Gita Rahasya -Tilak 163

Karma Yoga Sastra -Tilak

CHAPTER VII THE KAPILA SAMKHYA PHILOSOPHY OR THE CONSIDERATION OF THE MUTABLE AND THE IMMUTABLE (KAPILA SAMKHYA-SASTRA OR KSARAKSARA-VICARA) Stupendous ideas like the theory of gravity of the earth, or the utkranti-tattva G. R._14 (Evolution theory) in the science of the creation, or the theory of the unity of Brahman and the Atman, come into the mind of some superman once in a way in thousands of years. Therefore, the practice of ex- pounding one's own arguments, on the authority of any universal doctrine or comprehensive theory accepted at the: time,, is seen followed in books in all countries. This introduction has become necessary because the study of the Kapila Samkhya philosophy is now out of date. Let us now consider what the principal propositions of the Kapila Samkhya philosophy are. The first proposition of the- Samkhya philosophy is that nothing new comes into existence in this world; because, only sunya (nothing) and nothing else- can be produced by sunya (that is, which did not exist before). Therefore, it must always be taken for granted that all the qualities which are to be seen in the created products (karya) must be found at least in a subtle form in the karana from which the products were created Accord- ing to the opinions of Buddhists and of Kanada, one- thing is destroyed and out of it another thing comes into existence; for instance, the seed is destroyed, and from that the sprout comes into existence, the sprout is destroyed, and from that the tree comes into existence, and so on. But the Samkhya and the Vedanta philosophers do not accept this proposition. They maintain that those elements which existed in the seed of the tree are not destroyed, but they have absorbed other elements into themselves from the earth and from the air, and thereby the new form or state of a sprout is taken up by the seed Similarly, even if wood is burnt, it is only transformed into smoke, ashes etc., and not that the ele- ments in the wood are totally destroyed and a new thing in the form of smoke comes into existence. It is stated in the Chandogyopanisad that: " katham asatah. saj jayeta?", i.e., how can something which exists come out of something which never existed?" The fundamental , Cause of the universe is sometimes referred to as ' asat ' in the Upanisads But Vedanta philo- sophy has laid down that that word is not to be interpreted as meaning 'a-bhava' (non-existing) but as indicating only the non-existence of such a perceptible state as can be denoted by name or form Curds can be made only out of milk, not from water ; oil comes out of ' til' (sesamum), not out of sand; from these and other actual experi- ences, one must draw the same conclusion; because, if one accepts the position that those qualities which do not exist in the karana (cause) can arise independently in the karya (pro- duct), one cannot explain why it should not be possible to produce curds from water. In short, that which is now in exist- ence cannot have come into existence out of something which originally did not exist. Therefore, the Samkhya philosophers have laid down the proposition, that whatever product you may take, its present concomitants and qualities must in some form or other have been in existence in its original cause. This proposition is known as ' satkarya-vada ' (theory of something being produced out of something which existed).