Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/43

 the eleven sense organs, whith. in combinatiqii with the Bnutadi, have produced the five Tanmatras or {iroper sensibles of touch, sight, ^ hearing, etc. The material principles of sound, light, taste, smell, etc., are biJ't the modifications of these five Tanmatras, of which'* Akisha (ethereon), Vayu (ether), light, and soui-^d, etc. are the grosser forms. In other wordfl, these Tanmatras may he defined as the atomic essences of the material principles of sound, light, ether, etc. In addition to these, Sushruta, Hke Kapila, admits the existence of a kind of atom-like units of consciousness, which he calls Purusha. The combination of' the sixteen aforesaid categories and the Purusha is for the expansion and liberation of the latter. A human being (individual), who is the fit subject for medical treatment, is the product of the combination of Purusha with the five primordial material principles (iMahabhutas). The Purushas, real selves of beings, the sources of their vital energy, and the controllers and directors of all organic or mental actions, are extremely subtile in their essence, and manifest themselves onlv through the combination of the seed (paternal element) or ovum (maternal element). It is the Karma (dynamics of acts done by a person in a prior existence) which deterinines the nature of the body it will be clothed with, as wcii cts che nat'Te of the womb it shall be conceived in, in its next incarnation.

Nature of Self : — v^; elf is a simple substance, and, as such, is immaterial. Force is substance and substance, is force. It is endued with constructive intelligepce, and, like gravitation or cohesion, can permeate a material body, without, in any way, disturbing h. It is adaptative or elective, or, in other words, elects that kind of selves for its parents as are best suited to the purposes* of its being. Man is the outcome of an influx of a se.f, a force, a dynamis with its path determined by the dynamics of the d^jeds of its prior existence. To think that vitality starts from