Samkhya

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Samkhya, also Sankhya, (Sanskrit: सांख्य, IAST: Sāṃkhya - Enumeration) is one of the six schools of classical Indian philosophy. Sage Kapila is traditionally considered to be the founder of the Sankhya school, although no historical verification is possible. It is regarded as the oldest of the philosophical systems in India.

This was later incorporated as being one of the six orthodox (astika) (that which recognizes vedic authority) systems of Hindu philosophy with the major text of the theistic school being the extant Sankhya Karika, written by Ishvara Krishna, circa 200 CE. There are no purely Samkhya schools existing today in Hinduism, but its influence is felt in Yoga and Vedanta schools of philosophy. Its philosophy regards the universe as consisting of two eternal realities: Purusha and Prakrti; it is therefore a strongly dualist and enumerationist philosophy. The Purusha is the centre of consciousness, whereas the Prakriti is the source of all material existence.

The Samkhya school has deeply influenced the Hindu Yoga school of philosophy. They are sometimes referred together as Samkhya - yoga school.

Contents 1 Evolution of the Samkhya School 2 Epistemology of Samkhya 3 Metaphysics of Samkhya 3.1 Ontology 3.2 Nature of Duality 3.3 Theory of Existence 3.4 Moksha 4 Samkhya and Western Dualism 5 See also 6 Further reading 7 External links

[edit] Evolution of the Samkhya School

While many people believe that it was always an atheistic school of thought, in fact Samkhya passed through both theistic and atheistic stages of development as Gupta explains:

"In the classical Sāṃkhya both dualism and atheism are visible in clear and vivid forms. The complete passivity and disinterestedness of Puruṣa and the acceptance of triguṇātmikā Prakṛti, as the independent cause of all inner and outer manifestations of the world, are the important characteristics of the classical form. It is also realistic in its attitude towards the phenomenal world. The pre-classical Sāṃkhya on the other hand, has passed through different forms and stages such as theistic and monistic, atheistic and semidualistic, and so on."^[1]

[edit] Epistemology of Samkhya

According to the Samkhya school, knowledge is possible through three pramanas (means of knowledge) -

• Pratyaksha - direct sense perception

Samkhya cites out two types of perceptions:

1. Indeterminate (nirvikalpa) perceptions and determinate (savikalpa) perceptions.

Indeterminate perceptions are merely impressions without understanding or knowledge. They reveal no knowledge of the form or the name of the object. There is only external awareness about an object. There is cognition of the object, but no discriminative recognition.

For example, a baby’s initial experience is full of impression. There is a lot of data from sensory perception, but there is little or no understanding of the inputs. Hence they can neither be differentiated nor be labeled. Most of them are indeterminate perceptions.

2. Determinate perceptions are the mature state of perceptions which have been processed and differentiated appropriately. Once the sensations have been processed, categorized and interpreted properly, they become determinate perceptions. They can lead to identification and also generate knowledge.

• Anumana - logical inference
• Sabda - verbal testimony

[edit] Metaphysics of Samkhya

[edit] Ontology

Broadly, the Samkhya system classifies all objects as falling into one of the two categories: Purusha and Prakriti. Metaphysically, Samkhya maintains a radical duality between spirit/consciousness (Purusha) and matter (Prakrti).

• Purusha

Purusha is the Transcendental Self or Pure Conciousness. It is absolute, independent, free, imperceptible, unknowable, above any experience and beyond any words or explanation. It remains pure, “nonattributive consciousness ”. Purusha is neither produced nor does it produce.

• Prakriti

Prakriti is matter. Matter is inert, temporary, and unconscious. It is composed of three qualities (gunas) corresponding to creation, sustenance, and destruction. They are:

• sattva (goodness) – pure, elevating, enlightening
• rajas (passion) – motivates us to create, acquire and enjoy
• tamas (ignorance) – dirty, degrading, deluding, and destructive.

All physical events are considered to be manifestations of the evolution of Prakrti, or primal Nature (from which all physical bodies are derived). Each sentient being is a Purusha, and is limitless and unrestricted by its physical body. Samsaara or bondage arises when the Purusha does not have the discriminate knowledge and so is misled as to its own identity, confusing itself with the physical body - which is actually an evolute of Prakriti. The spirit is liberated when the discriminate knowledge of the difference between conscious Purusha and unconscious Prakriti is realized.

• Ishwara (Creationist God)

The original school of Samkhya as founded by Sage Kapila. There has no philosophical place for a creationst God in this system. The Samkhyan's argue that the existence of Ishvara cannot be proved and hence cannot be admitted to exist. The school also argues that an unchanging Ishvara as the cause cannot be the source of a changing world as the effect.

Later on followers of Samkhya adopted theism and included Ishvara within the system. The concept of Ishvara was incorporated into the Sankhya viewpoint only after it became associated with the theistic Yoga system of philosophy.

[edit] Nature of Duality

According to Samkhya, the efficient cause of the world is Purusha and the material cause is Prakriti. Here Purusha stands for the ‘Supreme Self’ and Prakriti stands for ‘Matter’. Purusha (Self) is the first principle of Samkhya. Prakriti is the second, the material principle of Samkhya.

[edit] Theory of Existence

The Samkhya system is based on Satkaryavada. According to Satkaryavada, the effect pre-exists in the cause. Cause and effect are seen as different temporal aspects of the same thing - the effect lies latent in the cause which in turn seeds the next effect.

More specifically, Samkhya system follows the Prakriti-Parinama Vada. Parinama denotes that the effect is a real transformation of the cause. The cause under consideration here is Prakriti or more precisely Mula-Prakriti (Primordial Matter). The Samkhya system is therefore an exponent of an evolutionary theory of matter beginning with primordial matter. In evolution, Prakriti is transformed and differentiated into multiplicity of objects. Evolution is followed by dissolution. In dissolution the physical existence, all the worldly objects mingle back into Prakriti, which now remains as the undifferentiated, primordial substance. This is how the cycles of evolution and dissolution follow each other.

Sankhya theorizes that Prakriti is the source of the world of becoming. It is pure potentiality that evolves itself successively into twenty four tattvas or principles. The evolution itself is possible because Prakriti is always in a state of tension among its constituent strands -

• Sattva - a template of balance or equilibrium;

• Rajas - a template of expansion or activity;

• Tamas - a template of inertia or resistance to action.

All macrocosmic and microcosmic creation uses these templates. The twenty four principles that evolves are -

• Prakriti - The most subtle potentiality that is behind whatever that is created in the physical universe.

• Mahat - first product of evolution from Prakriti, pure potentiality. Mahat is also considered to be the principle responsible for the rise of buddhi or intelligence in living beings.

• Ahamkara or ego-sense - second product of evolution. It is responsible for the self-sense in living beings.

• Manas or instinctive mind - evolves from the sattva aspect of ahamkara.

• Panch jnana indriya or five sense organs - also evolves from the sattva aspect of Ahamkara.

• Panch karma indriya or five organs of action - The organs of action are hands, legs, vocal apparatus, urino-genital organ and anus. They too evolve from the sattva aspect of Ahamkara

• Panch tanmatras or five subtle elements - evolves from the Tamas aspect of Ahamkara. The subtle elements are the root energies of sound, touch, sight, taste and smell.

• Panch mahabhuta or five great substances - ether, air, fire, water and earth. This is the revealed aspect of the physical universe.

The evolution of primal Nature is also considered to be purposeful - Prakrti evolves for the spirit in bondage. The spirit who is always free is only a witness to the evolution, even though due to the absence of discriminate knowledge, he misidentifies himself with it.

The evolution obeys causality relationships, with primal Nature itself being the material cause of all physical creation. The cause and effect theory of Sankhya is called Satkaarya-vaada (theory of existent causes), and holds that nothing can really be created from or destroyed into nothingness - all evolution is simply the transformation of primal Nature from one form to another.

The evolution of matter occurs when the relative strengths of the attributes changes. The evolution ceases when the spirit realises that it is distinct from primal Nature and thus cannot evolve. This destroys the purpose of evolution, thus stopping Prakrti from evolving for Purusha.

Samkhyan cosmology describes how life emerges in the universe; the relationship between Purusha and Prakriti is crucial to Patanjali's yoga system. The evolution of forms at the basis of Samkhya is quite unique. The strands of Sankhyan thought can be traced back to the Vedic speculation of creation. It is also frequently mentioned in the Mahabharata and Yogavasishta.

Sankhya also has a strong cognitive theory built into it; curiously, while consciousness/spirit is considered to be radically different from any physical entities, the mind (manas), ego (ahamkara) and intellect (buddhi) are all considered to be manifestations of Prakrti (physical entity).

[edit] Moksha

Like other major systems of Indian philosophy, Samkhya regards ignorance as the root cause of bondage and suffering (Samsara.) According to Samkhya, the Purusha is eternal, pure consciousness. Due to ignorance, it identifies itself with the physical body and its constituents - Manas, ahamkara and Mahat, which are products of Prakriti. Once it becomes free of this false identification and the material bonds, Moksha ensues.

Sankhya serves as the main opponent of Vedanta Philosophy which elucidates the non-dualistic (a-dvaita) theory of creation. For the non-dualist schools, Brahman is the material cause of the world. Sankhya denies that vehemently as a material world that is insentient cannot originate from a sentient element.

[edit] Samkhya and Western Dualism

The radical dualism between the sentient and insentient entities as postulated by Samkhya is comparable with Cartesian mind and body dualism of the West. But there are differences between the Samkhya and other forms of dualism. In Western philosophy the main focus of discussions about dualism concern dualism between the mind and the body. In Samkhya, however, it is between the self (purusha) and matter, and the latter incorporates much of what Western thought would normally refer to as "mind". This means that the Self as the Samkhya understands it is more transcendent than "mind". It is sometimes defined as 'that which observes' and the mind is the instrument through which this observation occurs.

[edit] See also

• Hinduism
• Yoga
• Darshanas
• Hindu philosophy
• Indian philosophy
• Linga sarira

[edit] Further reading

• Sen Gupta, Anima. The Evolution of the Sāṃkhya School of Thought. Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd.: New Delhi, 1986.

[edit] External links

• Sankhya philosophy (archive)
• Comparison between Indian and Greek cosmology
• Maharshi Vyasa and Sankhya Shastra
• PDF file of Ishwarkrishna's sankhyakarikaa - 200BC (in Sanskrit) available for research purposes only