In ancient India the vedas were considered supreme source of Knowledge but they were very hard to understand so some people made some vedik darshan(the way to look at vedas). There were some nastik(Atheist) darshans too. In that time nastik(Atheist) was not a person who doesn’t believe in supreme God but a Atheist was someone who doesn’t follow vedas. In vedas there are many darshans which doesn’t belived in god but still they were considered aastik(theist) because they do believed in vedas and today I am going to discuss one of those darshan here. Always remember these are pointers(like the finger pointing to sun) but you have to look at sun in the same way this knowledge will point towards Apavarga(liberation or the complete cessation of pain and suffering).
There are six vedic darshans here we will talk about the first one called samkhya by Sage Kapila.
The core concept of smakhya is satkaryavaad…
Satkaryavaad means that an effect (karya) is already present in its cause (karana) before it is manifested.
For example if a tree is something different from it’s cause(seed) then it would not need seed to come in Existence and if it’s not in the cause then from where does a tree came into Existence. Soo a tree is present in the seed in potential form and that is called satkaryavaad.
Satkaryavaad says that there are two types of cause(karan)
1 - nimitt karan (intelligent cause)
2 - upaDana karan (material cause)
For understanding this we will take the example of potter and clay. The potter is nimitt karan(who made it) of pot and clay is upadana karan(what’s it made up of) of pot. The Kapil muni also says that by seeing a effect we can conclude that there was a cause and there can be or cannot be a intelligent cause of something but if you are seeing the effect then the material cause(what it is made up of) is there.
And that’s why it is a darshan which doesn’t believe in God( nimitt karan) but they believe in prakriti( Upadana karan).
The word prakriti means the one which came before kriti(effect). Like clay is the prakriti of pot and wood is the prakriti of table or bed.
The samkhya also says that the qualities of a cause should be present in the effect so if we only sees a effect we can know how the cause was by seeing the effect.
For example by seeing a mango tree we can know that the seed was of mango even if we have not seen the seed but because the qualities of cause are present in effect so we can find out the qualities of cause And from here the samkhya darshan starts…
There are 2 main tatvas(the essence or thatness) in samkhya…
1 - Purusha (The witness , unchangeable , Self, Permanent).
2 - Prakriti (Changable, Permanent, the one who got witnessed).
Samkhya says when the purusha comes in contact with Prakriti the play starts and Prakriti creates another 23 tatvas.
So now there are total 25 tatvas(essences)
The Tattvas
In the Samkhya doctrine there are 25 Tattvas:
- Purusha (Transcendental Self, The witnesser, The light , The knower)
- The uncreated (unmanifest) Prakriti (primordial nature)
- Mahat/Buddhi (fundamental principle that represents the collective attributes of creation, cosmic evolution)
- Ahamkara (ego, consciousness of self,sense of subjective selfhood)
- Manas (mind, can know and perform action)
6-10. The five sense-organs(can know)
11-15. The five motor-organs(can perform action)
16-20. The five tanmatra (the irreducible, the smallest part one can cut a experience into, known) - very interesting
21-25. The five gross elements(known)
Tattvas 3-25 evolve from primordial nature. All of the Tattvas account for the totality of the unverse as a whole, and each individual human being.
All darshans in India had only one goal which was liberation from suffering.
Samkhya says that the reason for all suffering is avidya(ignorance). The Ignorance in samkhya is caused by not knowing who we are and identifying with the tatvas of prakriti. And the removel of this avidya(ignorance or identification with Prakriti) can only happen when we get vidya(knowing our true self).
For this samkhya uses buddhi/mahat. By developing viveka(distinguish between what’s true and what’s false) we can Discard what’s false and know the purusha which you are , which I am
I would like to end this with a beautiful hymn from Rigveda(the first veda)…
पुरुष एवेदं सर्वं यद्भूतं यच्च भव्यम् ।
उतामृतत्वस्येशानो यदन्नेनातिरोहति ॥२॥
Translation:-
The purusha is indeed all this (creation) in essence; that which existed in the past, and that which will exist in the future, everything i.e the whole creation is woven by the immortal essence of the great lord (purusha); by becoming food of which (i.e. by getting consumed in whose immortal essence through surrender) one transcends the gross world and becomes immortal.