tri – three
guṇa – attribute/quality of nature
pradhāna – original souce / primordial nature
viparīta – inverted / contrary
tathā – similar
pumān – spirit
The Knower (Spirit) is without the three Gunas and is opposite & similar to the Manifest and Unmanifest.
- In verse 10 the Manifest (Vyakta) and Unmanifest (Avyakta) were portrayed as having opposite qualities. They also have some common qualities.
- A discerment of that which the Manifest and Unmanifest have in common is required in order to discern the Knower (Spirit).
- These are the qualities shared by the Manifest and Unmanifest.
- They both have the qualities of the three Gunas.
- They are both inseparable (into parts): they cannot evolve anything on their own; in order to produce other things they are mixed (united) with other things; no thing can produce anything else without something else therefor no thing is really separate from other things. Where does the root of a tree begin and where does it end? where does the soil begin and where does it end?
- Objective: they are not merely ideas – they are objects to which the mind can be applied; if everything is merely an idea then there would be no possibility for shared experience: we could not observe together the “redness” of a poppy flower.
- Non-intelligent: they are not sentient. An insentient clay produces an insentient pot. If sentience is not present in an effect it must also not be present in its cause.
- Productive: they are in constant causal productive flux.
- Now, knowing of these similarities, I can discern the Knower – it is “opposite & similar”:
- The relationship between the Knower Spirit and the Unmanifest is opposite of the relationship between the Manifest and the Unmanifest.
- The Knower it also similar to the Unmanifest.
| Manifest | Unmanifest | Knower | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caused | ≠ | Not caused | = | Not caused |
| Not eternal | ≠ | Eternal | = | Eternal |
| Not pervasive | ≠ | Omnipresent | = | Omnipresent |
| Active | ≠ | Inactive | = | Inactive |
| Manifold | ≠ | Unified | = | Unified |
| Dependent | ≠ | Independent | = | Independent |
| Mergent | ≠ | Non mergent | = | Non mergent |
| Conjunct | ≠ | One | = | One |
| Subordinate | ≠ | Non subordinate | = | Non subordinate |
| Triguna | = | Triguna | ≠ | Without gunas |
| Inseparable | = | Inseparable | ≠ | Separate |
| Objective | = | Objective | ≠ | Non objective |
| Non-sentient | = | Non-sentient | ≠ | Sentient |
| Productive | = | Productive | ≠ | Non-productive |
