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A Series of Lessons on the Inner Teachings of the Philosophies and Religions of India1166
senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, etc., so as to be sensed by the senseorgans.
And the Purushas lost their original and primitive state of pure
being, losing their original freedom as they became enmeshed in the web
of Prakriti—becoming slaves to the senses, as they yielded to the caressing
seduction of material manifestation. Prakriti in its original state was subtle,
ethereal, diffused, tenuous, and without the qualities that are registered by
sense—it could not respond to sense, nor could it arouse sense. Purusha in
its original state was free from desire or attachment, and devoid of qualities,
attributes, action, or attachment, as we understand these words in their
material sense.
The Sankhyas hold that because of these changes it is almost impossible
for the individual mind to now grasp the nature of the original Prakriti, or
to even imagine the state of excellence of Purusha before it yielded to the
seduction of material existence. But they hold, by means of true knowledge
and scientific reasoning, in addition to right living and detachment from
passion, the mind can be brought to a state of understanding whereby it
may grasp the nature of the Purusha original state, and the true nature of
Prakriti. And this knowledge is one of the ways of Liberation and Freedom
sought by the Sankhyas—the road whereby the “short cut” may be taken to
Freedom, instead of the road of repeated rebirth and material life.
In all of the Hindu Philosophies, it will be noticed, there is this constant
repetition of the fact that material life is but an illusion and a snare—the
result of ignorance and mistaken desire—and that the part of true wisdom
is to escape from it as soon as possible. Death does not release the soul
from material embodiment—for rebirth is always there to claim it. As the
Sankhyas say, the Purusha never escapes the embrace of Prakriti by the road
of Death, for Death only weaves a more subtle covering for it, in which it
dwells until rebirth draws it once more into the vortex. There is no escape
by the road of Death—the road of Life is the only possible avenue of
escape. The method of escape is by Right Living in combination with the
Development of Wisdom, whereby the Spirit is enabled to perceive its true