The Samkhya System: A History of the Samkhya Philosophy c11.28

c11.28

These difficulties come out in great prominence in the effort to deduce the evolution of nature for the sake of spirit. From nature arises the great one, often called intellect, Buddhi; then arises individuation, Ahamkāra; thence come the five organs of perception, Buddhindriya; the five organs of action, Karmendriya, and the five fine elements, Tanmātras; from the five elements arise the five gross elements, Mahābhūtas, and from them the world. The series up to the five gross elements, including nature itself, number twenty-four, and with spirit as twenty-fifth make up the principles of the system. The first, nature, is evolvent only: the rest, save the gross elements, are evolved and evolvent, the gross elements are evolved, and spirit is neither evolvent or evolved, but this distinction is of no weight for the system. The series is in all probability of historical origin, as it finds, as we have seen, an analogue in the Katha Upanisad, and perhaps for this reason its deduction is full of difficulty.