Page:A History of Indian Philosophy Vol 1.djvu/497

 x] Perception and Objective Existence 4 81 forms of ajfiana remain as indefinite and hidden or veiled only so long as they do not come into relation to these vfttis of antaJ:l- karaI)a, for the ajfiana can be destroyed by the cit only in the form of a vftti, while in all other forms the ajfiana veils the cit from manifestation. The removal of ajnana-vfttis of the antal)- karaI)a or the manifestation of vftti-jfiana is nothing but this, that the antal)karaI)a states of avidya are the only states of ajfiana which can be superimposed upon the self-luminous atman (adh}'iisa, false attribution). The objective world consists of the avidya phenomena with the self as its background. Its objectivity consists in this that avidya in this form cannot be superimposed on the self-luminous cit but exists only as veiling the cit. These avidya phenomena may be regarded as many and diverse, but in all these forms they serve only to veil the cit and are beyond con- sciousness. It is only when they come in contact with the avidya phenomena as antaJ:lkaraI)a states that they coalesce with the avidya states and render themselves objects of consciousness or have their veil of avaral)a removed. I t is thus assumed that in ordinary perceptions of objects such as jug, etc. the antaJ:lkararya goes out of the man's body (.farira1lladhyat) and coming in touch with the jug becomes transformed into the same form, and as soon as this transformation takes place the cit which is always steadily shining illuminates the jug-form or the jug. The jug phenomena in the objective world could not be mani- fested (though these were taking place on the background of the same self-luminous Brahman or at man as forms of the highest truth of my subjective consciousness) because the ajfiana pheno- mena in these forms serve to veil their illuminator, the self-lumin- ous. It was only by coming into contact with these phenomena that the antaJ:lkaraI)a could be transformed into corresponding states and that the illumination dawned which at once revealed the antaJ:lkaraI)a states and the objects with which these states or vfttis had coalesced. The consciousness manifested through the vfttis alone has the power of removing the ajfiana veiling the cit. Of course there are no actual distinctions of inner or outer, or the cit within me and the cit without me. These are only of appearance and due to avidya. And it is only from the point of view of appearance that we suppose that knowledge of objects .can only dawn when the inner cit and the outer cit unite together through the antaJ:lkaraI)avftti, which makes the external objects