The Samkhya System: A History of the Samkhya Philosophy c7.6

c7.6

But in addition to this view, in which we have still all derived from one principle, there arises to prominence the view that nature is other than the self, which in this aspect begins to receive frequently the designation of spirit, Puruṣa, though it is still conceived as cosmic. Thus we learn that nature creates, but under the control of spirit (xii, 314, 12), or that spirit impels to activity the creative elements, and is therefore akin to them (xii, 315, 8). The question of the unity of spirit and reality is expressly stated and denied in the Anugītā (xiv, 48, 6), and elsewhere (xii, 222, 15, 16) it is expressly stated that all activity rests in nature, that spirit is never active and that it is merely delusion when spirit considers itself active, and it is made clear that spirit is not one only. The distinction of spirit as inactive and nature as all-productive is recognized in the Bhagavadgītā (vi, 37, 19, 29), and is often emphasized, though in other places the idea is found that while creation and destruction are the work of nature, still nature is really an emanation from the spirit, into which it resolves itself from time to time (xii, 303, 31ff).