The Samkhya System: A History of the Samkhya Philosophy c12.5

c12.5

The next topics discussed are the five Avidyās, the twenty-eight Aśaktis including the seventeen Atuṣṭis and Asiddhis, the nine Tuṣṭis, and the eight Siddhis. Then come the eight cardinal facts, Mūlikārthas, which are the existence, unity, purpose, and devotion to the interest of another of nature, the otherness from nature, the non-agency, and multiplicity of spirit, and the temporary union and separation of spirit and nature. The next two topics are the creation of benevolence, the production of the gross from the fine elements, and the Bhūtasarga, the divine creation in eight divisions, the animal and the vegetable creation in five, and the human creation in one. Bondage is then described as threefold, according as it is connected with belief in any of the evolvents as the highest reality, or with belief in a similar position as to the evolutes, such as is shown in devotion to objects of sense, and bondage by sacrificial gifts. This curious form of bondage arises when men through misconception give gifts to the priests, and is a distinct sign of hostility to the sacrifice, which is not seen in the Kārikā. Then come the three kinds of Mokṣa, release, arising from the increase of knowledge, the quieting of the senses, and lastly, as the outcome of the destruction of merit and demerit by these means, the destruction of the whole, producing the detachment of spirit from nature, and concentration of spirit upon itself. Then come three forms of proof, and finally the doctrine of misery, subdivided into three according as it is concerned with and arising from the body or mind, caused by others, or produced by fate. From this misery release can be obtained by the study of the Tattvasamāsa.