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The Third Lesson: The Sankhya System.1157
The Third Lesson: The Sankhya System.
In the great system of Hindu philosophy known as The Sankhya System, we
have one of the oldest forms of philosophical conceptions known in that
land of old systems of thought. While it is customary to ascribe to Kapila,
who lived about 700 b.c., the honour of having originated this great system
of thought, still Sanscrit scholars have discovered the fundamental portions
of Kapila’s teachings in the older writings of the race, and the probability is
that the teaching itself is many centuries older than Kapila, and that he merely
arranged the fragments of older systems into a clearly defined school of
philosophy, discarding the outside accumulations that had gathered around
the older teachings, and emphasizing certain fundamental principles that
had been overlooked. At any rate, traces of the teachings now known as the
Sankhya System may be found as far back as 2000 b.c., and the fundamental
conceptions probably run back still further. The term “Sankhya” means
“correct enumeration” or “perfect classification.”
The basic proposition of the Sankhya system is that there exists in the
universe two active principles, the interaction of which produces the activities
of the universe, including those of life—the play and interplay of the two
manifesting in countless forms, combinations and infinite variety. These two
principles are known as (1) Prakriti, or the primordial substance or energy,