Samkhya
Samkhya or Sankhya is a dualistic orthodox school of Hindu philosophy. It views reality as composed of two independent principles, Puruṣa and Prakṛti.
Puruṣa is the witness-consciousness. It is absolute, independent, free, beyond perception, above any experience by mind or senses, and impossible to describe in words.
Prakṛti is matter or nature. It is active, unconscious, and is a balance of the three guṇas, namely Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas. When Prakṛti comes into contact with Puruṣa this balance is disturbed, and Prakṛti becomes manifest, evolving twenty-three tattvas, namely intellect, I-principle, mind ; the five sensory capacities known as ears, skin, eyes, tongue and nose; the five action capacities known as hands, feet, speech, anus, and genitals ; and the five "subtle elements" or "modes of sensory content", from which the five "gross elements" or "forms of perceptual objects" emerge, in turn giving rise to the manifestation of sensory experience and cognition.
Jiva is the state in which Puruṣa is bonded to Prakṛti. Human experience is an interplay of the two, Puruṣa being conscious of the various combinations of cognitive activities. The end of the bondage of Puruṣa to Prakṛti is called Moksha or Kaivalya.
Samkhya's epistemology accepts three of six Pramaṇas as the only reliable means of gaining knowledge, as does yoga.
These are Pratyakṣa, Anumāṇa and Śabda. Sometimes described as one of the rationalist schools of Indian philosophy, it relies exclusively on reason.
While Samkhya-like speculations can be found in the Rig Veda and some of the older Upanishads, some western scholars have proposed that Samkhya may have non-Vedic origins, developing in ascetic milieus. Proto-Samkhya ideas developed c. 8th/7th BC and onwards, as evidenced in the middle Upanishads, the Buddhacharita, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Mokshadharma-section of the Mahabharata. It was related to the early ascetic traditions and meditation, spiritual practices, and religious cosmology, and methods of reasoning that result in liberating knowledge that end the cycle of Duḥkha and rebirth allowing for "a great variety of philosophical formulations". Pre-Karika systematic Samkhya existed around the beginning of the first millennium CE. The defining method of Samkhya was established with the Samkhyakarika.
Samkhya might have been theistic or nontheistic, but with its classical systematization in the early first millennium CE, the existence of a deity became irrelevant. Samkhya is strongly related to the Yoga school of Hinduism, for which it forms the theoretical foundation, and it has influenced other schools of Indian philosophy.
Etymology
Sāṃkhya or sāṅkhya, also transliterated as samkhya and sankhya, respectively, is a Sanskrit word that, depending on the context, means 'to reckon, count, enumerate, calculate, deliberate, reason, reasoning by numeric enumeration, relating to number, rational'. In the context of ancient Indian philosophies, Samkhya refers to the philosophical school in Hinduism based on systematic enumeration and rational examination.The word samkhya means 'empirical' or 'relating to numbers'. Although the term had been used in the general sense of metaphysical knowledge before, in technical usage it refers to the Samkhya school of thought that evolved into a cohesive philosophical system in early centuries CE. The Samkhya system is called so because 'it "enumerates'" twenty five Tattvas or true principles; and its chief object is to effect the final emancipation of the twenty-fifth Tattva, i.e. the Puruṣa or soul'.
Philosophy
''Puruṣa'' and ''Prakṛti''
Samkhya makes a distinction between two "irreducible, innate and independent realities", Puruṣa, the witness-consciousness, and Prakṛti, "matter", the activities of mind and perception. According to Dan Lusthaus,Puruṣa is considered as the conscious principle, a passive enjoyer and the Prakṛti is the enjoyed. Samkhya believes that the puruṣa cannot be regarded as the source of inanimate world, because an intelligent principle cannot transform itself into the unconscious world. It is a pluralistic spiritualism, atheistic realism and uncompromising dualism.
''Puruṣa'' – witness-consciousness
Puruṣa is the witness-consciousness. It is absolute, independent, free, imperceptible, unknowable through other agencies, above any experience by mind or senses and beyond any words or explanations. It remains pure, "nonattributive consciousness". Puruṣa is neither produced nor does it produce. No appellations can qualify Puruṣa, nor can it be substantialized or objectified. It "cannot be reduced, can't be 'settled'". Any designation of Puruṣa comes from Prakṛti, and is a limitation. Unlike Advaita Vedanta, and like Purva-Mīmāṃsā, Samkhya believes in plurality of the Puruṣas. However, while being multiple, Puruṣas are considered non-different because their essential attributes are the same.''Prakṛti'' - cognitive processes
Prakṛti is the first cause of the world of our experiences. Since it is the first principle of the universe, it is called the pradhāna, but, as it is the unconscious and unintelligent principle, it is also called the jaḍa. It is composed of three essential characteristics. These are:- Sattva – poise, fineness, lightness, illumination, and joy;
- Rajas – dynamism, activity, excitation, and pain;
- Tamas – inertia, coarseness, heaviness, obstruction, and sloth.
All Prakṛti has these three guṇas in different proportions. Each guṇa is dominant at specific times of day. The interplay of these guṇa defines the character of someone or something, of nature and determines the progress of life. The Samkhya theory of guṇa was widely discussed, developed and refined by various schools of Indian philosophies. Samkhya's philosophical treatises also influenced the development of various theories of Hindu ethics.
Thought processes and mental events are conscious only to the extent they receive illumination from Puruṣa. In Samkhya, consciousness is compared to light which illuminates the material configurations or 'shapes' assumed by the mind. So intellect, after receiving cognitive structures from the mind and illumination from pure consciousness, creates thought structures that appear to be conscious. Ahamkara, the ego or the phenomenal self, appropriates all mental experiences to itself and thus, personalizes the objective activities of mind and intellect by assuming possession of them. But consciousness is itself independent of the thought structures it illuminates.
Liberation or ''mokṣa''
Samkhya school considers moksha as a natural quest of every jiva. The Samkhyakarika states,Samkhya regards ignorance as the root cause of suffering and bondage. Samkhya states that the way out of this suffering is through knowledge. Mokṣa, states Samkhya school, results from knowing the difference between Prakṛti and Puruṣa. More specifically, the Puruṣa that has attained liberation is to be distinguished from a Puruṣa that is still bound on account of the liberated Puruṣa being free from its subtle body, in which is located the mental dispositions that individuates it and causes it to experience bondage.
Puruṣa, the eternal pure consciousness, due to ignorance, identifies itself with products of Prakṛti such as intellect and ego. This results in endless transmigration and suffering. However, once the realization arises that Puruṣa is distinct from Prakṛti, is more than empirical ego, and that puruṣa is deepest conscious self within, the Self gains isolation and freedom.
Though in conventional terms the bondage is ascribed to the Puruṣa, this is ultimately a mistake. This is because the Samkhya school maintains that it is actually Prakṛti that binds itself, and thus bondage should in reality be ascribed to Prakṛti, not to the Puruṣa:
Vacaspati gave a metaphorical example to elaborate the position that the Puruṣa is only mistakenly ascribed bondage: although the king is ascribed victory or defeat, it is actually the soldiers that experience it. It is then not merely that bondage is only mistakenly ascribed to the Puruṣa, but that liberation is like bondage, wrongly ascribed to the Puruṣa and should be ascribed to Prakṛti alone.
Other forms of Samkhya teach that Mokṣa is attained by one's own development of the higher faculties of discrimination achieved by meditation and other yogic practices. Moksha is described by Samkhya scholars as a state of liberation, where sattva guṇa predominates.