The Samkhya System: A History of the Samkhya Philosophy c7.10

c7.10

In addition to the exposition of the fundamental principle of the Sāṃkhya, the difference between the subject and the object, there is found already in the epic many of the elements which make up the classical system. Nature is repeatedly declared to consist of three constituents, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, which are called Guṇas, a term found in the Upaniṣads not before the late Maitrāyaṇī (iv, 3; v, 2). In the Anugītā stress is laid on the fact that these three constituents are present throughout all things, though in different degree. The three Guṇas are often regarded as the fetters of the souls, since they represent nature, and one division of men given in xii, 348, presents us with the three classes of Sāttvikas in which the quality of goodness prevails, Vyāmiśras in whom the Rajas and Tamas, desire and indifference, elements are mixed with goodness, and the Vaikārikas, in whom the quality of indifference prevails throughout, and who, indeed, with a natural inconsistence from the normal doctrine, are declared to be devoid of any portion of goodness. A doctrine of the classic Sāṃkhya occurs not rarely, according to which the qualities of goodness, desire and indifference are characteristic of the worlds of the gods, of men and of beasts and plants, respectively, and the Anugītā (xiv, 36-38) distinguishes three classes of beings according as through goodness they advance upwards to the world of the gods, or through desire remain in the world of men, or through indifference descend to the world of beasts and plants.