THEORY OF GUNAS IN SAMKHYA PHILOSOPHY DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF f / iHasiter of $iiilo£(o))^|) IN ' \ ,1 PHILOSOPHY By JAN MOHAMMAD LONE UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF MR. ZULFIQAR AHMAD (Associate Professor) DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH-202002 (INDIA) 2013 DS4391 ^ t /•« ^ * p * * m* * * * * * i'*' » » # MR. ZULFIQAR AHMAD DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY (Associate Professor) ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH-202002 U.P (INDIA) Date: lA...J^.,.Zo.\.2> Certificate This is to certify that the dissertation entitled "Theory of Gunas in Samkhya Philosophy" being submitted by Mr. Jan Mohammad Lone embodies original work done by the candidate himself can be considered a contribution to knowledge in the field of philosophy. It is further certified that he has fulfilled all the conditions laid down in the academic ordinances of the University with regard to the M. Phil degree. The entire work was carried out under my supervision and that I allow him to submit the same in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Philosophy in Philosophy of this University. ^ulflqar Ahmad (Supervisor) Acknowledgements I prostrate in obeisance before "Almighty" the creator, curator and paramount who bestowed upon the capabilities and blessed me with knowledge and wisdom that has culminated in this dissertation, certainly it is a journey to salvation. I simply fumble for words to express my deep sense of requital and gratitude to my revered supervisor Mr. Zulfiqar Ahmad, department of Philosophy, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, for supervising me with patience and knowledge whilst allowing me the room to work in my own way in a benign and amity atmosphere; his savvy navigation, tends supervision and exquisite guidance has of course enhanced the value and prestige of the work carried out. I feel immense pleasure to express my gratitude to Prof. Jalal-Ul-Haq, chairman, department of Philosophy, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. for providing me all necessary facilities to carry out the assigned task efficiently. I wish to express my deep genuflection to my parents (Mr. Ghulam Ahmad Lone and Mrs. Haleema Lone) and my uncle aunty (Mr. Ghulam Nabi Wani and Mrs. Aisha Wani) for their constant admonitions and for putting up with my unea.sy temperament during the stressful time. I offer my humble feelings and gratitude dear sisters (Shahida Malik, Tasleema Lone and S/tabnum Lone) and my brother (Sajjad Ahmad Lone) for encouragement and unequivocal support as always to make the endeavour a success. Special thanks are acknowledged to Dr. Tariq Islam, Dr. Hayat Amir and Dr. Sanaullah Mir and other faculty members of the department of Philosophy, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, for miscellaneous help, timely advice and encouragement in my academic pursuits. In my daily work I have been blessed with a friendly and a cheerful group of my colleagues and I would like to thank them likewise; Ms. Nida Ashraf Wani and Ms. Saima Hameed, for their generous help and healthy suggestions, Ms. Iram Amanat whose thoughtfulness always provided constant motivation, Ms. Maheen Raza, Ms. Nigar Afroz and Ms. Shumaila Nasir who helped me with their foretelling which were sometimes really applaud-able and always stood by me whole heartedly. I would also like to acknowledge the forbearance shown and help rendered to me by my roommates for their flawless contributions to me. I would also like to thank my dear friends who gave their full support and boosted immense confidence in me, seniors for their timely advice and encouragement, and juniors for their healthy criticism and moral support. Lastly I would like to thank the funding body (U.G.C.), for keeping me economically sound and helped to carry out the piece of work in financially well to do environment. I owe many thanks to many people. Memory is an imperfect thing, so if you think your name belongs here, but you find it missing, please know that my gratitude is not lessened, but that the brain cell assigned the task of remembering your name was reassigned sometime over the past two years. Thanks to all for constant support what at times seemed to me a work without end. Healthy suggestions and recommendations are always welcome...!!!. Jan Mohammad Lone TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE PAGE i CERTIFICATE ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii CONTENTS V CONTENTS CHAPTER TOPIC PAGE NO. INTRODUCTION 1-4 CHAPTER-I SAMKHYA PHILOSOPHY: A GENERIC VIEW 5-40 CHAPTER-II 41-68 > Samkhya Metaphysics 41 > Samkhya Theory of Causation 41 > Prakrti 45 > Purusa 48 > Samkhya Dualism 52 > Samkhya Epistemology 55 > Samkhya Doctrine of liberation 59 > Way to liberation (Moksa) 60 > Jivan-Mukti and Videha-Mukti 62 > God and Ethics 64 CHAPTER-III 69 93 > Theory of Gunas in Samkhya Philosophy 69 > Sattva 71 > Rajas 72 > Tamas 74 > Gunas and Prakrti: A Relationship 81 > Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Transformation 82 > Evolution 83 > Evolutes 86 > Stages of Evolution 91 CHAPTER-IV 94-102 > Critical Appraisal 94 > Conclusion 98 REFERENCES & BIBLIOGRAPHY 103-115 Introduction ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY INTRODUCTION Introduction: 'Loke smin dvividha nistha pura prokta maya nagha' ' Jnanayogena sankhyanam karmayogena yoginam' "Bhagavad-Gita, 3.3" "In this world a two-fold underpinning (of spiritual salvation) has been expounded by Me of old; by the discipline of knowledge of the followers of Samkhya, and by the discipline of action of the followers of Yoga" (Edgerton, 1924). Samkhya philosophy is frequently said to be the oldest of the main systems of Indian philosophy. It is not always obvious, however, what this claim amounts to (Burley, 2007). The references to what appear as the Samkhya doctrine are found in the Upanishads, particularly in the later ones among them. But while some are of opinion that the system is independent in origin and almost as old as the Upanishads, others uphold that it is a derivative teachings of those ancient treatises. There is indeed a reference in one of the Upanishads to Maharishi Kapila, the supposed founder of the Samkhya philosophy accordmg to tradition (Hiriyanna, 1993). Relatively a few references to Samkhya can be found in the Mahabharata as well. Negotiations of Samkhya in the Mahabharata can primarily be found in three places; the Bhagavad-Gita, the Anugita of the Asvamedhikaparvan, and the Moksadharma section of the Santiparvan. However the textual history of hefty portions of the Mahabharata is still not completely clear, the Bhagavad-Gita is most likely the earliest of all of these (Brockington, 1998). Samkhya philosophy is intimately associated with the Yoga system of spiritual development. Although this tradition is ancient, its basic text is the Samkhya Karika of Isvarakrsna (400-500 A.D) upon which there are commentaries including the Yuktidipika (650 A.D) and the Tattvakaumudi by Vacaspati Misra (841 or 976 A.D) (Bartley, 2011). INTRODUCTION Samkhya system confesses dualism of two all-pervasive ultimate principles, namely; pure consciousness (purusa), construed pluralistically, and one primordial materiality (prakrti) (Larson and Bhattacharya, Vol. (IV), 1987). Samkhya is an inflexible dualism merged pluralistic spiritualism and atheistic realism. At the same time, as regards causation Samkhya believes in satkaryavada, according to which effect pre-exists in cause. Samkhya also advocates a theory of evolution according to which the whole world is the resultant effect of the proximity of prakrti and purusa. The proximity among these two ultimate realities disturbs the state of equilibrium that exists amid the gunas of prakrti and gives rise to evolution. Moreover, Samkhya believes that bondage and liberation are merely phenomenal. It is only the ego, the product of prakrti, which is bound. Therefore, it is the ego that is liberated (Srinivas and Sastry, 2007). In some contexts the Samkhya methodology implies a monistic viewpoint, in others a theistic perspective. Throughout the era, however, a typical terminology and a recurrent set of intellectual issues begin to develop around the methodology: reflections concerning to primal matter (pradhana); enumerations of psychic states or conditions (bhavas) that can be construed psychologically and or cosmologically; analysis of the different aspects of intellectual experience in terms of intellect (buddhi), egoity (ahamkara) and mind (manas); speculations about the nature of the inner self (purusa) in terms of a cosmic self (atman) or the self in the body or in the manifested world (jiva, bhutatman); elaborations of the five sense abilities (indriya) correlated with the five gross elements (bhuta), the five action capacities (karmendriya), and the five contents or objects (visaya) of the senses; and a universal polarity among subjectivity and objectivity in terms of 'the knower of the field' and 'the field' Accordingly, primordial materiality (prakrti) is made up of three constituent processes (gunas), i.e., intelligibility (sattva), activity (rajas), and inertia (tamas) (Larson and Bhattacharya, Vol. (IV), 1987). INTRODUCTION The philosophy of these gunas is very profound. From the evidence of the Yuktidipika it may be stated that they are infra-atomic quanta of reals, rather forces than substance. Speaking of their characteristic features the Yogabhasya states that they are always in a state of flux. Their changing permutations and combinations give rise to all sorts of collocations which are manifested in the world of objects. But really speaking, all these manifested objects do not basically fluctuate from the gunas from which they emerge for the simple reason that Samkhya sternly maintains the view that the cause is immanant in its effect. Although, the manifested objects only appear to our experience while the substratum whose manifestations are these objects of the perceptible world always remains outside the range of perception. In this connection the author of the Yogabhasya quotes a verse where in it is stated that the gunas in their real forms do not come within optical range; what comes within the range of vision is appearance like maya.