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ated by the śabda cow ; and (3) there is a predicate relation in which śabda and artha
are dominated and appropriated by the jñna cow.
Vysa finds that the psychological cause of this mixed-up perception of the true
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meaning is twofold. On the one hand, there is the distortion caused by the samskras
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of sanketa (conventional word use in previous lives), discussed above, and resulting
in the universally experienced error of type (2) vikalpa. On the other hand, there are
the cognitive inferences (anumnas) based upon the artha, made by one s own imag-
inative thinking or heard from the traditional schools of thought (darśanas). Such
anumna-dominated hearing would seem to be an error of type (3) with the erro-
neous element being the slanting or coloring given the sphota by the doctrinal
.
presuppositions of the particular darśana heard. Although not elucidated by either
Vysa or Vcaspati, the type (1) situation, in which the artha predominates, would
seem to be closest to true perception yet still erroneous due to its predicate relations
with the other two types. Such predicate relations would be experienced because of
the finite structural individuations of consciousness through which the speech is
necessarily heard (i.e., the organ of hearing, manas, prna, śabda-tanmtra, etc.) in
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ordinary states of consciousness. These types of vikalpa are therefore shown to be the
psychological processes producing the high error perception that characterizes the
verbal, or vaikhar%2Å‚, level of hearing. To such high-error-level perception Yoga applies
the technical term savitark, which means indistinct concentration (samdhi) of the
consciousness.
As the concentrated perception of the word is gradually purified or freed from
.
memory (sanketa) and the predicate relations of inference (anumna), the conscious-
ness state approaches what Bharthari calls madhyam vk. This is the inner hearing as-
pect of the complete communication circle the sphota forms in its vibratory
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movement from the buddhi of the speaker to the buddhi of the hearer. In the Vkya-
.
pad%2Å‚ya commentaries, it is described as having the ahamkra, or ego, as its only sub-
stratum and having sequence present but only in a very subtle fashion. Dhvani and
artha are still distinct and the order of words is present. Although sequence or predi-
cate relations are suppressed, they are said to be accompanied by a distinct functioning
of prna.41 Whereas in the speaking act the psychomotor prna, or breath, functions
. .
served to individuate the sphota pattern through the coordination of the śabda-
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tanmtra and vocal organ, the process is reversed in hearing with prna and manas
.
working to reintegrate the gross differentiations of the sphota pattern at the ear level
.
into the less differentiated vibration patterns of the śabda tanmtra, manas, and
THE YOGA PSYCHOLOGY 35
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ahamkra. As the more integrated heights of madhyam vk are realized, the overall
preponderance of sattva in the sphota vibration pattern correspondingly increases until
.
a clearer perception of the unified sphota occurs.
.
A kind of idealized or criterion description of madhyam in its purest form is of-
fered by the Yoga analysis of savicra, or meditative, samdhi.42 In savicra the intensity
of concentration is such that the sattva is so transparent that the artha, or true mean-
ing, of the given sphota stands revealed in the mind (antahkrana) with little distortion
. . .
or obscuration. On the subjective (sattva) side, the distortion decreases as the integra-
tion of the heard sphota moves from the high rajas-low sattva ratio of the manas and
.
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senses to the low rajas-high sattva ratio of the ahamkra. On the objective (tamas) side,
the overall obscuration of the sphota-patterned consciousness state decreases as the rajas
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activation of the śabda tanmtra becomes less and less until the state of pure potential
is approached. Vysa describes the savicra state as being composed of the essences of
all the gross particularizations of the sphota pattern. Vcaspati notes that just as the
.
gross atoms (at the vaikhar%2Å‚ level) are patterned by the manas and prna into a whole
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by a single effort of consciousness, so also in the savicra state the subtle electron-like
tanmtras are patterned by the prna although less prna than at the vaikhar%2Å‚ level
. .
and the antahkarana into the same whole by a single effort of consciousness.
. .
The distortions still found at the savicra level of inner hearing include notions
of time, place, and causation. But characteristics associated with the hearing of the
gross sound (dialect, speed of speaking, emotional colorations by voice, timbre, etc.)
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will have virtually all dropped away in the savicra citta. The influence of sanketa
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samskras (memory traces of conventional word usage), while not entirely absent, will
be greatly reduced. Far more powerful will be the intensifying of the artha aspect of
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the sattva citta due to magnet-like attraction exerted by the pure samskra series of the
buddhitattva sphota upon the approaching and integrating manifestation of the
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sphota pattern within the listener s consciousness.
.
Although the above Yoga analysis provides a psychological description of the
meditative, or madhyam, vk and satisfies the primary task of the psychological in-
terpretation, the secondary question of how one s ordinary vaikhar%2Å‚ perception of
vk, which is in the confused savitark state of consciousness, can be raised to a
higher level, has yet to be answered. This second answer is especially important if
Bhartrhari is correct in his observation that in many people, owing to poor word
.
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usage in their previous lives, the divine vk (in its pristine state as the pure samskra
series of *śvara s sattva) has become badly mixed up with corrupt word forms. And
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