The Samkhya System: A History of the Samkhya Philosophy c11.8

c11.8

According to the Kārikā the end of the Sāṃkhya philosophy is to discover the means of removing the threefold misery of the world, that is, the commentators explain, the sorrows brought on us by ourselves, those brought by others, and those inflicted by fate. The removal of misery cannot be achieved either empirically or by devotion to religious practises. Good fortune on earth is perishable, and moreover it is not positive pleasure but freedom from misery that the wise man seeks. The practice of religion, again, is insufficient; the performance of sacrifice not only involves the slaying of victims which offends against the rule of non-injury, but the rewards of such actions are transitory, and the performer must fall back again, after the enjoyment of the fruit of his deeds in yonder world, into an earthly existence: moreover, the result of such actions leads to positive pleasure,* not to the freedom from pain which is the ideal of the sage.