Composite man (rāśi-puruṣa)

“Conceptual scrutiny and experimental findings reveal that man simultaneously belongs to at least three worlds—Physical World, Psychological World, and Ideational or Spiritual World”.^[1] It is significant that Caraka uncovers this idea when he says that Man is a composite form of physical, mental and spiritual factors.^[2] It also reminds us that they are not autonomous. On the contrary, there is a causal nexus which binds them together. It is with this view point that Caraka construes a composite man (rāśi puruṣa) in contradistinction to the foundational “Self”. Patañjali presumes that the word rāśi is derived from the root “rāś”, though it is not found in the dhātupāṭha. It means a compound or that in which several things are bound together.^[3] The term rāśipuruṣa, thus, literally means compositeperson. Though it refers to all living-beings, it connotes the human being. So, what we call man is a conglomeration, a gestalt, a configuration—a pattern composed of discrete but interrelated items.^[4] The constituents that go to make up the configuration are twenty-four in number and so it is called caturviṃśatikapuruṣa.^[5] They fall into two groups comprising of eight primary entities called (aṣṭaprakṛtis) and sixteen secondary elements called evolutes (vikāras). Of them, the first group consists of the unmanifest (avyakta), empirical consciousness (buddhi), “I Consciousness” (aha mkāra), and five physical elements (pañcamahābhūtas).^[6] The second group includes mind, five sense capacities of cognition, five sense organs of action, and five objects of senses.^[7] It is the body-mind complex in which the self partaking of the nature of spirit is conceived as an inner co-ordinator and controller.^[8] Thus the conscious inner self is the “spiritual world”. The psychological world comprises of the awareness, “I Consciousness”, and mind. The physical world is constituted by the body which is a make up of five physical elements, ten sense capacities, and the five objects of senses. Accordingly, human-being is a unique phenomenon in which all the entities are organized meaningfully and purposefully. It is this empirical subject that knows, performs actions, and feels pleasure and pain.

Pulinbihari Chakravarti opines that it is better to treat composite man (rāśipuruṣa) as a dead body which is also devoid of consciousnesses.^[9] However, it is absurd. Even though Caraka speaks of the different dimensions of puruṣa, the centerpiece of all his discussions is human constitution, because it is the frame of reference of all medical speculations and object of treatment.^[10] The object of treatment, in fact, is man who is sentient and not a dead body. Even the other two divisions of puruṣa construed are also with the intention of bringing about a complete exposition of the living man—his essence or the êlan vital, his internal and external environment, and their interrelationship. He was fully conscious of the fact that theories regarding therapeutics based on biological and psychological explanations would be distortive with out referring to the permanent entity that sustains the continuity and identity of the psycho-somatic complex which is in an incessant flux. It is in this composite man that the actions, the fruits of actions, knowledge, delusion, pleasure, pain, life, death, and ownership occur.^[11] Caraka declares that one who is conversant with the human constitution with all its implications knows treatment.^[12] So, rāśipuruṣa does not refer to a dead body, but to the living man. Truly speaking, the inner self that animates man is implicit in the unmaifest which forms the first among the twenty-four constituents. Caraka emphatically says that if we deny the inner self, then the sentient would remain with out the divine (īśa).^[13]

The inner self (antarātmā), as has been stated earlier, is conscious. The empirical consciousness or knowledge is called buddhi. This consciousness becomes active when there is the contact with the instruments of knowledge.^[14] The self renders the other constituents organised, integrated, and sentient. It is the supreme upholder or the one who bears all the entities that constitute the rāśipuruṣa to form a phenomenological unity making it enlivened.^[15] The body and the instruments of knowledge are in a fleeting flux. So there should be a permanent entity to act and enjoy the fruit of its actions. Otherwise the doer won't enjoy the fruits of their actions.^[16] This substantial cause is nothing but the inner self. Being eternal, it is able to unite itself with its past and future experiences. If the self were not static and eternal, it could not unite itself with all its past experiences. Though ubiquitous, apprehension of the objective world is restricted to the objects with which the sense organs can establish tactile contact.^[17] This is due to the limitation caused by the adjuncts, namely body and sense organs. The individual self is called by a peculiar term “field knower” (kṣetrajña) and the psycho-somatic complex including the objects of senses as “field” (kṣetra).^[18] In fact, everything other than the self is a field wherein the body, mind, “I consciousness”, senses, and the elements operate as forces. All dimensions of experience are to be located in this field and are explained as due to the operation of the field forces.^[19]

The inner self is not different in distinct individual organisms. But it is one and the same unchanging higher “Self” (paramātmā). The difference is due the peculiarities of the stationed adjunct (upādhi), that is, the psychosomatic complex. The actions and experiences like pleasure and pain also differ according to this difference.^[20] The experiences are owned by the inner self. Since the body- mind- sense complex is illumined by the consciousness of the inner self (antarātmā), they serve as sites of all experiences, desire, and the like.^[21] Pleasure, pain and all their ramifications arise only when there occurs the self-mind - sense - object contact.^[22] The entire body-mind complex becomes aglow with consciousness of the inner self. Thus, the phenomenal self becomes aware of the world outside and feelings within, because of the involvements of sense organs and mind.^[23]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

KFL, p.133.

[2]:

CS. Su. I, 46; Kāśyapasaṃhitā of Vṛddhajīvaka, Śārīra - sthāna, p. 67.

[3]:

rāśirasmāya viśeṣeṇopadiṣṭaḥ sa, "rāśiḥ',"raśmiḥ', "raśane', ityevaṃ viṣayāḥ; Vyākaraṇamahābhāṣya of Patañjali.,Vol. VI, VII.i. 96, p. 90.

[4]:

DO, p. 23. "".........the body of any living being is regarded as belonging to a jīva, which may be roughly and inadequately regarded as corresponding to the Western concept of "person' ''. PIP, p. 53.

[5]:

“punaśca dhātubhedena caturviṃśatikaḥ smṛtaḥ”, CS, Śārīra - sthāna, I.17 caturviṃśatiko hyeṣa rāśiḥ puruṣasamjñakaḥ. Ibid., 35.

[6]:

“khādīni buddhiravyaktamahaṃkārastathā'ṣṭamḥ bhūtaprakṛti-

[7]:

buddhīndriyāṇi pañcaiva pañcakarmendriyāṇi ca samanaskāśca pañcārthāḥ vikārā iti saṃjñitāḥ, Ibid., 64.

[8]:

“buddhīndriyamano'rthānāṃ vidyādyogadharaṃ paraṃ”, Ibid., 35.

[9]:

“Under these circumstances the rāśi can be better treated as a dead body which is also devoid of consciousness”. ODST, p.101.

[10]:

“sa pumāṃścetanaṃ tacca taccādhikaraṇaṃ smṛtaṃ”, CS, Su, I. 47.

[11]:

atra karmaphalaṃ cātra jñānaṃ cātra pratiṣṭitaṃ atra mohaḥ sukhaṃ duḥkhaṃ jīvitaṃ maraṇaṃ svatā. CS, Śārīra - sthāna, I. 37.

[12]:

evaṃ yo veda tattvena sa veda pralayodayau pāraṃparyaṃ cikitsāṃ ca jñātavyaṃ yacca kiñcana. Ibid., 38.

[13]:

“..........samudayo nirīśaḥ sattvasaṃjñakaḥ”, Ibid., 47.

[14]:

“ātmā jñaḥ karaṇairyogāt jñānaṃtvasya pravartate” Ibid., 54.

[15]:

buddhindriyamano'rthānāṃ vidyādyogadharaṃ paraṃ. Ibid., 35.

[16]:

Ibid., 50-51; “nitytvaṃ cātmānaḥ pūrvāparāvasthānubhūtārthapratisandhānāt;nahyanitye jñātari pūrvānubhūta-marthamuttaro jñātā pratisandhatte”. Cakrapāṇi on CS, Su, I. 56.

[17]:

“dehī sarvagato'pyātmā sve sve saṃsparśanendriye sarvāḥ sarvāśrayasthāstu nātmā'to vetti vedanāḥ”. CS, Śārīra - sthāna, I. 79.

[18]:

Ibid., I. 65; “kṣīyata iti kṣetraṃ”, "kṣi nivāsagatyoḥ', "kṣi kṣaye' vā dhātuḥ. kṣetraṃ śarīraṃ jānātīti kṣetrajnaḥ jñā avabodhane, Vivṛti on Amarakośa., Vol. 1. iv. 29, p.89 . kṣetrajña is used in the sense of individual self. JJL, p. 150. Sivādityya uses the term kṣetrajña for indvedual selves: “kṣetrajñā asmadādayo'nantā eva”, Saptapadārthi of Śivāditya., p. 23.

[19]:

DO, p. 24.

[20]:

nirvikāraḥ parastvātmā sarvabhūtānāṃ nirviśeṣaḥ;sattvaśarīrayostu viśeṣādviśeṣopalabdhiḥ. CS, Śārīra - sthāna, IV.33.

[21]:

“vedanānāṃ adhiṣṭānaṃ mano dehaśca sendriyaḥ”. Ibid., I. 136.

[22]:

Ibid., 130-31.

[23]:

DO, p. 24.