f such
an evolution is this, that all the changes and modifications in
the shape of the evolving collocations of gu@na reals take place
within the body of the prak@rti. Prak@rti consisting of the infinite
reals is infinite, and that it has been disturbed does not
mean that the whole of it has been disturbed and upset, or
that the totality of the gu@nas in the prak@rti has been unhinged
from a state of equilibrium. It means rather that a very vast
number of gu@nas constituting the worlds of thought and matter
has been upset. These gu@nas once thrown out of balance begin to
group themselves together first in one form, then in another, then
in another, and so on. But such a change in the formation of
aggregates should not be thought to take place in such a way
that the later aggregates appear in supersession of the former ones,
so that when the former comes into being the latter ceases to exist.

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[Footnote 1: Dr B.N. Seal's _Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus_,
1915, p.7.]

247

For the truth is that one stage is produced after another; this
second stage is the result of a new aggregation of some of the
reals of the first stage. This deficiency of the reals of the first
stage which had gone forth to form the new aggregate as the
second stage is made good by a refilling from the prak@rti. So also,
as the third stage of aggregation takes place from out of the reals
of the second stage, the deficiency of the reals of the second stage
is made good by a refilling from the first stage and that of the
first stage from the prak@rti. Thus by a succession of refillings the
process of evolution proceeds, till we come to its last limit, where
there is no real evolution of new substance, but mere chemical
and physical changes of qualities in things which had already
evolved. Evolution (_tattvantarapari@nama_) in Sa@mkhya means the
development of categories of existence and not mere changes of
qualities of substances (physical, chemical, biological or mental).
Thus each of the stages of evolution remains as a permanent
category of being, and offers scope to the more and more differentiated
and coherent groupings of the succeeding stages. Thus
it is said that the evolutionary process is regarded as a differentiation
of new stages as integrated in previous stages (_sa@ms@rstaviveka_).

Pralaya and the disturbance of the Prak@rti Equilibrium.

But how or