The Samkhya System: A History of the Samkhya Philosophy c12.4

c12.4

After an enumeration and explanation of the twenty-five principles, arranged as the eight evolvents, nature, intellect, individuation, and the five fine elements; the sixteen evolutes, arranged as the five organs of perception, the five organs of action, mind and the five gross elements; and spirit, the tract proceeds to enumerate the three Guṇas and to explain their nature. Then come brief explanations of the process of evolution and the resolution of the evolved going from nature to the material elements, and from the material elements back to nature. Thereafter the intellect, individuation, mind and the ten senses are set out as psychical and subjective over against the objects of their activity and the presiding deities, a concept which is decidedly more at home in the Vedānta than in the Sāṃkhya. Then come the five Abhibuddhis, which are forms of the activity of intellect, ascertainment, self-reference, desire, will to act and action, terms of somewhat doubtful sense and import. Then come the five Karmayonis, sources of action, enumerated as energy, faith, desire of bliss, carelessness and desire of knowledge, but also differently explained. The next topic is the five winds or vital airs, Prāṇa, expiration connected with the mouth and nose; Apāna, connected with the navel which draws downwards; Samāna, connected with the heart which moves equally about, and which has been compared, though doubtlessly erroneously, with the circulation of the blood; Udāna is connected with the throat and goes upward: Vyāna is the all-pervader. The presence of these five as a special topic is in contrast with the view of the Kārikā, which does not accept the vital airs as anything more than the joint working of mind and the organs. After the vital airs come the five Karmātmans, which are descriptions of the activity of the self: they are Vaikārika, the doer of good works; Taijasa, the doer of bad works; Bhūtādi, doer of hidden works; Sānumāna, the doer of what is reasonable; and Niranumāna, the doer of what is not reasonable.