The Samkhya System: A History of the Samkhya Philosophy c11.49

c11.49

Nothing is more convincing proof of the close derivation of the Sāṃkhya from the orthodox doctrine of the Upaniṣads than the terms in which the attainment of release is described. In the system itself the doctrine of the bondage of spirit in nature is essential to explain the misery of existence, but at the same time it is admitted that there is no real bondage. No reason is given for the belief of spirit that it is bound, yet, as the bondage is unreal, it is clear that it must be produced by ignorance, since it is removed by knowledge, but this doctrine is not set out in the Kārikā, which on the contrary consistently treats the union of spirit and nature as a union for the final release of spirit. There is no conception of a development of spirit by its union with its opposite, resulting in a synthesis which is far more rich in content than the two factors involved: on the contrary, the connection of spirit with matter terminates with the withdrawal of spirit into a condition of absolute freedom, which must, however, at the same time be absolute nonentity. In following the doctrine of the Upaniṣads that true knowledge involves the denial of individuality, the Sāṃkhya system leads itself into the difficult position that it thus really denies the reality of its system of many spirits, since there can be no multiplicity without individuality to distinguish the several members of the group of spirits. In the Upaniṣads, on the contrary, the idea is justifiable, since the denial of individuality is due to the fact that all seeming individuals are really merely one single self. In the Upaniṣads, moreover, there is a real possibility of the binding of the self; whether the bonds be real or merely illusory, still in the first case they can be destroyed in the appropriate manner, and in the second the false belief can be removed by knowledge, but the Sāṃkhya denies any real connection whatever, and, while it therefore leaves it to be assumed that the apparent connection is caused by ignorance, it does not, like the Vedānta, elevate that ignorance into a metaphysical entity, thus leaving its existence even on the basis of the system unexplained.