Karma Yoga Sastra -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) When once this satkaryavada is taken as proved, then, according to the Samkhya science, the theory that . the visible universe came into existence out of sunya, there having been, nothing whatsoever in existence before, naturally falls to the ground. Because, sunya means non-existing, and that which exists can never come into existence out of that which does not exist. Therefore, it becomes absolutely clear that the universe must have come into existence out of some substance or other, and that all those constituents (gunas) which we now see in the universe must have also been in this original substance. Now, if you look at the universe, many objects in it, such as trees, animals, men, stones, gold, silver, diamonds, water, air etc., are perceptible to our organs, and their forms and qualities are all different. The Samkhya doctrine is that this diversity or difference is neither permanent, nor funda- mental and that the fundamental substance in all things, or Matter, is only one. Modern chemists had analysed various objects and had originally arrived at 62 fundamental elements. But as the Western natural scientists have now proved that these 62 elements are not eternal and that there must have been some one fundamental substance from which the sun the moon, the earth, the stars, and the rest of the universe was created, it is not necessary to further labour this proposition. This original or fundamental substance at the root of all the things in the universe is known in Samkhya philosophy as- 'PRAKRTI '. Prakrti means 'fundamental' and all things which subsequently arise out, of prakrti' are called ' vikrti ' or the vikaras (transformations) of the fundamental substance. But though there is only one fundamental substance in all things, if this substance had also only one constituent quality, then according to the satkaryavada, other qualities could not have arisen out of this one quality ; whereas, looking at the stones, earth, water, gold, and various other things in the world, we find that they have numerous qualities. Therefore, the Samkhya philosophers have first carefully considered the constituents of all the various things and divided these constituents into three classes, namely, the sattva, the rajas and the tamas, (the placid, the active and the ignorant). Because, whatever object may be taken, it naturally has two states, namely, its pure, unadulterated, or perfect state and the opposite of it, its imperfect state ; and it is seen that its tendency is to move from its imperfect state to its perfect state. |
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