Samkhya, also Sankhya, Sāṃkhya, or Sāṅkhya (Sanskrit: सांख्य, IAST: sāṃkhya) is one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy and classical Indian philosophy. Sage Kapila is traditionally considered as the founder of the Samkhya school, although no historical verification is possible. It is regarded as one of the oldest philosophical systems in India.[1]
Samkhya is one of the six orthodox systems (Āstika, those systems that recognize Vedic authority) of Hindu philosophy. The major text of this Vedic school is the extant Samkhya Karika circa 200 CE. This text (in karika 70) identifies Samkhya as a Tantra[2] and its philosophy was one of the main influences both on the rise of the Tantras as a body of literature, as well as Tantra sadhana.[3] There are no purely Samkhya schools existing today in Hinduism, but its influence is felt in the Yoga and Vedanta schools.
Samkhya is an enumerationist philosophy that is strongly dualist.[4][5][6] Samkhya denies the existence of Ishvara (God) or any other exterior influence.[7] Samkhya philosophy regards the universe as consisting of two realities: Purusha (consciousness) and Prakriti (phenomenal realm of matter). They are the experiencer and the experienced, not unlike the res cogitans and res extensa of René Descartes. Prakriti further bifurcates into animate and inanimate realms. On the other hand, Purusha separates out into countless Jivas or individual units of consciousness as souls which fuse into the mind and body of the animate branch of Prakriti.
There are differences between Samkhya and Western forms of dualism. In the West, the fundamental distinction is between mind and body. In Samkhya, however, it is between the self (as Puruṣa) and matter (Prakriti).
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Sage Kapila is considered as the founder of the Samkhya school, but there is no evidence to prove that the texts attributed to him, the Sāṁkhyapravacana Sūtra and the Tattvasamāsa were actually composed by him. According to a modern scholar Surendranath Dasgupta the doctrine of the earliest school of Samkhya is found in an ancient Indian medical treatise, Charaka Samhita.[8] Another early extant text of this school is Sāṁkhya Kārikā of Iśvarakṛṣṇa (3rd century). Iśvarakṛṣṇa in his Kārikā described himself as being in the succession of the disciples from Kapila, through Āsuri and Pañcaśikha. Gauḍapāda wrote a commentary on this Kārikā. The next important work is Vācaspati’s Sāṁkhyatattvakaumudī (9th century AD). Nārāyaṇa’s treatise Sāṁkhyacandrikā is based on the Kārikā. The Sāṁkhyapravacana Sūtra is assigned to the 14th century, as Guṇaratna (14th century) did not refer to this text but referred to the Kārikā. This text consists of 6 chapters and 526 sūtras. The most important commentary on the Sāṁkhyapravacana Sūtra is Vijñānabhikṣu’s Sāṁkhyapravacanabhāṣya (16th century). Anirruddha’s Kāpilasāṁkhyapravacanasūtravṛtti (15th century) and Mahādeva’s Sāṁkhyapravacanasūtravṛttisāra (c. 1600) and Nāgeśa’s Laghusāṁkhyasūtravṛtti are the other important commentaries on this text.[9]
According to the Samkhya school, all knowledge is possible through three pramanas (means of valid knowledge)[10] –
Samkhya cites two kinds of perceptions: 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 be neither differentiated nor labeled. Most of them are indeterminate perceptions.
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.
Broadly, the Samkhya system classifies all objects as falling into one of the two categories: Purusha and Prakriti. Metaphysically, Samkhya maintains an intermingled duality between spirit/consciousness (Puruṣa) and matter (Prakrti).
Puruṣa is the Transcendental Self or Pure Consciousness. It is absolute, independent, free, imperceptible, unknowable, above any experience and beyond any words or explanation. It remains pure, “nonattributive consciousness ”. Puruṣa is neither produced nor does it produce. Unlike Advaita Vedanta and like Purva-Mimamsa, Samkhya believes in plurality of the Puruṣas.[11]
Prakriti is the first cause of the universe—of everything except the Puruṣa, which is uncaused, and accounts for whatever is physical, both matter and force. Since it is the first principle (tattva) of the universe, it is called the Pradhana, but, as it is the unconscious and unintelligent principle, it is also called the Jada. It is composed of three essential characteristics (trigunas). These are:
All physical events are considered to be manifestations of the evolution of Prakriti, or primal nature (from which all physical bodies are derived). Each sentient being is a Puruṣa, and is limitless and unrestricted by its physical body. Samsāra or bondage arises when the Puruṣa 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.
The Sāṁkhyapravacana Sūtra states that there is no philosophical place for a creationist God in this system. It is also argued in this text that the existence of Ishvara cannot be proved and hence cannot be admitted to exist[15] Classical Samkhya argues against the existence of God on metaphysical grounds. For instance, Samkhya argue that an unchanging God cannot be the source of an ever changing world. It says God was a necessary metaphysical assumption demanded by circumstances.[16] The Sutras of Samkhya endeavour to prove that the idea of God is inconceivable and self-contradictory and some commentaries speak plainly on this subject. The Sankhya- tattva-kaumudi commenting on Karika 57 argues that a perfect God can have no need to create a world and if God's motive is kindness, Samkhya questions whether it is reasonable to call into existence, beings who while non-existent had no suffering. Samkhya postulates that a benevolent deity ought to create only happy creatures, not a mixed world like the real world.[17] Almost all modern scholars are of view that the concept of Ishvara was incorporated into the nirishvara (atheistic) Samkhya viewpoint only after it became associated with the Yoga, the Pasupata and the Bhagavata schools of philosophy. This theistic Samkhya philosophy is described in the Mahabharata, the Puranas and the Bhagavad Gita[18]
The Samkhya recognizes only two ultimate entities, Prakriti and Puruṣa. While the Prakriti is a single entity, the Samkhya admits a plurality of the Puruṣas. Unintelligent, unmanifest, uncaused, ever-active, imperceptible and eternal Prakriti is alone the final source of the world of objects which is implicitly and potentially contained in its bosom. The Puruṣa is considered as the intelligent principle, a passive enjoyer (bhokta) and the Prakriti is the enjoyed (bhogya). Samkhya believes that the Puruṣa cannot be regarded as the source of inanimate world, because an intelligent principle cannot transform itself into the unintelligent world. It is a pluralistic spiritualism, atheistic realism and uncompromising dualism.[14] See Dualism#Consciousness/Matter_dualism.
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.
Samkhya 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 –
In this state of equilibrium, the three together are one, "unmanifest" Prakriti. The most subtle potentiality that is behind whatever is created in the physical universe, also called "primordial Matter". It is also a state of equilibrium amongst the Three Gunas.
All macrocosmic and microcosmic creation is based on these templates. Due to the proximity of Purusha it is said, the continued cause and effect production of differentiation is due to the 'imbalance' of these different proportions of these three Gunas. Beginning with "the Great One" (Mahāt). the twenty four principles that evolve are:
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 Prakrti (body).
The evolution obeys causality relationships, with primal Nature itself being the material cause of all physical creation. The cause and effect theory of Samkhya 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 change. The evolution ceases when the spirit realizes 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 strands of Samkhyan thought can be traced back to the Vedic speculation of creation. It is also frequently mentioned in the Mahabharata and Yogavasishta.
Like other major systems of Hindu Theology (or Indian philosophy), Samkhya regards ignorance as the root cause of bondage and suffering (Samsara). According to Samkhya, the Puruṣa 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. Other forms of Samkhya teach that Mokṣa is attained by one's own development of the higher faculties of discrimination achieved by meditation and other yogic practices as prescribed through the Hindu Vedas.
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