The Samkhya System: A History of the Samkhya Philosophy c12.24

c12.24

While the attempt of Vijñānabhikṣu could not expect to result in the establishment of the authority of the Sāṃkhya as a system, the influence of that philosophy may doubtless be traced directly in the free admission of elements of the Sāṃkhya into the texts of the later Vedānta. This interfusion of Vedānta and Sāṃkhya elements is seen in the *Bhagavadgītā*, but the doctrine of Guṇas was distinctly repudiated by Śaṃkara, and its reappearance in texts, which accept his general principles and believe in the illusory character of the world, is a clear proof that the reasoning of the Sāṃkhya was felt to have great weight. Of this syncretist tendency, which is seen clearly in the *Pañcadaśī* of Mādhava in the fourteenth century A.D., the classical example is to be found in the *Vedāntasāra* of Sadānanda, a work written before 1500 A.D. Sadānanda identifies, as in the *Svetāśvatara Upaniṣad*, the Māyā, or Avidyā, of the Vedānta with the Prakṛti of the Sāṃkhya, and by accepting the view that Prakṛti is composed of three elements obtains the means of fitting much of the Sāṃkhya system into the Vedānta. From Brahman, who is regarded by him as essentially Caitanya, or spirit, is produced through envelopment with ignorance in its constituent of Sattva the world-spirit, Īśvara, whose causal body out of which he creates all things is composed by the whole of ignorance. On the other hand, from the Caitanya through envelopment with Sattva in an impure form, that is mixed with the constituents, Rajas and Tamas, arises the individual spirit, Prājña, which has as its causal body out of which it creates individuation, etc., and is composed of only a part of ignorance. A further result of envelopment is the creation of the world soul, Sūtrātman, and the individual soul, Taijasa, from the world-spirit and the individual spirit, by the production, through the effect of the constituent Tamas, of the fine body. From the Caitanya enveloped by ignorance through the predominance of Tamas arises the ether, from the ether, wind; from wind, fire; from fire, water; and from water, earth. In each of these elements, however, which are only in a fine state, there is a portion of the constituents Rajas and Sattva as well as of Tamas. From these five Tanmātras arise the fine body, consisting of five organs of perception produced from the Sattva portions of the corresponding five elements, of five organs of action arising from the Rajas portions of the elements, of intelligence and mind consisting of united portions of Sattva from the elements, and of the five breaths, consisting of united portions of Rajas from the five elements. In intelligence and mind spirit, Citta, and individuation are held to be included, and in this respect, as in the giving of an independent position to the five breaths, the Sāmkhya doctrine is abandoned. Similarly, in the view of the production of the elements from each other in a series, Sadānanda follows the Taittirīya Upaniṣad (ii, 1) and not the Sāmkhya. On the other hand, the development of the gross world body and the individual body, Vaiśvānara and Viśva, takes place according to the Sāmkhya rule of five elements, not according to the Vedānta rule of three.