While we discuss these things, we should keep in mind that we are talking about a time period when many of the major world religions of today did not even exist. When even the concept of God was not a matter of mere faith but something that had to pass through the rigors of logic and reasoning. The people in those times too had their scriptures, but they did not accept anything with closed eyes. They questioned everything, even the God!
One of the prominent contenders in those days, the one who prided themselves as intellectuals, were the Samkhyas. They firmly believed that all questions can be answered using logic and reasoning. They may be the first in the Indian scenario who developed a detailed theory on existence of the universe, the root cause of our miseries, and a way out of that.
It is generally believed that this school of thought was started by the ancient Vedic saint Kapila. A long series of successors - Aasuri, Pancashikha, and so on, followed. Though the mention of their names and ideas can be found in ancient Indian philosophic literature, not much of their written compositions are available to us today. The earliest available composition is that of Ishwara Krishna who belonged to 1st or 2nd century A.D. This work in fact, merely summarizes the work of his predecessors.
Vedic philosophers generally revered many of the Samkhya concepts but vehemently opposed some of their views which they considered to be anti-Vedic. The well known Advaita philosopher Sankara called the Samkhya as Pradhana Malla – a pun which meant ‘the primary wrestler’ as well as ‘the opponent who harps on the concept of Pradhana or primordial substance’. What was the cause for this difference?
Before we get into that, let us first listen to the Samkhya side of the story.
The Samkhyas claimed that they can explain the entire existence – the universe and diverse beings in it including humans, the primary cause of our misery, a way out of all these misery, and final salvation. They were not making that claim because they had a book that was dictated by God himself. But they said anyone can arrive at all these truths merely by logical deduction. In fact, they said that the concept of God was not even needed to explain all these things.
Quite interesting! They seem to obsolete even our most modern rationalists and thinkers 😊!
What was their world view?
Samkhya said that there were two types of basic entities in the ‘beginning’. One was the insentient primordial substance called Pradhana. And the other was a set of souls that were sentient but lacked the means to perform any action. According to the Samkhya, this Pradhana was not even a substance but an abstract equilibrium state of three forces – luminance, motion and inertia. They called these forces as Satva, Rajas and Tamas. In their primordial state these three forces cancelled each other and as a result there was complete ‘nonexistence’.
For some unknown reason, this equilibrium state was disturbed and this Pradhana multiplied itself into various forms depending on how these three forces combined with each other. The first thing that emerged from this combination was the so called Mahat or Buddhi which was a repository of intelligence. This Buddhi gave rise to Ahankara or the ‘I’ consciousness. Buddhi also gave rise to Manas or the Mind. So, we have a base that can host life as we know it.
But all these material things are insentient. They can cause feelings and emotions, but they themselves cannot feel them. They can perform action but they lack the free will to get into action. They are mere ‘objects’. We need ‘subjects’ that make them work.
Now come the souls that are sentient but lack the means to perform action. They need a mechanism to act. So, these souls get associated with the ‘bodies’ formed out of Prakrti or matter and together they formed a ‘sentient being’. These sentient beings can sense, act, think as well as experience in the world so created. As Samkhya poetically terms this conjunction, it is a marriage between a blind and a lame person. The lame person can see but cannot move around, while the blind person can move around but can’t see a thing.
If the blind person carries the lame person on his shoulders, together they are self sufficient since they can act as well as see. Obviously, the material body is the blind person in this metaphor, since it is insentient. And the soul is the lame person who is sentient but unable to perform any action without the help of the body.
Why do these body and soul come together? It has two purposes. Normally, the body enables the soul to enjoy the world around as much as the soul wants. And finally, when the soul had enough of this enjoyment, it is the same body that helps the soul to break this marriage, making the soul free once again!
If that is the case, why is there misery in this world? The reason is that the interaction with material things have the side effect not only of producing pleasure but also pain as well. Pleasure and pain are two sides of the same coin. The material things being insentient can neither experience this pleasure nor the pain. But the sentient soul that has tagged itself on with the material body can. That is the reason why the being suffers.
How does the being come out of this suffering? The moment the soul ‘realizes’ that it is not the body but an ever-blissful soul, it detaches itself from the body and once again becomes blissful. That is the end of all suffering.
In a single stroke the Samkhya not only explains how the material world came into existence, how the beings in the world appeared, but also how and why they undergo pleasure and pain and a way to their final deliverance from all suffering. As Samkhya rightly asks – where is the need for any God in that case?
This in nutshell was the philosophy of the Samkhya which was totally arrived at using reasoning alone without any faith involved – at least that is what they claim.
What was the rebuttal of the Brahma supporters for this strong claim of Samkhya which makes their idea of Brahma irrelevant? How does Badarayana fight back his case?
We will see that in the next episode.
A series on ancient Indian composition Brahma Sutra. © Dr. King, Swami Satyapriya 2020-21
No comments:
Post a Comment