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| Sankhya
Philosophy |
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 Kapila
was the founder of Sankhya philosophy. (8-6th Cent. B.C.E.) Ishvara Krishna
was its most famous writer. (3rd Cent. C.E.) Literal meaning of Sankhya is "discrimination" between purusha and prakriti so as to show the liberation of purusha. The focus is to discriminate between purusha and the higher mental states: manas and buddhi, which are part of prakriti. Prakriti is a fully real material substance, and not the creation of Brahman's uncanny power. Metaphysical "realism," i.e., the external world is real. Metaphysical pluralism, too--i.e. there are many individual souls that will remain individual and isolated even after their liberation from prakriti. At the liberation of the last purusha from prakriti, prakriti will return to its primordial state. Its manifold appearance depends on our ignorance that we basically belong to it. But with proper knowledge and discrimination one can use prakriti for one's liberation. Purusha has no attributes except that "it is" and that "it knows." "The spirit is what is sees, it is isolated, indifferent, a mere inactive spectator." (Quoted in Eliade, 27) It has no intelligence (this is located in buddhi.) and it is without desire. It is pure freedom. How then did it get enslaved? Originally, the three gunas (sattva, rajas, tamas) are in perfect equilibrium in prakriti. But under purusha's influence disequilibria and evolution begin. Prakriti is the source of the world of "becoming" (change and motion) and sensation. Purusha represents true being: inactive, unchanging, and pure. Sattvaguna is the "stuff" of consciousness and all higher mental states (associated with Hindu god Vishnu and the goddess Lakshmi); rajasguna is the source of activity, sensation, and emotion (associated with Brahma and the goddess Sarasvati); and tamasguna is the source of resistance, inertia, and dissolution (associated with Shiva and the goddess Kali). |
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