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The Philosophy of the Upanishads c10.s5.t4: 4. Origin of the Doctrine of the Guṇas

The Philosophy of the Upanishads c10.s5.t4

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4. Origin of the Doctrine of the Guṇas

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The most characteristic feature of the Sâṅkhya system is the doctrine of the three *guṇas*, which depends upon the thought that the three forces that are active in the psychical organism, viz.—*sattvam, rajas* and *tamas* (which approaches the modern distinction of sensibility, irritability and reproduction) are also present in prakṛiti, and constitute its entire substance.² Novel as this doctrine appears on its first introduction in the S'vetâs'vatara Upanishad,¹ it yet depends upon older premisses. We begin accordingly with the verse S'vet. 4. 5:²—

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² The prakṛiti is in essence nothing but potentiality (therefore *avyaktam*), *i.e.* the aggregate of the three factors (*guṇa*, formed after *dviguṇa, triguṇa*, etc.,

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¹ 3, 4. 5, 5. 7, 6. 3–4, 6. 11, 6. 16.

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² = Mahânâr, 10. 5.

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The one she-goat, red and white and blackish,
Casts many young, which are fashioned like to her;
The one ram leaps on her in the ardour of love,
The other ram abandons her, his companion.

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That this verse expresses the fundamental thought of the Sânkhya doctrine is not open to question. The manifold relations of the many purushas to the one prakṛiti cannot be more effectively illustrated than by the manifold relations of the many rams to the one she-goat. Under these circumstances the reference of the description of the she-goat as "red, white and black" (*lohita-s'ukla-kṛiṣṇa*, according to the reading of S'ankara) to the three guṇas of which prakṛiti consists is inevitable. At the same time however these three expressions, both by the names themselves and by their order, which according to the Sânkhya doctrine ought to be different, point back to Chând. 6. 4, where everything in the universe is shown to consist of the three elements (which have proceeded from the one existing being), heat, water and food. There is present in all things (fire, sun, moon and lightning are given as examples) the red (*lohita*) heat, the white (*s'ukla*) water, and the black (*kṛiṣṇa*) food. The recurrence of these expressions in the same order in S'vet. 4. 5 proves that they are beyond question correctly referred by Bâdarâyaṇa and S'ankara³ to Chând. 6. 4. We must

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³ Sûtra 1. 4. 8–10.

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cp. *guṇayati*, to multiply), which are involved in all existing things; and all psychical organisms (*liṅga*) together with material nature (*bhûta*), which is merely their foil, are derived from the various combinations of these (*anyonya-abhibhava-âs'raya-janana-mithuna*). Everything that is is therefore a product of *sattvam* (joy, φιλία), *rajas* (pain, νεῖκος), and *tamas* (indifference, apathy).

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nevertheless agree with the opponent whom S'aṅkara introduces in referring the verse with the following words to the Sâṅkhya doctrine:—"In this verse by the words 'red and white and black' are to be understood rajas, sattvam and tamas. The red is rajas (emotion), because it naturally makes red (puts into agitation, rañjayati); the white is sattvam (essentiality, good), because it naturally makes bright; the black is tamas (darkness), because it naturally darkens. It is the equilibrium of these guṇas, which is described here according to the quality of the parts of which it consists as 'red and white and black.' And because this is primitive it is called ajâ (the she-goat, and also 'the unborn'), while the followers of the Sâṅkhya say of it,—'primeval nature creates, but is not created.'¹ . . . That primitive substance therefore brings forth many young endowed with the three guṇas; and of it is it said that the one unborn (or ram, ajâ), i.e. the one purusha, 'cherishes' (leaps upon) 'her in the ardour of love,' in inclination, attachment; while he in consequence of ignorance regards her as his own self, and accordingly from inability to distinguish looks upon himself as the vehicle of lust, indifference and blindness (which compose the essence of sattvam, rajas and tamas), and therefore remains ensnared in the migration of souls; while on the contrary another 'unborn,' i.e. a purusha, who has gained the knowledge of difference and is no longer attached to it ('it,' that is to say, the primeval substance), 'abandons' her, 'the companion,' whose enjoyment has come to an end; he therefore abandons her, that is to say, he is delivered from her."

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¹ Sâṅkhya-kârikâ 3.

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In this controversy both sides are right. The Vedântist, inasmuch as the verse unquestionably refers back to Chând. 6. 4; and the Sâṅkhyist, inasmuch as the three constituent elements, which according to Chând. 6. 2 proceed from the ‘one without a second,’ and of a mixture of which everything in the universe consists, have been psychologically transformed into the three guṇas. These three likewise are the primal elements, only that each of these primal elements has become the vehicle and expression of one of the three fundamental psychical forces which rule in our inner being. Since the word guṇa (factor) would apply equally well to the primal elements and the primal forces (there is implied in it nothing more than that everything which originates from the primeval substance is “threefold,” triguṇam); and since in all the passages of the S’vet. Up., in which it occurs for the first time,¹ it may very well be understood still as fundamental element in the sense of Chând. 6. 2, and the related verse S’vet. 4. 5, nothing prevents us from assuming that that transformation of the three primal elements into three primal forces,—or rather, the conception of each of the three primal elements as vehicle of a definite primal force,—has been first developed later on in direct connection with the above verse.² The process was completed with and by the introduction of the names sattvam, rajas and tamas, which in the sense here in question are not authenticated earlier than Maitr. 3. 5, 5. 2, etc.³

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¹ 3, 4. 5, 5. 7, 6. 3-4, 6. 11, 6. 16.

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² S’vet. 4. 5.

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³ On Atharvav. X. 8. 43, cp. Allgemeine Einleitung, p. 324.

Cites (7)