Gita Rahasya -Tilak
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CHAPTER VII
THE KAPILA SAMKHYA PHILOSOPHY OR THE CONSIDERATION OF THE MUTABLE AND THE IMMUTABLE
(KAPILA SAMKHYA-SASTRA OR KSARAKSARA-VICARA) I need not say that this reference is only brief, because it is not possible to consider those propositions in this book in greater detail, and those who want further information about them must refer to the original works of Spencer, Darwin, Haeckel and other scholars. Before considering the Kapila Samkhya philosophy, it must be mentioned that the word 'Samkhya' is used in two different meanings. The first meaning is the Samkhya philosophy expounded by Kapilacarya, and that meaning has been adopted in this Chapter and in one place in the Bhagavad- gita [1]But besides this specific meaning, it is usual to include philosophy of every kind in the general name 'Samkhya', and it also includes the Vedanta philosophy In the phrase ' Samkhya-nistha ' or ' Samkhya-yoga ' this ordinary meaning of the word ' Samkhya ' is intended; and wherever the scients who follow this nistha (doctrine) have been referred to as ' Samkhya ' in the Bhagavadgita later on[2] not only the followers of the Kapila Samkhya school, but also the Vedantists who have abandoned all Actions by atmanatma-vicara (by considering what does and what does not pertain to the Self); and who are lost in the contemplation of the Brahman, are intended. As the word ' Samkhya ' comes from the root ' Sam-khya ' (calculation), its primary meaning is ' one who counts '; and etymologists say that, as the fundamental elements according to the Kapila philosophy are just twenty-five, the followers of that philosophy originally got the specific name of 'Samkhya' (in the sense of " counters "), and later on the word 'Samkhya' acquired the comprehensive meaning of philosophy of every kind. I, therefore, think that after the practice of referring to Kapila ascetics as ' Samkhya ' had first come into vogue, Vedanta ascetics also later on came to be known by that name. Whatever may be the case, in order that confusion should not arise as a result of this double meaning of the word ' Samkhya ', I have used the elongated heading of ' Kapila Samkhya-Sastra ' for this chapter. There are sutras (Aphorisms) in the Kapila Samkhya-Sastra just as in the Kanada Nyaya philosophy. But as neither Gaudapada nor Sri Samkaracarya, who wrote the Sarira-bhasya, have taken these sutras as authorities in their works, many scholars are of opinion that they could not be ancient. |
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