Page:A History of Indian Philosophy Vol 1.djvu/102

 86 Buddhist Philosophy ECHo be vififiana. Here it occurred to him that in order that there might be vififiana there must be the conformations (sank/tara)1. But what being there are there the saIi.kharas? Here it occurred to him that the saIi.kharas can only be if there is ignorance (avyja). If avijja could be stopped then the saIi.kharas will be stopped, and if the saIi.kharas could be stopped vififiana could be stopped and so on:1. I t is indeed difficult to be definite as to what the Buddha actually wished to mean by this cycle of dependence of existence sometimes called Bhavacakra (wheel of existence). Decay and death (jarii1llara?w) could not have happened if there was no birth 3. This seems to be clear. But at this point the difficulty begins. We must remember that the taeory of rebirth was on Sankara's bha!jya on the Brahma-szttras (II. ii. 19), gives a different interpretation of Namarupa which may probably refer to the Vijiianavada view though we have no means at hand to verify it. He says-To think the momentary as the permanent is Avidya; from there come the sarpskaras of attachment, antipathy or anger, and infatuation; from there the first vijfiana or thought of the foetus is produced; from that alayavijfiana, and the four elements (which are objects of name and are hence called nama) are produced, and from those are produced the white and black, semen and blood called riipa. Both Vacaspati and Amalananda agree with Govindananda in holding that nama signifies the semen and the ovum while rupa means the visible physical body built out of them. Vijfiafia entered the womb and on account of it namarupa were produced through the associatiofi of previous karma. See Vedlll1takaljJataru, pp. 274, 275. On the doctrine of the entrance of vijfiafia into the womb compare D. N. II. 63. 1 It is difficult to say what is the exact sense of the word here. The Buddha was one of the first few earliest thinkers to introduce proper philosophical terms and phraseo- logy with a distinct philosophical method and he had often to use the same word in more or less different senses. Some of the philosophical terms at least are therefore rather elastic when compared with the terms of precise and definite meaning which we find in later Sanskrit thought. Thus in S. N. III. p. 87, "Smikhatal!l abhisaizkharonti," sailkhara means that which synthesises the complexes. In the Compendium it is trans- lated as will, action. Mr Aung thinks that it means the same as karma; it is here used in a different sense from what we find in the word sankhara khandha (viz. mental states). 'We get a list of 51 mental states forming sankhara khandh3. in Dhalllma Sailgai, p. 18, and another different set of 40 mental states in Dharmasal!lgraha, p. 6. In addition to these forty cittasalllPrayuktasa, ,!lSkiira it also counts thirteen cittavi- prayuktasa/!lSkiira. Candrakirtti interprets it as meaning attachment, antipathy and infatuation, p. 563. Govindananda, the commentator on Sankara's Brahma-sutra (II. ii. 19), also interprets the word in connection with the doctrine of Pratityasalllutpiida as attachment, antipathy and infatuation. 2 SCl1!lyutta Nikiiya, II. 7- 8 . 3 Jara and maraI).a bring in soka (grief), paridevana (lamentation), duJ:lkha (suffer- ing), daurmanasya (feeling of wretchedness and miserableness) and upayasa (feeling of extreme destitution) at the prospect of one's death or the death of other dear ones. All these make up suffering and are the results of jati (birth). ill. V. (13. T. S. p. 208). Sailkara in his bha!jya counted all the tcrms from jara, separately. The whole series is to be taken as representing the entircty of dul.lkhaskandha.