The Samkhya System: A History of the Samkhya Philosophy c11.29

c11.29

The essential conception is that from unconscious nature there is developed for the sake of spirit a whole universe, that the development takes place for each individual spirit separately, but yet at the same time in such a manner that nature and its evolutes are common to all spirits. The question, how nature, consisting of the equilibrium of the three constituents, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, can be brought into activity at all remains unsolved: it is illustrated by the simile of the unconscious milk which flows to nourish the calf, yet nature is said to proceed for the freedom of spirit as men proceed to bring to cessation their desires. But nature is essentially other than spirit: it is not, as in the Vedānta, a production of ignorance, but is as real as spirit itself, though it is only under the influence of union with spirit that it evolves itself. But for that union the constituents, though credited with the power of action, would not alter from their condition of equilibrium.