Samkhya in Pancashikha, Caraka, Gunaratna and Mahabharata

Pancashikha speaks of the ultimate truth as being avyakta (a term applied in all Samkhya literature to prakriti) in the state of purusha (purusavasthamavyaktam). If man is the product of a mere combination of the different elements, then one may assume that all ceases with death. Read more

Samkhya karika, Samkhya sutra, Vacaspati Mishra and Vijnana Bhikshu

A word of explanation is necessary as regards my interpretation of the Samkhya-Yoga system. The Samkhya karika is the oldest Samkhya text on which we have commentaries by later writers. Read more

The Gunas

These three types of ultimate subtle entities are technically called guna in Samkhya philosophy (1). Read more

Prakriti and its Evolution

Samkhya believes that before this world came into being there was such a state of dissolution–a state in which the guna compounds had disintegrated into a state of disunion and had by their mutual opposition produced an equilibrium the prakriti. Read more

Pralaya and the disturbance of the Prakriti Equilibrium

But how or rather why prakriti should be disturbed is the most knotty point in Samkhya. It is postulated that the prakriti or the sum-total of the gunas is so connected with the purushas, and there is such an inherent teleology or blind purpose in the lifeless prakriti, that all its evolution and transformations tike place for the sake of the diverse purushas, to serve the enjoyment of pleasures and sufferance of pain through experiences, and finally leading them to absolute freedom or mukti. Read more

Principle of Causation and Conservation of Energy

The question is raised, how can the prakriti supply the deficiencies made in its evolutes by the formation of other evolutes from them? When from mahat some tanmatras have evolved, or when from the tanmatras some atoms have evolved, how can the deficiency in mahat and the tanmatras be made good by the prakriti? (1). Read more

Samkhya Atheism and Yoga Theism

Granted that the interchange of the positions of the infinite number of reals produce all the world and its transformations; whence comes this fixed order of the universe, the fixed order of cause and effect, the fixed order of the so-called barriers which prevent the transformation of any cause into any effect or the first disturbance of the equilibrium of the prakriti? Read more

Buddhi and Purusha

The question again arises that though purusha is pure intelligence, the gunas are non-intelligent subtle substances, how can the latter come into touch with the former? Read more

Does Vaisheshika represent an Old School of Mimamsa?

The Vaisheshika is so much associated with Nyaya by tradition that it seems at first sight quite unlikely that it could be supposed to represent an old school of Mimamsa, older than that represented in the Mimamsa sutras. But a closer inspection of the Vaisheshika sutras seems to confirm such a supposition in a very remarkable way. We have seen in the previous section that Caraka quotes a Vaisheshika sutra. Read more

Meditation with Mantras – The nature of Mantras

IN this chapter I must allow myself to use certain Sanskrit words which have technical importance in the study of the mind and the world. Mantra is one of them. In connection with meditation it refers to words or sentences which are repeated over and over again while the mind is intent upon their meaning. Read more

Ajna

Ajna-cakra is also called parama-kula and mukta, tri-veni, since it is from here that the three nadis – Ida, Pingala and Susumna – go their separate ways. It is a two petalled lotus, situated between the two eyebrows. In this cakra there is no gross Tattva, but the subtle Tattva mind is here. Hakarardha, or half the letter Ha, is also there. On its petals are the red varnas “ham” and “ksam” Read more

The Three Temperaments

THE Tantras speak of three temperaments, dispositions, characters (bhava), or classes of men namely, the pasu-bhava (animal), vira-bhava (heroic), and divya-bhava (deva-like or divine). These divisions are based on various modifications of the gunas as they manifest in man (jiva). It has been pointed out (1) that the analogous Gnostic classification of men as material, psychical and spiritual, correspond to the three gunas of the Samkhya-darsana. In. the pasu the rajo-guna operates chiefly on tamas, producing such dark characteristics as error (bhranti), drowsiness (tandra), and sloth (alasya). Read more

Pancatattva

There are as already stated, three classes of men – Pasu, Vira, and Divya. The operation of the gunas which produce these types affect, on the gross material plane, the animal tendencies, manifesting in the three chief physical functions – eating and drinking, whereby the annamayakosa is maintained, and sexual intercourse, by which it is reproduced. These functions are the subject of the pancatattva or pancamakara (”five m’s”), as they are vulgarly called – viz : madya (wine), mamsa (meat), matsya (fish), mudra (parched grain), and maithuna (coition). Read more