theorised more schematically on the origin of the phenomenal world. They regard Ignorance as a cosmic sum of forces including all finite powers, causes, and effects, which has two characteristic properties, viz. "obscuration" (avarana), causing the Absolute Idea to conceive itself as distinct individual egos, and "distention" (vikshepa), arousing in the Self the illusive idea of an external world of phenomena. Accepting the Sankhya's division of matter into the three gunas or modes of sattva ("goodness" or "truth"), rajas ("passion"), and tamas ("gloom"), they identify matter with Cosmic Ignorance, or the sum of individual Ignorances, which acts as a "determinant" to the Supreme Self or Absolute Thought. The latter as "determined" in Cosmic Ignorance acts as a world-soul, directing the universal order of phenomena with supreme power and knowledge, and hence is called Is'vara, "the Lord." The Cosmic Ignorance is hence called "Is'vara's body," and also "Deep Sleep" (sushupti), for in it the force of Ignorance investing Thought is almost wholly inoperative, and the phenomenal world exists only in potentiality. This sphere of being is called the "sheath of Bliss," ananda-maya kos'a. To it corresponds a stage of existence in the individual soul, in which the Self or Thought (here styled Prajna) is "determined" by individual Ignorance. From Is'vara as "determined" by Cosmic Ignorance arise the subtle