ense,[746] the five organs of action,[747] Manas or mind, regarded as
a sixth and central sense, and also as the seat of will, and the five
gross elements--earth, water, light, air and ether. The Sankhya
distinguishes between the gross and the subtle body. The latter,
called lingasarira, is defined in more than one way, but it is
expressly stated in the Karikas[748] that it is composed of "Buddhi
and the rest, down to the subtle elements." It practically corresponds
to what we call the soul, though totally distinct from Purusha or soul
in the Sankhya sense. It constitutes the character and essential
being of a person. It is the part which transmigrates from one gross
body to another, and is responsible for the acts committed in each
existence. Its union with a gross body constitutes birth, its
departure death. Except in the case of those who attain emancipation,
its existence and transmigration last for a whole world-period at the
end of which come quiescence and equilibrium. In it are imprinted the
Samskaras,[749] the predispositions which pass on from one existence
to another and are latent in the new-born mind like seeds in a field.

By following the evolution of matter we have now accounted for
intellect, individuality, the senses, the moral character, will, and a
principle which survives death and transmigrates. It might therefore
be supposed that we have exhaustively analysed the constitution of a
human being. But that is not the view of the Sankhya. The evolution
of Buddhi, Ahamkara, the subtle body and the gross body is a physical
process and the result is also physical, though parts of it are of so
fine a substance that ordinary senses cannot perceive them. This
physical organism becomes a living being (which term includes gods and
animals) when it is connected with a soul (purusha) and consciousness
depends on this connection, for neither is matter when isolated
conscious, nor is the soul, at least not in our sense of the word.
Though the soul is neither the life which ends at death (for that is
the gross body) nor yet the life which passes from existence to
existence (for that is the subtle body) yet it is the vitalizing
element which renders life possible.

The Sankhya like Jainism regards souls as innumerable and distinct
from one another. The word Purusha must have originally referred to
the manikin supposed to inhabit the body, and there is some reason to
think that the earliest teachers of the Sankhya h