The Samkhya System: A History of the Samkhya Philosophy c12.25

c12.25

At the same time it must be noted that the influence of the Sāmkhya is clearly limited in extent: the whole system of four states, Brahman, Īśvara and Prājña, Sūtrātman and Taijasa, Vaiśvānara and Viśva, is based on the Vedānta view of the four conditions of the self, in its conditions of freedom from bondage, deep sleep, dreaming, and waking, respectively, as set out in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad (iv, 3-4), the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad (3-5), and in a developed form in the Nṛsimhottaratāpanīya Upaniṣad. It is, however, possible that in the care taken to insist on the cosmic character of the process, which in the earlier Upaniṣads is expressly restricted to the states of the individual souls, there may be seen the influence of the Sāṃkhya, with its insistence on the cosmic character of the development of Prakṛti, and, despite the constant variation of detail, the importance of the Guṇas in the system is obvious.