The Samkhya System: A History of the Samkhya Philosophy c5.30

c5.30

The human body with its nine orifices is clearly meant by the flower with nine doors, but the three strands present difficulties. The meaning "quality" is not proved for early Vedic literature, occurring first in the Sūtras, and the sense must therefore be assumed to be constituent or something similar, the reference being probably to the hair, skin and nails. If the reference is to be taken as to the constituents in the sense of the Guṇas of the Sāṃkhya philosophy,[*] it is clear that the expression is inaccurate, since the three constituents make up nature, and the passage would say that the body was covered with nature, instead of consisting of nature. An attempt[†] to find in the same hymn (x, 8, 39, 40) a reference to the doctrine of the ages of the world, there being periodic destruction and reproduction, cannot be regarded as proved, though in any case it would not be of any value as proof of the existence of the Sāṃkhya, since the idea is common to all the systems.