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 6th
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 13th century when a secretary to the Pope by name Poggio
Braccolini unearthed these documents.
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