three faculties in _Manas_) the thirteen instruments of knowledge in the sphere of human individuality (for the end of action is not in action itself but only insofar as it relates to knowledge): three are internal and ten external, compared to three sentinels and ten gates (consciousness being inherent in the former, but not in the latter when viewed distinctively). A bodily sense perceives, and an organ of action executes (the one being, as it were, an 'entry' and the other an 'outgoing': there are here two successive and complementary phases, of which the first is a centripetal and the second a centrifugal movement); between the two, the inward sense (_manas_) examines; consciousness (_ahaņkāra_) makes the individual application, that is to say the assimilation of the perception by the 'ego', of which it henceforth becomes part as a secondary modification; and, finally, the pure intellect (_Buddhi_) transposes the data of the preceding faculties into the Universal.