Samkhya System for the 21st Century

I am sure you want to know what the original Samkhya text says. The word samkhya denotes enumeration. Here are the 22 sutras of Thathva Samaasa of Sage Kapila.                

1.       Athaatah thathva samaasah – This is the summary of the truth.

2.        Kathayaami ashtau prakritayah – There are eight root causes. (Nature, intellect, ego, sound, touch, form, taste and smell)

3.       Shodasah asthu vikaarah – There are 16 modifications (mind, five cognitive senses, five active senses, five primordial elements)

4.       Purushah – There is a spirit, an indweller.

5.       Traigunyam – There are three attributes namely, sattva (light), rajas (movement) , tamas (stability)

6.       Sanchaarah, prathisanchaarah – There is evolution and involution

7.       Adhyaatmam, aadhibootham aadhidaivam cha – Suffering may be caused by self, other beings or Divine acts

8.       Pancha abhibuddhayah – Five sources of knowledge (intellect, ego, mind, five cognitive senses and five active organs)

9.       Pancha karmayonayah – Five causes of action (evidence, fallacy, fancy, sleep and memory)

10.   Pancha vaayavah – Five winds (inbreath, outbreath, holding breath, spreading breath and steadying breath)

11.   Pancha karma aatmaanah – Five essences of action ( self restraint, practice, dispassion, stable intellect, wisdom)

12.   Pancha parvaah avidyaah – Five kinds of false knowledge (darkness, infatuation, deep infatuation, aversion and deep aversion)

13.   Ashtaavimsathidha asaktih – Twenty-eight inabilities

14.   Navadha thushtih – Nine types of satisfaction

15.   Ashtadha siddhih – Eight gifts or attainments

16.   Dashmoolikaarthah – Ten primary qualities

17.   Anugrahah sargah – Emanation is accumulation

18.   Chathurdashvidha bhoothasargah – Fourteen stages in the evolution of beings

19.   Trividha bandhah – Threefold knots or bondages

20.   Trividha mokshah – Threefold emancipation

21.   Thrividham pramaanam – Threefold proofs (seeing, inference and testimony)

22.   Says that whoever understands the above will be free from the effects of bondages and escape suffering caused by self, others or by Divine will.

Finally, here is a short summary of ideas from the Greek philosophers. In the 6^th century BCE, Thales said that water was the original source of this earth. Anaximander said that space was the original source. Anaximedes thought that air was the primary source. Between 540 and 480 BCE, Paramanides said that “Nothing can come out of nothing; something that exists can become nothing.” Heraclites who said that “one cannot step into the same river twice” said that constant change is the nature of the world. Further, one universal reason, a constant oneness underlies all changes. 

Empedocles proposed four elements as the sources of this world – air, water, fire and earth. This is similar to the Samkhya philosophy except for the omission of space. Later Anaxagoras (500 – 428 BCE) said that each of the four elements are made of minute particles call atoms. This idea was developed further by Democritus and Lucretius. These writing were considered heretic and buried until the middle of the 13^th century when a secretary to the Pope by name Poggio Braccolini unearthed these documents. 

Reference: Kapil's Samkhya and Patanjali's Yoga. Compiled and Edited by William and Margot Milcetich. Brahma Rishi Yoga Publications.2008