125 - Purusha and Prakriti| Swami Tattwamayananda

Title: Purusha and Prakriti<br /><br />13th Chapter: Verses 19, 20, 21, 22<br /><br />These verses deal with the Samkhya school of Indian philosophy. There are two main schools of thoughts in Indian philosophy. (1) Theistic schools which accept Vedic testimony and (2) Atheistic schools, which do care much for Vedic testimony. The six theistic schools were the Mimamsakas of Jaimini, Vedanta (Uttara Mimamsa of Badarayana), the Samkhya philosophy of Kapila, the Yoga of Patanjali, the Nyaya school of Gautama, and the Vaisheshika school of Kanada. The six aetheistic schools include the four schools of Buddhism, the Jaina philosophy, and the Indian materialists, called Charvakas. <br /><br />Samkhya school is silent about God. It talks about evolution. Its original exponent was Kapila. Later, a karika was written by Isvara Krishna.<br /><br />There are two fundamental categories in Samkhya. (1) Purusha, which is self-effulgent, eternal and inactive. (2) Prakriti, which is active but non-effulgent. The evolutes of Prakriti are Mahatattvam or cosmic intelligence, Ahamkara or ego-sense, the mind, the five senses of perception, the five senses of action, the five subtle elements and the five gross elements.<br /><br />Patanjali Yoga Sutras are a practical application of Samkhya. When we practice spiritual disciplines such as Yamas and Niyamas, we start our journey backwards (involution) towards our true spiritual identity as Purusha.<br /><br />The main idea of Samkhya is this - the entire universe comes from Prakriti and exists in Prakriti. The moment we understand that we are higher than this psycho-physical mechanism, that our true nature is Purusha, the evolutionary cycle comes to an end for us.<br /><br />Vedanta accepts ideas of Samkhya, such as the evolutes of Prakriti and its wonderful analysis of the human mind. However, it does not accept the conclusions of Samkhya.<br /><br />19th verse: “Know that Purusha and Prakriti are beginningless. All these evolutes and changes come into existence as a result of evolutio