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Samkhya is one of the most influential metaphysical systems in Indian
philosophy. Its fundamental problem is how to understand the
relationship between conscious experience and the changing world.
Samkhya answers this question through two primordial elements:
Purusha, the pure consciousness; and Prakriti, the transforming
primordial nature. Salvation is possible when men know themselves to
be different from the vices of nature.
7.1 Statistical methods and methods of calculation
The term enumeration is often linked to counting or listing of elements.
Tradition regards Kapila as the first acharya, but no undisputed original
text of his exists. The principal available basis for classical Samkhya is
the Samkhya Karika of Ishvara Krishna. Its prehistory is traced to the
diverse schools of thought in the Mahabharata, the Upanishads, and
other ancient literature; however, it is not appropriate to ascribe the later
systematic system to all earlier references.
This historical caution is necessary because the names of these texts may
indicate different forms of thought-structures at different times.
The Beginning of the Year 7.2
The Sankhyakarika philosophy links curiosity with the threefold
experience of suffering: spiritual / personal, extra-physical, and the
traditional classification of suffering as arising from divine or indirect
causes. Simple measures can alleviate suffering temporarily.The goal of
Samkhya is to find permanent liberation by understanding the epistemic
cause of primordial bondage.
In this sense, Samkhya metaphysics is not just a map of the universe. The
answer to the question of what the world is made of ultimately serves the
question of how liberation from suffering occurs.
7.3 Nature: The Basic Variable Basis
Prakriti is the unmanifest, eternal and threefold essence. He is not
conscious but is thought to be the cause of all mental and physical
development in the world. The characteristic of Samkhya is that intellect,
ego, and attitude are also developments of nature. the psyche itself is not
pure consciousness.
On this point, Samkhya differs from modern generational dualism. This
is not a simple division of human resources into those on one side and
those on the other. The mind, the intellect, the ego, the senses, the subtle
elements and the gross elements are all in the realm of nature. Purusha
is only pure consciousness.
The Three Qualities 7.4
Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas are the three gunas of nature. It is wrong to
think of virtue as a class of ordinary moral goods. Sattva is defined as
lightness, clarity, lightness and balance, vigor and effort, desire and
restlessness, inertia and obstruction, heaviness and ignorance. Each
natural state is thought to be the result of a different ratio of these
properties.
Sankhya 's distinctive philosophical boldness lies in his attempt to
understand mental character, experience, and material transformation
within a single theory of qualities. Modern psychology or physics,
however, requires independent evidence to support these properties as
measurable scientific variables. Classical concepts and modern scientific
models are objects of a different order.
The Twenty-Five Elements 7.5
Classical Samkhya presents a structure of twenty-five elements. From
Prakriti is described the development of Mahat or intelligence; from
Buddhi, ego; from Aham, mind, sense organs, karmendriyas, and
tanmatras; and from them, the development of the gross Mahabhuta.
Purusha as the twenty-fifth element is entirely different from Prakriti.
This evolution is not a modern biological evolution. It is the metaphysical
consequence of which basic principles give rise to different kinds of
reality. This distinction should be clear when using the modern term
evolution.
7.6 The intellect, the ego, and the mind
The introspection of the Samkhya is very subtle. The intellect is the centre
of decision-making and rational capacity. the ego is the centre of the
formation of emotions. the mind is the centre of coordination of sense-
information and of will-formation. They appear to be conscious, but
according to Samkhya, are essentially microcosmic manifestations of the
unconscious nature. It is released from the anus due to male proximity.
This analysis raises the difficult question of how knowledge is
experienced when the intellect itself is unconscious. Samkhya would
reply that the mental structure reflected the consciousness of a male;
rival traditions objected to this relationship as ambiguous.
7.7 The Male: The Pure Consciousness
Man is not the body, nor the mind, nor the intellect, nor the ego. He is the
Nirvaya, the passive, and immanent seer. Happiness and sorrow occur
in the intellect of nature, but due to ignorance, a man considers himself
as one with that state. Liberation is the end of this false identity.
Samkhya is believed by many people. If there were only one universal
Purusha, then the problems of one 's birth, death, knowledge, ignorance,
and happiness and sorrow would be applicable to all individuals
simultaneously. The diversity of personal experience is used in many
men 's arguments.
7.8 The question of the plurality of men
Many men try to explain the differences in individual consciousnesses
by assumptions, but difficulties also arise. If all men are but pure
consciousness without qualities, how is one man different from another?
The mark of difference is in the natural body-mind and not in the man
himself.
These are serious internal philosophical problems of Samkhya. Tradition
attempts to prove multiplicity by distinguishing individual karma-bodies
and experiences; however, opponents may ask how to find the numerical
difference of elements without properties.
7.9 Philanthropy
Positive causality posits that causation is probabilistic or implicitly pre-
existing in its cause, and new entities do not arise from absolute
nothingness. The milk curdles and the seed tree. the cause must have
efficacy.
Statisticians offer several arguments in favor of this view: that reality
does not arise from non-existence; that not every cause produces actions;
that particular causes have the potential for specific actions; and that
actions are related to the nature of causes. Actual transformation of the
cause according to consequentialism.
The primitivism of the Nyaya-Vaisheshikas presents a counterpoint to
this view. This debate illustrates the deep plurality of the subject of
causality in Indian philosophy.
7.10 The male-nature relationship
In the famous metaphor of Samkhya, both the blind and the lame
cooperate with each other; one can walk but cannot see; the other can
see but cannot move. Prakriti is active but unconscious.Purusha is
conscious but inactive. The combination of the two makes possible a
world of experience.
The metaphor is useful, but does not end the question. How do two
completely different, eternal elements really connect? If men do nothing,
why does nature evolve for its own sake? While Samkhya acknowledges
the tendency of men in nature to work for pleasure and pleasure, this
teleological framework has been the subject of criticism.
The Question of God 7.11
Classical statisticians would not make the Creator God an essential
element of the system. For this reason, Sankhya is often called an atheist.
However, the modern meaning of the term atheistic should be used with
caution. The question is primarily whether a creator cause other than
nature and man is philosophically necessary for world-explanation.
It would be anachronistic to attribute the socio-historical meaning of
Western modern atheism directly to Samkhya.
7.12 Knowledge and Liberation
The means to liberation is the decisive discernment of conscience, man,
and nature. In ignorance, we are miserable; we are doers, and like happy
children, identity is born. In the conscience, it is understood that the
changing mental-physical state is distinct from the pure seer of nature,
Purusha.
Kaivalya does not mean the destruction of nature. The illusion of identity
is shattered when nature ceases to have a purpose for the specific male.
As a form, the dancer leaves the stage after finishing the dance for the
audience to retire once nature has shown its form.
7.13 Samkhya and Yoga
The metaphysical framework of Yoga Samkhya broadly shares the
principles of Purusha, Prakriti, Gunas, mental structure, and Vivekas and
Kaivalyas. However, yoga practice develops systematic methods of
meditation, self-discipline, and mindfulness. For this reason, both are
often referred to as Sankhya-Yoga, but not as one philosophy altogether.
Samkhya primarily provides the framework for rational philosophy;
yoga adds extensive tools of psycho-discipline.
7.14 Modern Consciousness - Dialogue with Philosophy
Samkhya distinguishes between consciousness and mental states in a
way that provides an interesting comparison for modern philosophy of
mind. Thoughts, memories, desires, and egos are mental processes that
cannot be explained by pure consciousness, claims can open a dialogue
with modern questions of phenomenological consciousness and self-
model subjectivity.
But to call the number man the consciousness module or quantum entity
of modern neuroscience would be unfounded. Parallel philosophy
compares and does not create pseudoscientific confirmation.
7.15 Preface: The Passive Consciousness How the Experientialistic?
Objection: If men are wholly inactive, idle, and without virtue, how can
experience be related to them? Change in experience is memory and
order. it all happens in nature 's intelligence. Then why do men need to
be considered free?
Uttarapakṣa (Response): Samkhya states that the inborn nature is not self-manifested;
conscious witness is necessary to explain the presence of experience. The intellect
transforms the content of experience: man is the condition of his light. But this answer
does not completely eliminate the problem of relativity; herein lies both the
philosophical strength and the difficulty of Samkhya.
7.16 The text of the Parallel Philosophy
Parallel to Samkhya, philosophy takes three major methodological
approaches. First, separate out the experimenter and the experience
content. Secondly, analyze the complex world in a hierarchical causal
structure. Third, while accepting the strong insight of a philosophical
system, the difficult question of man-nature relations and polyandry
should not be confused with teleology.
Chapter Conclusion
Samkhya presents a well-organized answer to consciousness, causality
and suffering in Indian philosophy through the duality of Prakriti and
Purusha, the threefold principle, the twenty-five elements, righteousness
and liberation of conscience. It is not a modern science but a serious
philosophical opposition on the relationship between consciousness and
the world. Parallelism honors their historical independence, makes
useful comparisons, and leaves difficult objections open.
Chapter Bibliography
Ishvara Krsna said that Sāṅkhya-kārikā.
Vachaspati Mishra, Tattvakaumudī.
Gerald James Larson — Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning.
Gerald James Larson and Ram Shankar Bhattacharya (eds.) — Sāṃkhya: A Dualist Tradition in Indian
Philosophy.
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy — “Hindu Philosophy”, Sāṅkhya section.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — “Naturalism in Classical Indian Philosophy”; “Personhood in
Classical Indian Philosophy”.