Alike in the Bhagavad-Gita and in the Yoga-sutras of Patanjali the
terms are Samkhyan, and historically Yoga is based on the Samkhya, so
far as its philosophy is concerned. Samkhya does not concern itself
with, the existence of Deity, but only with the becoming of a universe,
the order of evolution. Hence it is often called Nir-isvara Samkhya,
the Samkhya without God. But so closely is it bound up with the Yoga
system, that the latter is called Sesvara Samkhya, with God. For its
understanding, therefore, I must outline part of the Samkhya
philosophy, that part which deals with the relation of Spirit and
matter; note the difference from this of the Vedantic conception of
Self and Not-Self, and then find the reconciliation in the Theosophic
statement of the facts in nature. The directions which fall from the
lips of the Lord of Yoga in the Gita may sometimes seem to you opposed
to each other and contradictory, because they sometimes are phrased in
the Samkhyan and sometimes in the Vedantic terms, starting from
different standpoints, one looking at the world from the standpoint of
matter, the other from the standpoint of Spirit. If you are a student
of Theosophy, then the knowledge of the facts will enable you to
translate the different phrases. That reconciliation and understanding
of these apparently contradictory phrases is the object to which I
would ask your attention now.
The Samkhyan School starts with the statement that the universe
consists of two factors, the first pair of opposites, Spirit and
Matter, or more accurately Spirits and Matter. The Spirit is called
Purusha—the Man; and each Spirit is an individual. Purusha is a unit, a
unit of consciousness; they are all of the same nature, but distinct
everlastingly the one from the other. Of these units there are many;
countless Purushas are to be found in the world of men. But while they
are countless in number they are identical in nature, they are
homogeneous. Every Purusha has three characteristics, and these three
are alike in all. One characteristic is awareness; it will become
cognition. The second of the characteristics is life or prana; it will
become activity. The third characteristic is immutability, the essence
of eternity; it will become will. Eternity is not, as some mistakenly
think, everlasting time. Everlasting time has nothing to do with
eternity. Time and eternity are two altogether different things.
Eternity is changeless, immutable, simultaneous. No succession in time,
albeit everlasting—if such could be—could give eternity. The fact that
Purusha has this attribute of immutability tells us that He is eternal;
for changelessness is a mark of the eternal.
Such are the three attributes of Purusha, according to the Samkhya.
Though these are not the same in nomenclature as the Vedantic Sat,
Chit, Ananda, yet they are practically identical. Awareness or
cognition is Chit; life or force is Sat; and immutability, the essence
of eternity, is Ananda.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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