Vyakta
Vyakta · vi-akta, “the manifest”
Grammar: adjective and neuter noun, past participle of vi with the root añj (to anoint, to make clear): “made clear”, “manifest”. Its opposite is avyakta, the unmanifest; vyakta-tva is the state of being manifest.
Meaning: the manifest; in the Sāṅkhya teaching, the visible world of prakṛti, with its tattvas, bodies and senses, as against the avyakta, the unmanifest.
In the scriptures: in the Brahma Purāṇa, Vasishṭha teaches King Karāla Janaka the discernment of the kshara (perishable) and the akshara (imperishable) tattva.
The manifest form of the ātma-tattva. The ātma-tattva, which is kshara and akshara, is in itself without guṇas, senses or body; covered by ahaṅkāra and mamakāra made by māyā, it seems to have them. This prakṛti too is made by māyā: this whole visible prakṛti is the manifest form (vyakta rūpa) of that ātma-tattva, and the tattva without these is avyakta. The avyakta is awakened (prabuddha) and awakening (budhyamāna); the kshara tattva that is vyakta is not awakened (aprabuddha). Oneness is the akshara tattva; manyness is the kshara tattva (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 243).
Both are kshara, both are akshara. “Now I will tell you the kshara and akshara tattva,” Vasishṭha says. “On discernment, both the vyakta and the avyakta are kshara; both are also akshara.” Both are without beginning and end; both are tattvas of the all-powerful Īśvara; both are the paramārtha tattva. For creation and dissolution, the twenty-fifth tattva first becomes avyakta and then, in order from mahat down to the bhūtas and their products, transforms itself through māyā; at pralaya it dissolves this manifest form of saṃsāra into itself. “So, by this discernment, what is avyakta? What is vyakta? What is kshara? What is akshara? All is kshara. All is akshara. All is vyakta. All is avyakta.” When the jīva becomes awakened (pratibuddha), he leaves the states of kshara-tva, vyakta-tva and saguṇa-tva and reaches the state of akshara-tva, avyakta-tva and nirguṇa-tva (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 244).
Related terms: Avyakta · Prakṛti · Kshara · Akshara · Sāṅkhya
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapters 243–244