puru@sa
is somewhat mystical. As a result of this reflection of _cit_ on
buddhi and the superimposition of the buddhi the puru@sa cannot
realize that the transformations of the buddhi are not its own.
Buddhi resembles puru@sa in transparency, and the puru@sa fails to
differentiate itself from the modifications of the buddhi, and as
a result of this non-distinction the puru@sa becomes bound down
to the buddhi, always failing to recognize the truth that the
buddhi and its transformations are wholly alien to it. This non-distinction
of puru@sa from buddhi which is itself a mode of buddhi
is what is meant by _avidya_ (non-knowledge) in Sa@mkhya, and is
the root of all experience and all misery [Footnote ref 2].

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[Footnote 1: _Tattvavais'aradi_ and _Yogavarttika_, I. 4.]

[Footnote 2: This indicates the nature of the analysis of illusion with
Sa@mkhya. It is the non-apprehension of the distinction of two things
(e.g. the snake and the rope) that is the cause of illusion; it is
therefore called the _akhyati_ (non-apprehension) theory of illusion
which must be distinguished from the _anyathakhyati_ (misapprehension)
theory of illusion of Yoga which consists in positively misapprehending
one (e.g. the rope) for the other (e.g. snake). _Yogavarttika,_ I. 8.]

261

Yoga holds a slightly different view and supposes that the
puru@sa not only fails to distinguish the difference between itself
and the buddhi but positively takes the transformations of
buddhi as its own. It is no non-perception of the difference
but positively false knowledge, that we take the puru@sa to be
that which it is not (_anyathakhyati_). It takes the changing,
impure, sorrowful, and objective prak@rti or buddhi to be the
changeless, pure, happiness-begetting subject. It wrongly thinks
buddhi to be the self and regards it as pure, permanent and
capable of giving us happiness. This is the avidya of Yoga.
A buddhi associated with a puru@sa is dominated by such an
avidya, and when birth after birth the same buddhi is associated
with the same puru@sa, it cannot easily get rid of this avidya.
If in the meantime pralaya takes place, the buddhi is submerged
in the prak@rti, and the avidya also sleeps with it. When at the
beginning of the next creation the individual buddhis associated
with the puru@sas emerge, the old avidyas also become manifest
by virtue of it and the buddhis associate th