Samkhya

Answer : A cause is defined as an unconditional and invariable antecedent of an effect and an effect as an unconditional and invariable consequent of a cause. The same cause produces the same effect; and the same effect is produced by the same cause. The cause is not present in any hidden form whatsoever in its effect. The following conditions should be met:

1. The cause must be antecedent
2. Invariability
3. Unconditionality

In fact there are two views on the theory of causation in the Indian philosophy:

(1) Satkaryavada (pre-existence of the effect in the cause): It maintains that karya (effect) is sat or real. It is present in the karana (cause) in a potential form, even before its manifestation.

(2) Asatkaryavada (non-existence of the effect in the cause): It maintains that karya (effect) is asat or unreal until it comes into being. Every effect, then, is a new beginning and is not born out of cause. Charvakism and Nyaya -Vaisheshika systems favour asatkaryavada.

The Samkhya as well as the Vedanta uphold the satkaryavada but their interpretations are different. There are two different interpretations of satkaryavada – Prakriti -parinamavada and Brahma-vivartavada.The Parinamavada suggests that the effect is the real parinama (or transformation) of the cause. On the other hand, the Brahma-vivartavada suggests that the effect is an apparent or distorted appearance of the cause. The Advaita Vedanta supports the Brahma-vivartavada. It defends vivartavada and holds that transformation is only apparent, as the Brahman is the only true cause and the world is a distorted appearance of the cause. The Samkhya favours Prakriti-parinamavada. In accordance with the satkaryavada, the Samkhya maintains that the three gunas of Prakriti are also associated with all the world-objects. Prakriti is the primordial and ultimate cause of all physical existence. Naturally the three gunas which constitute Prakriti also constitute every object of the physical world. Prakriti is never static. Even before evolution, the gunas are relentlessly changing and balancing each other. As a result, Prakriti and all the physical objects that are produced by Prakriti, are also in a state of constant change and transformation. This is further confirmed by the scientists today. It is now proved beyond doubt that ultra-minute particles of objects – like electrons – are in a state of incessant motion and transformation.

Answer : Aristotle tries to explain the evolution of universe with the help of his theory of causation. He mentions four causes called material cause, formal cause, efficient cause and final cause.

Material cause describes the material out of which something is composed. Thus the material cause of a table is wood, and the material cause of a car is rubber and steel. It is not about action. It does not mean one domino knocks over another domino.

The formal cause tells us what a thing is, that anything is determined by the definition, form, pattern, essence, whole, synthesis or archetype. It embraces the account of causes in terms of fundamental principles or general laws, as the whole (i.e., macrostructure) is the cause of its parts, a relationship known as the whole-part causation. Plainly put the formal cause according to which a statue or a domino, is made is the idea existing in the first place as exemplar in the mind of the sculptor, and in the second place as intrinsic, determining cause, embodied in the matter. Formal cause could only refer to the essential quality of causation. A simpler example of the formal cause is the blueprint or plan that one has before making or causing a human made object to exist.

The efficient cause is that from which the change or the ending of the change first starts. It identifies ‘what makes of what is made and what causes change of what is changed’ and so suggests all sorts of agents, nonliving or living, acting as the sources of change or movement or rest. Representing the current understanding of causality as the relation of cause and effect, this covers the modern definitions of “cause” as either the agent or agency or particular events or states of affairs. So take the two dominos this time of equal weighting, the first is knocked over causing the second also to fall over. This is effectively efficient cause.

The final cause is that for the sake of which a thing exists or is done, including both purposeful and instrumental actions and activities. The final cause or telos is the purpose or end that something is supposed to serve, or it is that from which and that to which the change is. This also covers modern ideas of mental causation involving such psychological causes as volition, need, motivation or motives, rational, irrational, ethical, and all that gives purpose to behavior.

According to Aristotle things can be causes of one another, causing each other reciprocally, as hard work causes fitness and vice versa, although not in the same way or function, the one is as the beginning of change, the other as the goal. (Thus Aristotle first suggested a reciprocal or circular causality as a relation of mutual dependence or influence of cause upon effect). Moreover, Aristotle indicated that the same thing can be the cause of contrary effects; its presence and absence may result in different outcomes. Simply it is the goal or purpose that brings about an event (not necessarily a mental goal). Taking our two dominos, it requires someone to intentionally knock the dominos over as they cannot fall themselves.

Aristotle marked two modes of causation: proper (prior) causation and accidental (chance) causation. All causes, proper and incidental, can be spoken as potential or as actual, particular or generic. The same language refers to the effects of causes, so that generic effects assigned to generic causes, particular effects to particular causes, operating causes to actual effects. Essentially, causality does not suggest a temporal relation between the cause and the effect. All further investigations of causality will consist of imposing the favourite hierarchies on the order causes, such as final > efficient > material > formal (Thomas Aquinas), or of restricting all causality to the material and efficient causes or to the efficient causality (deterministic or chance) or just to regular sequences and correlations of natural phenomena (the natural sciences describing how things happen instead of explaining the whys and wherefores).

The Samkhya system is based on Satkaryavada. According to Satkaryavada, the effect already exists in the cause. Cause and effect are seen as different temporal aspects of the same thing - the effect lies latent in the cause which in turn seeds the next effect. More specifically, Samkhya system follows the Prakriti-Parinama Vada. The Samkhya Philosophy says that when the purusha is in a state of ignorance it easily identifies itself with the prakriti and gets periled with the elements of Mahat, Manas and Ahamkara which are essentially the products of the prakriti. The philosophy states that unless the mind becomes free from all kinds of bonds and falsehood it cannot achieve the state of Moksha. Some other forms of the Samkhya philosophy states that moksha can also be attained by developing the higher faculties of the mind which means a state when the mind is free from all kinds of negative emotions. Samkhya, like all other systems of Indian philosophy, regards ignorance as the root cause of bondage and suffering. It emphasizes on the fact that a pure mind is essential to make living in this universe worthwhile. Unless human mind gets rid of all gross elements it is not possible to achieve a state of eternal bliss.

Answer : Samkhya believes in Satkaryavada. All material effects are the modification (parinama) or Prakrti. They pre exist in the eternal bosom of Prakrti and simply come out of it at the time of creation and return to it at the time of dissolution. There is neither new production nor utter destruction. Production means development or manifestation (avirbhava); destruction means envelopment, destruction is involution. Samkhya gives five arguments in support of Satkaryavada:

If the effect does not pre-exist in its cause, it becomes a mere non entity like the hare’s horn or the sky-flower and can never be produced (asadkarnat).

The effect is only a manifestation of its material cause, because it is invariably converted with it (Upadangrahnat).

Everything cannot be produced out of everything. This suggests that the effect, before its manifestation is implicit in its materials cause (Sarvasambhavabharat).

Only an efficient cause can produce that for which it is potent. This again means that the effect, before its manifestation, is potentially contained in its material cause. Production is only an actualization of the potential (Shaktasya Shakya-Karnat). Were it no so, then curd should be produced out of water, and cloth out of reels, and oil out of sand particles.

The effect is the essence of its material cause and as such identical with it. When the obstructions in the way of manifestations are removed the effect naturally flows out of its cause. The cause and effect are the implicit and the explicit stage of the same process. The cloth is contained in the thread, the oil in the oil seeds, and curd in the milk. The effect pre exists in its material cause (Karanbharat).

But Satkaryavada of Samkhya is not appreciated by some of the schools of Indian Philosophy. The basic question involved in any theory of causasion is: Does the effect pre-exist in its material cause? Those who answer this question in the negative are called Asatkaryavadins, while those who answer it in the affirmative are called Satkaryavadins. According to the former, the effect is a new creation, a real beginning. The effect (Karya) does not pre-exist (asta) in its material cause. Otherwise, there would be no sense in saying that it is produced or caused. If the pot already exists in the clay and the cloth in the threads and curd in milk, then why should the potter expert himself in producing the pot out of the clay and why should not the thread serve the purpose of the cloth and why should not milk taste like crud?

Moreover, its production would be its repeated birth which is nonsense. Nyaya, Vaishesika, Hinayana Buddhism, Materialism and some followers of Mimamsa believe in Asatkaryavada, which is also known as Arambhavada, i.e., the view that production is a new beginning. Materialism believes in Svabhavada; Hinayana Buddhism in Anitya Paramanuvada or ksanabhangavada and Nyaya-Vaishesika and some followers of Mimamsa in Nitya-puramanes-Karanavada. The Satkaryavadins, on the other hard, believe that the effect is not a new creation, but only an explicit unmanifestation of that which was implicitly contained in its material cause. Here, another important question arises: Is the effect a real transformation or an unreal appearance of its cause? Those who believe that the effect is a real transformation of its cause are called Parinamavadins (Parinama, real modification); while those who believe that it is an unreal appearance are called Vivartavadins (Vivarta, unreal appearance).

Samkhya, Yoga and Ramanuja believe in Parinavada. The view of Samkhya yoga is called Prakrti Parinamavada, while the view of Ramanuja is called Brahma purinamavada. Shunyavada, Vijnanavada and Shankara believe in Vivartavada. Their views may be respectively called Shunya vivartavada, Vijnana-Vivarta-vada and Brahma-vivara-vada. The view of Jainism and of Kumarila may be called Shunyavada, Vijnanavada and Shankara believe in Vivartavada. Their view of Jainism and of Kumarial may be called Sadsatkaryavada because according to them the effect is both real as well as unreal before its production real as identical with the cause and unreal and a model change the rest though ultimately both incline towards Parinamavada.

The Samkhya theory that causation means a real transformation of the material cause leads to the concept of Prakrti as the root-cause of the world of objects. All wordly effects are latent in this uncaused cause, because infinite regress has to be avoided. It is the potentiality of nature, the receptacle and nurse of all generation. As the uncaused not cause, it is called Prakrti. Thus the theory of evolution of Samkhya is based on its theory of causation. Unintelligent unmanifest, uncaused, ever active, imperceptible, eternal and one prakrti alone is the final source of this world of objects which is implicitly and potentially contained in its bosom. All individual things in this world are limited, dependent, conditional and finite. The finite cannot be the cause of the universe.

Logically we have to move from the finite to the infinite, from the limited to the unlimited, from the peros to the aperos, from the temporary to the permanent, from the many to the one. And it is this infinite, unlimited eternal and all pervading Prakrti which is the source of this universe. All world things possess certain common characteristics by which they are capable of producing pleasure, pain and indifference. Hence there must be a common source composed of three gunas, from which all worldly things arrive. This common source is Prakrti which causes this Samsara. Thus, Samkhya with the help of the theory of causation explains the mechanism of evolution and evolutes.

Answer : In Samkhya philosophy Prakrti is uncaused not cause as the first principle of this universe. It is called Pradhana, as the uninfected state of all effects; it is known as Avyakta, as the extremely subtle and impercetible things which is only inferred from its produces, it is called Anumana; as the unintelligent and unconsciousness principle, it is called Jada; and as the ever active unlimited power, it is called Shakti. The products are caused, dependent, relative, many and temporary as they are subject to birth and death, to production and destruction; but Prakrti is uncaused independent, absolute one and eternal, being beyond production and destruction.

Prakrti is said to be the unity of three Gunas held in equilibrium. The three Gunas are Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. They are the constituents of Prakrti and through it of the worldly objects. Being subtle and imperceptible their existence is inferred from their effects pleasure, pain and indifference respectively. Although they are called Gunas, yet they are not ordinary qualities or attributes like the Nyaya-Vaishesika Gunas. They themselves possess qualities like lightness; activity, heaviness etc. They are extremely fine and ever changing elements. They make up Praktri which is nothing apart from them. They are not the qualities which Prakrti, the substances, possesses; on the other hand they themselves constitute Prakri. They are the factors or the constituents or the elements of Prakrti. They are called Gunas because they are the elements of Prakrti which alone is called substances; or because they are subservient to the end of the Purusa, or because they are interwined like three strands, to make up the rope of Prakrti which binds the Purusa.

Sattva literally means real or existent and is responsible for the manifestation of object in consciousness. It is called goodness and produces pleasure. It is light and bright buyoant (laghu) and illuminating (prakashaka). Luminosity of light, power of reflection, upward movement, pleasure, happiness, contentment and bliss are all due to it. Its colour is white. Rajas which literally means foulness, is the principle of motion. It produces pain. Restless activity, fervish effort and wild stimulation are itsstr result. It is (chala) and stimulating (upastambhaka). Its colour is red. Tamas, which literally means darkness, is the principle of inertia. It produces apathy and indifference. Ignorance, sloth, confusion, bewilderment, passivity and negativity are its results. It is heavy (guru) and enveloping (avarana) and as such as opposed to sattva. It is also opposed to Rajas as it arrests activity. Its colour is dark. These three gunas which constitute Prakrti are never separate.

They conflict and yet co-operate with one another and are always found intermingled. They are compared to the oil, the wick and the flame of a lamp, which though opposed to yet co operate to produce the light of a lamp. They are imperceptible and are inferred from their effects. All these things are compose of these three gunas and their differences are due to the different combination of these gunas. The nature of a thing is determined by the preponderance a particular guna. The things are called goods, bad or indifferent; intelligent, active or slothful; pure, impure or neutral, on account of the predominance of Sattva, rajas or tamas respectively. When these gunas are held in a state of equilibrium, that state is called Prakrti. Evolution of worldly objects does not take place at this state. These gunas are said to be ever changing. They cannot remain static even for a moment. Change is said to be of two kinds homogenous or sarupa parinama and heterogenous or virupa parinanta.

During the state of dissolution (Pralaya) of the world, the gunas change homogenously i.e., sattva changes into sattva, rajas into rajas and tamas into tamas. This change does not disturb the equilibrium of the gunas and unless the equilibrium is disturbed and one predominates over the other two, evolution cannot take place. Evolution starts when there is heterogeneous change in the gunas and one predominates over the other two and brings about terrific commotion in the bosom of Prakrti.

The nature of these gunas is beautifully brought out in a Hindi poet Rasaline. The poet says that the eyes of the beloved are white, red and dark, and are full of nectar, intoxication and poison, with the result that once they pierce the heart of the lover, the experience the joy of life, the agony of restlessness and the inertia of death. The recollection of the beloved gives him joy and makes life worth living; separation causes acute pain and makes him result less; intensity of live makes him forget everything and become inactive, unconsciousness and almost dead. Sattva is white and is like nectar and gives joy; rajas is red and is like intoxication and gives pain, tamas is dark and is like poison and produces unconsciousness. We bow to Prakrti, says Isvarkrishna, the red, white, dark, the unborn mother and nurse and receptacle of all generation. Such is the conception of Prakrti in samkhya.

The Samkhya account of Prakrti makes it more abstraction, an emptiness of pure object. The original state of Prakrti is not a harmony, but only a tension of the three gunas. The gunas point to a state beyond them. It is this state which gives harmony to the gunas and transcends them. Prakrti does not do that. Hence it is not real. Reality is the Purusa alone. Again, Pakrti is unconscious and unintelligent. How can it then explain the teleology which is immanent in creation? If Prakrti is unconscious and blind, evolution must be mechanical and blind and there can be no freedom of the will. And if Prakrti tend to serve the Purusa, it can be neither unconscious nor independent.

Answer : In Samkhya philosophy Purusa is the soul, the self, the spirit the, subject, the knower. It is neither body nor senses nor brain nor mind nor ego nor intellect. It is not a substance. It is not a substance which possesses the quality of consciousness. Consciousness is its essence. It is itself pure and transcendental consciousness. It is the ultimate knower which is the foundation of all knowledge. It is the pure subject and as such can never become an object of knowledge. It is the silent witness, the emancipated alone; the neutral sees the peaceful eternal. It is beyond time and space, beyond change and activity. It is self luminous and self proved. It is uncaused eternal and all pervading. It is the indubitable real, the postulate of knowledge, and all doubts and denials pre suppose its existence. It is called nistraigunya, a udasina, akarta, kevala, madhyastha, saksi, drasta and jnata. Samkhya gives the following five proofs for the existence of the purusa:

All compound objects exist for the sake of the purusa. The body, the senses, the mind and the intellect are all means to realize the end of the Purusa. The three gunas, the Prakrti, the subtle body all are said to serve the purpose of the self. Evolution is technological or purposive. Prakrti evolves itself in order to serve the Purusa’s end. This proof is teleological (Sanghatapararthvat).

All objects are composed of the three gunas and therefore logically presuppose the existence of the Purusa who is the witness of these gunas and is himself beyond them. The three gunas imply the conception of a nistraigunya that which is beyond them. This proof is logical. (trigunadviiparyata).

There must be a transcendental synthetic unity of pure consciousness to coordinate all experience. All knowledge necessarily presupposes the existence of the self. The self is the foundation (adhisthana), the fundamental postulate of all empirical knowledge. All affirmations and all negations equally presuppose I. Without it, experience would become experience. This proof is ontological. (adhisthanat)

Non intelligent Prakrti cannot experience its products. So there must be an intelligent principle to experience the worldly products of Prakrti. Prakrti is the enjoyed (bhogya) and so there must be an enjoyer (bhokta). All objects of the world have the characteristics of producing pleasure, pain and bewilderment. But pleasure, pain and bewilderment have meaning only when there is a conscious principle to experience them. Hence purusa must exist. This argument is ethical (bhoktribhavat).

There are persons also who try to attain release from the sufferings of the world. The desire for liberation and emancipation implies the existence of a person who can try for and obtain liberation. Aspiration presupposes the aspirant. This proof is mystical or religious. (Kaivalyartham pravittch)

Answer : As per Samkhya philosophy the earthly life is full of three kinds of pain. The firs kind called adhyatmika is due to intra organic psychological causes and includes all mental and bodily sufferings. The second, adhibhautik, is due to extra-organic natural causes like men, beasts, birds, thorns etc. The third, adhidaivika, is due to supernatural causes like the planet, elemental agencies, ghost demons etc. Wherever, there are gunas there are pains. Even the so called pleasures lead to pain. Even the life in heaven is subject to the gunas. The end of man is to get rid of these three kinds of pain and sufferings. Liberation means complete cessation of all sufferings which is the summum bonum, the highest end of life (Apvararga). Purusa is free and pure consciousness. It is inactive, indifferent and possesses no attribute. Really speaking, it is above time and space, merit and demerit, bondage and liberation. It is only when it mistakes, its reflection in the buddhi for itself and identifies itself wrongly with the internal organ, the intellect, the ego and the mind, that it is said to be bound. It is the ago, and not the Purusu, which is bound when the Purusu realizes its own pure nature, it gets liberated which in fact it always was.

Hence bondage is due to ignorance or non discrimination between the self and the not self and liberation is due to right knowledge, discrimination between the self and not-self. Liberation cannot be obtained by means of actions. Karma, goods or bad or indifferent, is the function of the gunas and leads to bondage and not to liberation. Good actions may lead to heaven and bad actions to hell but heaven and hell alike, this worldly life, are subject to pain. It is only knowledge which leads to liberation because bondage is due to ignorance and ignorance can be removed only by knowledge. The jiva has to realize itself as the pure purusa through discrimination between purusa and prakrti.

Actions and fruits, merits and demerits, pleasures and pain all belong to not self. The knowledge that I am not (the not self) that nothing is mine, that ago is unreal, when constantly mediated upon, becomes pure, incontrovertible and absolute and leads to liberation. Samkhya admits both Jivanmukti and Videhamukti. The moment right knowledge dawns, the person becomes liberated here and now, even though he may be embodied due to Prarabdha Karma on account of the momentum of past deeds, the body continues to exist for some time, just as the wheel of a potter goes on revolving for some time due to previous momentum even though the potter has withdrawn his hand from it. As the liberated saint though embodied, feels no association with the body, no new Karma gets accumulated as all Karma loses causal energy.

Answer : In Samkhya philosophy Prakrti is regarded as essentially dynamic. If motion were not inherent in Prakrti, it could not be given to it by any outside agency; and if motion once ceased in Prakrti, it could not reappear. Hence Prakrti is always changing. Even in dissolution, there is homogenous change (Sarupa Parinama) in Prakrti when all the three gunas are in the state of equilibrium. It is only when heterogenous change takes place and rajas vibration makes sattva and tamas vibrate that equilibrium is disturbed and evolution takes place. Sattava, the principle of manifestation and rajas the principle of activity was formerly held in check by tamas, the principle of non-manifestation and non-activity. But when rajas, the principle of activity vibrates and makes the other two vibrate, the process of creation begins. And creation is not the new creation of the worldly objects, but only their manifestation. It is only making explicit of that which was formerly implicit. Evolution is regarded as cyclic and not linear.

There is no continuous progress in one direction but alternating periods of evolution (Sarga) and dissolution (Pralaya) in a cycle order. Evolution is again said to be teleological and not mechanical or blind. Evolution takes place for serving the purpose of the Purusa. Prakrti, the gunas, and the senses, the mind, the ego, the intellect, the subtle body, all are constantly serving the end of the Purusa. This end is either worldly experience (bhoga) or liberation (apavarga). Purusa needs Prakrti for enjoyment as well as for liberation, for samsara as well as for Kaivalya. Evolution supplies objects to be enjoyed to the Purusa and also works for his liberation by enabling him to discriminate between himself and Prakrti.

Now the question is: How does evolution takes places? Evidently when heterogeneous motion arises and rajas disturb the equilibrium of the gunas. But how is the equilibrium disturbed? Samkhya fails to answer this question satisfactorily. The fundamental blunder of Samkhya has been to separate prakrti and purusa as absolute and independent entities. As a mater of fact, the subject and the object are the aspects of the same reality which holds them together and yet transcends them. All realistic pluralism, of whatever brand it may be, has failed to answer this question satisfactorily. If prakrti and purusu are absolutely separate and independent entities, then they can never unite together. And if they cannot unite evolution cannot take place. Samkhya says that the disturbance of the equilibrium of the gunas which starts evolution is made possible by the contract of Purusa and Prakrti. Purusa without Prakrji is lame and Prakrtti without purusa is blind.

Answer : In Samkhya philosophy there are two co-present coeternal realities. They are Purusa and Prakrti. Purusa is the principle of pure consciousness. It is the soul, the self, the spirit, the subject and the knower. It is neither body, nor senses nor brain nor mind (manas) nor ego (ahankara) nor intellect (budhi). It is not a substance which possesses the quality of consciousness. Consciousness is its essence. It is itself pure and transcendental consciousness. It is the ultimate knower which is the foundation of all knowledge. It is the silent witness, the emancipated alone, the neutral seer, the peaceful eternal. It is beyond time and space, beyond change and activity. It is self luminous and self proved. It is uncaused eternal and all pervading. It is the indubitable real, the postulate of knowledge, and all doubts and denials pre suppose its existence. It is called nistriagunya, undasina, akarta, kevala, madhyastha, saksi, drasta, sadaprakavartha and jnata.

Unlike Advaita Vedanta and like Jainism and Minamsa, Samkhya believes in the plurality of the purusa. Like the Jivas of the Jainas, the souls of Ramanuja and the monads of Leibritz, the Samkhya Purusas are object to qualitative monism and quantititaive pluralism. The selves are all essentially alike: only numerically are they different. Their essence is consciousness. Bliss is regarded as different from consciousness and is the product of the Sattvaguna. Samkhya gives the following three arguments for proving the plurality of the purusa:

• The souls have different sensory and motor organs and undergo separate births and deaths. Had there been only one Purusa, the birth or death of one should have meant the birth or death of all and any particular experience of pleasure pain or indifference by one should have been equally shared by all. Hence the souls must be many.
• If the self were one, bondage of one should have meant bondage of all and liberation of one should have meant liberation of all. The activity of one should have made all persons active and one should have called into sleep all other person.
• Though the emancipated souls are all alike and differ only in number as they are all beyond the three gunas, yet the bound souls relatively differ in qualities also, since in some sattva predominates, while in others rajas and in still others tamas. Hence their difference.

But the fundamental blunder of Samkhya is to treat Prakrti and Pursua as absolutely separate and independent realities. The Prakrti and Purusa of Samkhya thus became mere abstractions form away from the context of concrete experience. The object and the subject are relative and not independent and absolute. Experience always unfolds them together like the two sides of the same reality. To dig a chasm between them is to undermine them both. And that is what Samkhya has done. The logic of Samkhya requires it to maintain the ultimate reality of the transcendental Purusa alone and to regard Prakrti as its inseparable power.

When this purusa is reflected in its own power Prakrti, it becomes the empirical ago, the Jiva, the phenomenal. Plurality belongs to the Jiva, not to the transcendental Purusa. The subject and the object, the Jiva and the Prapiji, are the two aspects of the Purusa which is their transcendental background. It is the Purusa which sustain the empirical dualism between Prakrji and Jiva and which finally transcends it. Every Jiva is the potential Purusa and liberation consists in the actualization of this potentiality. This is the philosophy to which the Samkhya logic points and which is throughout implicit in Samkhya but which is explicity rejected by Samkhya with the inevitable and unfortunate result that Samkhya has reduced itself to a bundle of contradictions.

If Prakrti and Purusa are absolute and independent, they can never come into contact and hence there can be no evolution at all. As Shankara has pointed out, Prakrti being indifferent and there being no third principle, no third principal, no tertium quid, there can be no conception of the two. Neither real contact (Samyoga) nor semblance of contact (Samyogabhasa) nor were presence of Purusa (Sennidhya-matra). Samkhya realizes the mistake, but in order to defend the initial blunder, it commits blunder after blunders. Samkhya makes confusion between the Purusa and Jiva, the transcendental subject and the Jiva, the empirical ago, the product of the reflection of Purusa in Buddhi or Mahat. Sambhya rightly emphasizes that the Purusu is pure consciousness and that it is the foundation of all knowledge and that it is beyond bondage, liberation and transmigration. Purusa has really nothing to do with the play of Prakrti. It is a mere spectator and is not among the dramatis personae. It is not contradicted by action. It is self proved and self shining. It is the transcendental subject which appears as the phenomenal ago. We cannot derive consciousness from Prakrti or matter nor can we regard consciousness as a quality.

The self is not a substance but a subject. It is alone, the unseen seer, the transcendental absolute. But Samkhya soon forgets its own position and reduces the ultimate Purusa to the level of the phenomenal ego. Some of the proofs advanced in support of the existence of Purusa, are proofs only for the phenomenal ego. Purusa is called enjoyer and Prakrti enjoyed. But if Purusa is the transcendental subject, how can it be an enjoyer. It is passive, indifferent and inactive, how can it enjoy. Again how can the transcendental reality split into the many realities? How can there be a plurality of the transcendental subjects, the Purasas. It course, no one denies the plurality of the empirical egos, the Jivas. But the plurality of the egos, the empirical souls, does not lead us to the plurality of the transcendental selves, the Purusa.

In fact, all the arguments advanced by Samkhya to prove the plurality of the Purusas turn out to arguments to prove the plurality of the Jiva which none has ever derived. Samkhya proves the plurality of the Purusas by such flimsy arguments that if there were only one Purusa, the birth or death or bondage of liberation or experience of pleasure or pain or indifference of one should lead to the same result in the case not subject to birth or death or bondage or liberationor any action. Realizing this grave defect, the commentators like Vachaspati, Gaudapada have maintained the reality of our Purusa only. If Samkhya can reduce all objects to one Prakrti, why can it not reduce all the empirical happiness produced by Sattva.

Answer : According to Samkhya philosophers Prakrti is the root-cause of the world of objects. All worldly effects are latent in this uncaused cause, because infinite regress has to be avoided. It is the potentiality of nature, the receptacle and verse of all generation. As the uncaused root cause, it is called Prakrti; as the first principle of this universe, it is called Pradhana. The products are caused, dependent, relative, many and temporary as they are subject to birth and death or to production and destruction. Prakrti is uncaused, independent, absolute, one and eternal being beyond production and destruction.

Samkhya gives fire proofs for the existence of prakrti which are as follows:

• All individual things in this world are limited, dependent, conditional and finite. The finite cannot be the cause of the universe. Logically we have to proceed from the finite to the infinite, from the limited to the unlimited from the peros to the aperos, from the temporary to the permanent, from the many to the one. And it is this infinite, unlimited, eternal and all pervading Prakrti which is the source of this universe (Bhedanam Parimanat).
• All worldly things possess certain common characteristics by which they are capable of producing pleasure pain and indifference. Hence there must be a common source composed of three Gunas, from which all worldly things arise (Samanvayat)
• All effects arise from the activity of the potent cause. Evolution means the manifestation of the hitherto implicit as the explicit. The activity which generates evolution must be inherent in the world cause. And this cause is Prakrti (karyatah Pravrttescha)
• The effects differ from the cause and hence the limited effect cannot be regarded as its own cause. The effect is the explicit and the cause is the implicit stage of the same process. The effects, therefore, point to world cause where they are potentially contained. (Karanakaryavibhagat)
• The unity of the universe points to a single cause. And his cause is Prakrti (Avibhagat Vaishvarupyasaya)

Answer : Out of two co-eternal realities of samkhya, one is purusa the principal of pure consciousness. Purussa is the soul, the self, the spirit, the subject and the knower. It is neither body nor senses nor brain nor mind nor ego nor intellect (buddhi). It is not a substance which possesses the quality of consciousness. Consciousness is its essence. It is itself pure and transcendental consciousness. It is the ultimate knower which is the foundation of all knowledge. It is the pure subject and as such can never become an object of knowledge. It is the silent witness the emancipated alone, the neutral seer, the peaceful eternal. It is beyond time and space, beyond change and activity. It is self luminous and self proved. Unlike Advaita Vedanta and like Jainism and Mimamsa, Samkhya believes in the plurality of the Pursusa. Like the jive of the jainas, the soul of Ramanjua and the monad of Leibnitz, the Samkhya Pursua is subject to qualitative monism and quantitative pluralism. The selves are all essentially alike; only numerically are they different. Their essence is consciousness. Bliss is regarded as different from consciousness and is the product of the Sattavaguna. Samkhya gives the following three arguments for proving the plurality of the Purusa:

• The souls have different sensory and motor organs and undergo separate births and deaths. Had there been only one Purusa, the birth or death of one should have meant the birth or death of all and any particular experience of pleasure, pain or indifference by one should have been equally shared by all. Hence the souls must be many.
• If the self were one, bondage of one should have meant bondage of all and liberation of one should have meant liberation of all. The activity of one should have made all persons active and the sleep of one should have lulled into sleep all other persons.
• Though the emancipated souls are all alike and differ only in number as they are all beyond the three gunas, yet the bound souls relatively differ in qualities also, since in some sattava predominates, while in others rajas, and in still others tamas. Hence their difference.

Answer : According to Samkhya philosophy a real transformation of the material cause leads to the concept of Prakriti as the root cause of the world of objects. All worldly effects are latent in this uncaused cause, because infinite regress has to be avoided. It is the potentiality of nature, the receptacle and nurse of all generation. As the uncaused root cause, it is called Prakrti as the first principle of this universe, it is called Pradhana; as the unmanifested state of all effects, it is known as Avyakta, as the extremely subtle and imperceptible thing which is only inferred from its products, it is called Ahnumana, as the unintelligent and unconscious principle, it is called jada and as the ever active unlimited power, it is called shakti. The products are caused, dependent, relative, many and temporary as they are subject to birth and death or to production and destruction, but Prakrti is uncaused independent, absolute one and eternal being beyond production and destruction.

The extreme subtleness to Prakrti makes it unmanifest and imperceptible; we inter its existence through its products. Motion is inherent in it in the form of rajas as the source of the implicit in the bosom of Prakirti. Evolution is explicit manifestation of this world of objects while dissolution is the returning of this world to Prakrti. Samkhya believes that consciousness cannot be regarded as the source of the inanimate world, as Vedanta and Mahayana believe because an intelligent principle cannot transform itself in the unintelligent world.

On the other hand, the material of the physical elements too cannot be regarded as the cause of this world, as charvaka, Nyaya and Vaishesika Jainism and Hinayana, Buddhism and Mimansa wrongly believe because they cannot explain the subtle products of matter like intellect mind and ago, and further because the unity of the universe indicates to a single cause while the atoms are scattered and many. Unintelligent unmanifest, uncaused, ever active, imperceptible, and eternal and one Prakrti is the final source of this world of objects which is implicitly and potentially contained in its bosom. There are five proofs given by the Samkhya philosophy for the existence of Prakrti. These are:

• All worldly things possess certain common characteristics by which they are capable of producing pleasure pain and indifference. Hence there must be a common source composed of three Gunas from which all wordly things arise.
• Things we see in this world are limited, dependent conditional and finite. The finite cannot be the cause of the universe. Logically we have to proceed from the finite to the infinite, from the limited to the unlimited, from the temporary to the permanent and from the many to one. And it is this infinite unlimited, eternal and all pervading Prakri which is the source of this universe.
• All effects arise from the activity of the potent cause. Evolution means the manifestation of the hitherto implicit as the explicit. The activity which generates evolution must be inherent in the world cause. And this cause is Prakrti.
• The effect differs from the cause and hence the limited effect cannot be regarded as its own cause. The effect is the explicit and the cause is the implicit state of the same process. The effects, therefore, point to a world cause where they are potentially contained.
• The unity of the universe points to a single cause. And this cause is Prakri.

Prakrti is said to be the unity of the three Gunas held in equilibrium. The three gunas are sattva, rajas and tamas. They are the constituents of Prakrti and through it of the worldly objects. Being subtle and imperceptible their existence is inferred from their effects pleasure, pain and indifference respectively. Although they are called Gunas, yet they are not ordinary qualities or attributes like the nyaya-vaishasika Guna. They then possess qualities like lighten activity, heaviness etc. They make up Prakrti which is nothing apart from them. They are not the qualities which the prakrti possesses; on the other hand they themselves constitute Prakrti. They are the factors or the constituents or the elements of Prakrti. They are called gunas because they are the elements of Prakrti which alone is called substantive or because they are subservient to the ends of the Purus or because they are interwined like three strands, to make up the rope of Prakrti which binds the Purusas.

Sattva literally means real existent and is responsible for the manifestation of objects in consciousness. Rajas which literally means foulness, is the principle of motion. Tamas refers to darkness, is the principle of inertia. Its colour is dark. These three gunas which constitute Prakrti are never separate. They conflict and yet cooperate with one another and are always found intermingled. They are imperceptible and are inferred from their effects. All things are composed of these three gunas and their differences are due to the different combination of these gunas. The nature of the things is determined by the preponderance of a particular guna. Things are called good, bad or indifferent, intelligent active or youthful, pure or impure on account of the predominance of Sattva, rajas or tamas respectively. When these gunas are held in a state of equilibrium, that state is called Prakrti. Evolution of worldly objects does not take place at this state. These gunas are said to be ever changing. They cannot remain static even for a movement.

The change is said to be of two kinds, homogenous or sarupaparinam and heterogenous or virupa parinam. During the state of dissolution of the world, the gunas change homogenously i.e., sattva changes into sattva rajas and into rajas and tamas ino tamas. This change does not disturb the equilibrium of the gunas and unless the equilibrium is disturbed and one predominates over the other two, evolution cannot take place. This is the conception of Prakrti in Samkhya Philosophy which plays key role in the evolution.