The Samkhya System: A History of the Samkhya Philosophy c11.21

c11.21

The arguments put forward for the existence of spirit are that the aggregate of nature must exist for the sake of something, that there must be something to be the presiding power for which the evolution of the universe takes place, that there must be a subject to experience the three constituents of the universe, that the development of the world proceeds for the sake of the emancipation of something, and that something must exist with qualities opposed to those of the universe. Further, it is deduced that there must be many spirits, since experience shows us separate birth and death, separate organs and different actions, and, further, spirit must be the reverse of nature, which is essentially one and the same to all. Similarly, by reason of the same contrast, spirit is the subject, not the object, it reaches and possesses freedom because of its power of discerning the difference between itself and nature: it is conscious, as against unconscious nature; it is without participation in activity in any form, and, unlike nature, produces nothing. Nevertheless, the empiric self is explained only by the union of spirit with nature: through this union the fine body which is a product of nature becomes, though itself without consciousness, conscious. On the other hand, though the constituents alone possess activity by reason of the uniting with spirit, spirit, really indifferent, appears as an actor. But the conjunction of the two is essentially not intended to be permanent: it is, in fact, like the union of a blind man with a lame man: spirit joins forces with nature in order that nature may be revealed to spirit, and that spirit may obtain freedom from its connection with nature.