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Sankhya Philosophy is a dualistic philosophy of creation or causality that may be found in books as old as the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. It was founded by the sage Kapila, who is said to be older than Buddha by academics. Yoga and Ayurveda both acknowledge it as a notion of creation.
Sankhya means “number” or “empirical.” It describes creation in a way that makes the implicit clear and eliminates both production and annihilation. The two sides of Sankhya, Purusha and Prakriti, are the source of all creation. Purusha is pure awareness, the soul, the Self, or the knower. Beyond time and activity, it is essence, not material. Matter and Nature are Prakriti. It is the force of manifestation in all things that keeps the three gunas in balance.
Sankhya Philosophy is supported by modern science. Energy may be converted but not generated or destroyed, according to the First Law of Thermodynamics. Matter and energy are interchangeable, according to Einstein’s equation E=mc2. Matter stores energy and can be transformed back to energy. The component c is equal to the constant speed of light (3 x 108 m/s). Furthermore, the Particle-Wave Theory’s dualism states that light behaves both as a wave and as a particle at the same time.
In short, both ancient philosophy and current science claim that the energy that grows a walnut and the walnut itself are same. Everything is two things at the same time.
The Samkhya (Sankhya) philosophy or the Samkhya Darshana owes a great deal to Hinduism. Samkhya translates to “number.” The number of realities that exist is the subject of Samkhya philosophy. It is “the most significant system of thought that India has developed,” according to Richard Garbe. Many intellectuals in ancient India, China, and, according to some, even Greece were influenced by it. Even though it is not a living ideology and has no active followers, it continues to attract the interest of many experts.
The school is mentioned in writings including the Bhagavadgita, Mahabharata, and Upanishads like the Svetasvatara and Maitrayani Upanishada. Although it may have started as a theistic philosophy with roots in the Upanishads, it appears to have evolved into an atheistic school that denied God’s participation in creation and ascribed all causes and consequences to Nature. Its core concepts and doctrines gradually made their way into mainstream Hinduism and various Buddhist groups.
Individual souls, according to Samkhya philosophy, are accountable for all manifestation and diversity, whereas Prakriti, or Nature, is responsible for all manifestation and diversity. They become subject to Nature’s influence and embodied by its reality when they come into contact with it. Prakriti is the first cause of the cosmos and an eternal reality. It is the unmanifest (avyaktam), basic resource, the totality of the universal energy in its purest form. It has no cause, yet it is the source and cause of all consequences, as well as “the ultimate basis of the empirical cosmos.”
The realities or tattvas
Prakriti brings things into being by changing or converting causes into outcomes that are already there. As a result, the school believes in evolution or transformation theory (parinama vada). It produces innumerable creatures and objects using the triple gunas and their varied realities (tattvas). The souls (Purushas), on the other hand, are eternal, countless, autonomous, and unchangeable, and Prakriti has no influence or control over them.
It also can’t make living forms without the input of souls. When the balance of the gunas (modes) in Prakriti is upset and its realities appear, creation (Shristi) starts. According to the school, all 24 realities (tattvas) develop or evolve from Nature, with one or more gunas predominating in each. Below is a list of the 25 tattvas.
- Prakrit, Nature (1)
- Mahat, the great principle (2)
- Buddhi, discriminating, reasoning and causative intelligence (3)
- Ahamkara, ego or ego-principle (4)
- Manas, the physical mind or brain (5)
- The five panchendiryas, sense organs (10)
- The five karmendriyas, the organs of action (15)
- The five tanmatras, subtle elements (20)
- The five Mahabhutas, gross elements namely the earth, water, air, fire and ether (25)
They are the natural evolutions. When sattva is dominant, the Mahat (the Great One) is the first reality to arise from Prakriti. It has a global element as the world’s wellspring, as well as a corporeal aspect as living creatures’ intelligence or buddhi. It is in charge of reasoning and discerning awareness. When rajas prevails, ahmkara, or the sense of uniqueness, emerges from Buddhi. It is in charge of self-awareness (ego). The tattvas had been subtle up to this point, but they are suddenly disgusting. The brain (manas), the five senses (jnanedriyas), the five action organs (karmendriyas), the five subtle essences (tanmatras) or sense objects, and the five gross components all develop from ego (mahabhutas).
The 24 tattvas are comprised of them. The number becomes 25 when combined with Purusha (individual soul), which is an eternal reality. Nature makes use of them all to create the world’s variety. Prakriti is the only one without a reason. The five tanmatras, Mahat, and Ahamkara are both causes and consequences. The rest are just consequences. Purusha is neither a result nor a cause. It is unchanging, everlasting, and without cause.
The Samkhya’s suggestion of natural evolution of objects and beings has many echoes in current evolutionary ideas. While current theories emphasise the evolution of physical bodies, the Samkhya suggests the evolution of beings across several lives. Furthermore, it sees evolution, or the translation of causes into consequences, as a transforming process that goes through numerous phases and follows predictable patterns until souls leave the mortal world.
Kapila, who lived during the Vedic period, created the Samkhya school before the production of major Upanishads such as the Svetasvatara, Katha, Prashna, and Maitrayani Upanishads. Kapila Sutras, also known as Samkhya Sutras, is the earliest known literature attributed to Kapila. However, the original planet does not appear to exist. The Samkhya Karika of Isvara Krishna, who flourished in the third or fifth century AD, is the major source of our present understanding of the schools. There have been several Karika remarks written. Gaudapada’s and Vijnana Bhikshu’s comments are well-known among them.
The Bhagavadgita gives its own theistic interpretation of Samkhya in the second chapter. It has certain characteristics with the original school, although it is mostly theistic. While Samkhya considers Nature to be the root of all creation, the Bhagavadgita considers Brahman to be the original cause of creation and Nature to be a dependent reality that manifests the worlds and creatures according to God’s desire.
The Samkhya school of thought is closely related to the Yoga school. The classical yoga is based only on the Samkhya’s teachings. The Yoga Sutras include several allusions to Isvara, the individual soul, but none to an ultimate, global God. The popularity of Tantras and the practise of Shakti worship is likely due to the notion of Prakriti as the single source of creation and evolution.
Impact on Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism
Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism have all benefited from the Samkhya philosophy. While we don’t know how deeply its ideas influenced them, it’s conceivable that they found reinforcement for their own views and actions in it. Buddhism, Jainism, and numerous Hindu schools, for example, deny the existence of a creator God. They also recognise Nature’s involvement in the manifestation of things.
In some ways, Patanjali’s Yogasutras are a continuation and interpretation of the Samkhya tradition. The Bhagavadgita’s Samkhya yoga is only a nuanced criticism of the Samkhya philosophy’s main assumption about Brahman or the ultimate Purusha as the primary and efficient cause of creation. However, it supports many of the school’s teachings, including the division of the gunas, soul bonding, the interaction between Nature and individual souls, soul liberation via yoga, and self-transformation.
The Samkhya school, like the Vedanta, believes that souls become bound when they are engulfed by delusion and ignorance when under the influence of Prakrity. They seek for emancipation and gain release or independence from the cycle of births and deaths when they recognise that Nature is responsible for their enslavement and has nothing to do with them.
Casuality
The Samkhya system is founded on the notion of causality, or Sat-karya-vada. The impact is pre-existing in the cause, according to Satkaryavada. When a cause becomes effect, there is just an apparent or illusory change in its constitution, not a substantial one. Because nothing can originate from nothing, everything’s original cause or basis is referred to as prakrti.
The prakrti-Parinama Vada is followed by the Samkhya system. The term parinama refers to a genuine change of the cause. Prakrti, or more properly Moola-prakrti, is the reason in question (Primordial Matter). As a result, the Samkhya philosophy is a proponent of an evolutionary explanation of matter that starts with primordial stuff. Prakrti is altered and differentiated into a variety of items during evolution. Dissolution occurs after evolution. All worldly objects dissolve into prakrti at the breakdown of physical existence, which now remains as the undifferentiated, primal essence. This is how the evolutionary and dissolution cycles interact. However, this belief differs from contemporary scientific views in that prakrti evolves individually for each Jiva, providing each distinct body and consciousness, and after freedom, these prakrti elements unite into the Moola prakrti. Another distinguishing feature of Samkhya is that it considers not just physical phenomena but also mind, ego, and intelligence to be types of Unconsciousness, different from pure consciousness.
