THE 25 TATTVA

THE 25 TATTVA

After discriminative analysis of the fundamental species of the external and interior phenomena whose man can make the experiment during the life, it comes out from it according to Samkhya:

25 hierarchical species or TATTVA

Two duels principles at the top: without creator, neither beginning, nor end, whose interaction is the cause of the universe:

1.The PURUSHA: plural (each one has particular Purusha), of infinite number, nonproducing, stable. It is the immutable conscience behind the body and psychism, pure passive witness of those.

2.The PRAKRITI: singular, productive. It is the base of all the continual transformations composing the body and psychism.


The analysis resulted in counting 23 transformations of the material cause making it possible to classify all the accidents and phenomena characterizing an individual.


 The most subtle: MAHAT: the great one, which verging on the unsoundable one or BUDDHI: capacity of awakening, cosmic and individual intelligence, final determination completing an operation of knowledge by gathering the data of perception and memory.
 Then comes:
AHAMKARA: “I-maker”, the Ego, whose function is to bring back any knowledge and action to Ego of the individual.
Then processed products of the matter:
 5 undifferentiated TANMATRA or subtle faculties (wich is only that):
Sound (çabda)
Feel/palpation(sparça)
Form (rûpa)
Taste (rasa)
Odor (gandha)

which while evolving/moving becomes coarse with differentiation and accessibility with the directions, and produce a principle of corresponding element (Maha Bhuta) with its principle of perception (Jnana indriya) and its principle of action (Karma Indriya).

5 dense MAHA BHUTA or elements at the base of the matter:
Space (akâsha)
Air or movement (vâyu)
Fire or combustion (têjas)
Water or fluidity (apas)
Earth or mass (prithivî)

 11 INDRIYA: tools of knowledge and action, known by inference starting from the effect of their action:
JNANA INDRIYA: 5 Directions or bodies of knowledge:
Hearing
Touch
Vision
Savour
Sense of smell

KARMA INDRIYA: 5 faculties of action:
Speaking (voice)Vâch
Grasping (hands) Pâni
Walking (feet) Pâda
Excreting (anus)Pâyu
Procreating (genitals) Upasthani

 MANAS: the Mind. Psychic organ whose role is to coordinate perceptions and actions for an usual or automatic answer.



Traduction R. Adam de Villiers