The property which is inherent in the original substance is the cause for the variety of
things which is visible to the senses. For the first time, this substance modifies itself
into the three gunas—sattva, rajas and tamas; and I mentioned to you what
happens later on. Now, this particular sutra has something specific to tell us.
Dharma, laksana and avastha are the three terms used in this sutra: etena
bhūtendriyeṣu dharma lakṣaṇa avasthā pariṇāmāḥ vyākhyātāḥ (III.13). These dharmas, or
the properties of things in general, are present in the original substance just as, to
give a more concrete example, a pot made of earth is inherent in the clay, which is
only a heap of earth. A clod of earth has no shape whatsoever. But out of this
shapeless mass of earth the potter manufactures a pot, and we have what is called a
pot. The pot is a shape taken by the earth, the original clay matter. It is very strange,
really speaking. If we try to understand what a pot is, we will not know what it is,
because it is not the same as clay, and it is not different from clay. What do we see
there except clay? Yet, can we call it simply clay? It has assumed a time-form. That is
the peculiarity within this modification.
That the ‘potness’ of what we call the pot was inherent in the clay is something very
strange indeed for the mind to understand. What was inherent in the clay? There is
no easy answer to this question. We cannot say that the pot was inherent in the clay,
because there was no such thing as the pot. There was no pot previously except the
clay itself. The clay itself is the pot. We cannot even say that the clay has become the
pot. When we say that the pot was inherent in the clay, what is it that is actually
inherent there? Not the pot, because there is no pot; it is clay itself. So what is that,
which we call the pot? This is a peculiar thing. It is a kind of phantasmagoria that is
presented or projected before the mind. That is called the space-time complex, which
introduces itself into this peculiar modification process and makes one feel that the
pot is different from the clay. We all know that the pot is not the same as the clay;
there is something in it which is other than the clay, yet we cannot say what it is. That
peculiar thing which we cannot say what it is but it is present there, is the ‘potness’—
not the pot itself. That is the character, the dharma, of the clay. And such kind of
character is present in the original substance, prakriti, by which it modifies itself into
the forms of objects of sense.
This tendency of a substance to maintain a particular pattern or shape is called
dharma, and that is the property, the capacity, which is inherent in the substance. It
can assume a particular pattern of form. This pattern is inherent in the substance
and inseparable from the substance. This pattern is nothing but the identification of
the capacity of prakriti in respect of a particular shape which it tries to modify itself
into and maintain for a particular period of time. The capacity itself is the dharma.
The changing of the dharma into a time-form, the pattern or the shape of the object,
is called the laksana, or the character of the object. The character of the clay, when it
has become something else in the time-form, is called the pot. The maintenance of
this form for a particular duration is the avastha—the condition of the object. The
condition does not prolong itself for an indefinite period of time. It has a specific rule
by itself, just as every object maintains a particular state for a period of time.
The universe of forms—this vast thing that we see in front of us—is a particular
pattern taken by prakriti, modified according to a plan, and is to continue for a
period of time, according to the necessity of the time. There are infinite potentialities
in prakriti, just as infinite statues can be made out of a block of stone. We can carve
any statue from a block of stone. Can you tell me how many statues are inside a block