Vikshepa
Vikshepa · vi-kshepa, “scattering, projection”
Grammar: masculine noun, from vi with the root kship (to throw): “throwing apart, scattering”.
Meaning: scattering; the restless throwing of the mind here and there; the projection by which what is not is seen, a power of avidyā and māyā, paired with āvaraṇa, the veiling by which what is is not seen.
In the scriptures: the Bhāgavata Purāṇa uses the word for the scattered mind, for a mark of māyā and avidyā, and for the restlessness of rajas.
The scattered mind. Teaching Parīkshit the way to meditate, Śuka says that the mind, drawn by the vāsanās of karma, keeps scattering, which the text glosses as “being scattered here and there”. With a buddhi endowed with good saṃskāras the seeker must fix that mind firmly on the form of Bhagavān Śrī Hari, the home of all that is auspicious; this is dhāraṇā. With a mind that does not slip from that form, he meditates on each limb of it in turn; this is dhyāna (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 1).
The mark of māyā. Maitreya tells Vidura that the abhimāni devatās of the mahat-tattva and the other tattvas, aṃśas of Śrī Mahāvishṇu, are a combination of three marks: vikāra, change, the mark of Kāla; vikshepa, glossed “becoming many”, the mark of māyā; and cetanā, consciousness, the mark of the cidābhāsa. Because they were many and separate they could not build the brahmāṇḍa, and so they prayed to Parameśvara with joined palms (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 5).
The projection of avidyā. Telling the creations, Maitreya says that the sixth creation, tāmisra and the rest, came from avidyā, which causes in beings āvaraṇa, “what is, not being seen”, and vikshepa, “what is not, being seen” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 10).
The restlessness of rajas. Kapila tells Devahūti that the citta, the mahat-tattva, made of sattva, is by nature clear and calm, without the changes of rajas and tamas called vikshepa and laya, like water before it touches the earth. Of ahaṅkāra, joined in turn with the three guṇas, the marks are calm, turbulence, which the text explains as vikshepa or restlessness, and delusion (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 26).
Related terms: Āvaraṇa · Laya · Māyā · Avidyā · Dhāraṇā · Rajas
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 1; Skandha 3, Chapters 5, 10, 26