Wk 05 Mon, Feb 1
Today – Sāṅkhya
Bhagavad Gītā -Recap
Ch. 7, "The Witness and the Watched" – In Hamilton 2001. Indian philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (VSI). Edwin Bryant’s Ch. 1, “Agency in Sāṅkhya & Yoga” – In Dasti, Matthew and Edwin Bryant, eds. 2014. Free Will, Agency and Selfhood in Indian Philosophy (FWASIP).
1 Wednesday - Nyāya
VSI Chapter 5 on Nyāya Dasti’s “Nyāya’s Self as Agent and Knower,” Chapter 5, FWASIP, Dasti & Bryant, eds. 2014.
Class Participation
The final grade: – 15% Class Preparation & Participation – 25% 30% Twice-Weekly Feedback on readings – 30% 35% Weekly Reflections – 30% 35% Final Term Paper
2 WOTD
pramāṇa, means of knowledge. Samhitā
Ontological → Ontology Miles
prakṛti Dhandeep
Omnipresent Sai
BG & Free Will?
Karma Yoga: 2.47-8, 3.9,30 3.16, 20-26: Karma required to keep turning the wheel set in motion 17-19: Karma done without attachment attains the highest good. 4.19: Wise person = no intention to achieve objects of desire, karma burned by knowledge. – 20: Acts, but in effect does nothing. – 21: Free from desire, mind & self restrained, only body acts, earns no demerit – 22: Content with what comes by chance, beyond dualities, not bound even when acts
3 BG & Free Will? Cont’d.
BG 18.61: “The lord resides in the heart of all creatures, making them reel magically, as if a machine moves them.”
18.63: “This knowledge I have taught … consider it completely, then act as you choose.”
David White on BG & Freedom
No “freedom in action” (296) Be free from guṇa-s, dualities. BG 2.45 – Evenness of mind, samatva to dualities (298)
Causation of acts not “simple, linear, 1:1 process of cause & effect (300).” – Multiple stimuli
Freedom – Of the individual to choose causes of one’s action – To choose alternative courses – To choose for whom one acts: everyone + world – From limitations / bondage to fruits of action
4 Matthew MacKenzie on BG & Action and Agency
Five Factors of Action (BG 18.13-15) 1. Locus, adhiṣṭhānam 2. Agent, kartā 3. Instruments, karaṇāṇi 4. Effort, ceṣṭā 5. Divine providence / fate, daivam
Three Constituents of Action, BG 18:18 146-7 – Action stimulus: Knower, Known, Knowledge – Action constituents: Instrument, Object, Agent
MacKenzie, cont’d
Interpreters Considered: – Madhusūdana Sarasvatī, advaitin, . c. 1540–1640 CE –Rāmānuja, Qualified non-dualist, theist . 1017–1137 CE – Aurobindo Ghose, Nationalist & philosopher . 1872-1950 CE
5 daivam = fate? (143)
Aurobindo: “the wise and all-seeing Will that is at work behind human Karma.” Rāmānuja: “the individual self is capable of free will, its actions can only be successful provided the permission and empowerment of the supreme being.” Madusūdana: gods enable instruments (#3) to function, are “illusory”
MacKenzie, cont’d
Autonomy? (144-6) – BG 18.16, 18.61 Responsibility?
6 Sāṅkhya & Yoga
6 Schools (darśanas) of ‘Hindu’ Philosophy
1. Sāṅkhya, Dualistic Discrimination – 900 BCE – 1000 CE 2. Yoga, translation? – 200 BCE →
3. Nyāya, Logic & Empiricism – ~250 CE → 4. Vaiśeṣika, Atomism, Particularism – 200 BCE – 1 CE, 550 – 1000 CE
5. Mīmāṃsā, Vedic Exegesis – 200 BCE – 700 CE 6. Vedānta, Upaniṣads – ‘Later’ Vedic Exegesis – 200 BCE →
7 Sāṅkhya-Yoga Epistemology
– See Hamilton, IP: VSI, p. 5 for definition
3 sources of valid cognition, knowledge: 1. Perception via senses 2. Inference 3. Verbal Testimony
Sāṅkhya View (in brief)
“Radical Dualism” Two basic ontological principles underlie the manifest universe 1. pure consciousness, puruṣa, m. 2. matter, prakṛti, f. Final purpose: – Attainment of isolation, kaivalya,for puruṣa – Disentanglement from material world Not a rejection of reality of the world
Ontology, IP:VSI, 16. Soteriology, 2-3.
8 Qualities, guṇa-s
All matter composed of 3 qualities – sattva, goodness / intelligence / subjectivity / illumination / purity / harmony – rajas, energy / passion / motion & agency / activity – tamas, inertia / objective or determinate aspect / dullness / ignorance / torpor
History of Sāṅkhya
var. Sāṃkhya ← saṅkhyā, enumeration – More towards calculation, reasoning, philosophy Three historical periods 1. Proto-Sāṅkhya, 900 BCE – 300 CE . RV 10.129.3-5: nāsadīya – Distinction between consciousness & materiality – tapas, desire as creative forces . RV 10.90: puruṣa sūktam –male Puruṣa, female Virāj(Shining One) . RV 10.121: Ka, Unknown god – hiraṇyagarbha
9 History of Sāṅkhya, cont’d
Three historical periods 1. Proto-Sāṅkhya, 900 BCE – 300 CE, cont’d . BU 4.5.12: microcosm ↔ macrocosm – Fundamental elements, convergence of: water, touch, odor, taste, sight, sound, sciences, activities, pleasures, excretion, travel, Vedas . KaU 3.10-11: gradation of fundamental principles – Higher than X is Y: senses < sense objects < mind < intellect < immense self (ātman/mahat) < unmanifest (avyakta=prakṛti?) < person (puruṣa) . Greater development in Śvetāśvatara Up. . In Mahābhārata, Book of Liberation 400 BCE – 200 CE . In Bhagavad Gītā . Kapila’s Sāṅkhya-sūtra (lost)
History of Sāṅkhya, cont’d
Three historical periods 2. Classical period, 350–1000 CE . Sāṅkhya Kārikā of Īśvarakṛṣṇa (350-450 CE) – Source text for school – Systematization of its philosophy . Described in detail next … 3. Later Sāṅkhya, 1000 CE → . Refutations of its position start to ‘decline’ . Development of ideas continues within Yoga school . Overall influence widespread
10 25 tattvas, ontological principles puruṣa -#1 prakṛti -#2 – originating, mūla prakṛti . 3 qualities – sattva, goodness / intelligence / subjectivity – rajas, energy / passion / motion & agency – tamas, inertia / objective or determinate aspect – buddhi / mahat, intellect - #3 Knowledge – ahaṃkāra, egoity - #4 Agency khya – manas, mind - #5 – 5 sense capacities - #6-10 āṅ . hearing, touching, seeing, tasting, smelling S – 5 action capacities - #11-15 . speaking, grasping, movement, excreting, procreation – 5 subtle elements - #16-20 . sound, contact, form, taste, smell Structure of Reality – 5 gross elements - #21-25 . space, wind, fire, water, earth
Sāṅkhya View
Our true self is puruṣa – Transcendent Witness – Mistakenly tangled up with prakṛti, forgets self – Forgetting is cause delusion of suffering, rebirth Goal: – To intellectually discern the true nature of reality – Extricate oneself from saṃsāra, embodied existence – Return to Witness state
Plurality of puruṣa-s?
11 Attributes of puruṣa
1. Sākṣitva, being a witness 2. Kaivalya, isolation / autonomy 3. Māadhyasthya, indifference 4. Draṣṭṛtva, being a seer 5. Akartṛ-bhava, non-agency –Sāṅkhya-kārikā 9
Classical Yoga
Yoga ← √yuj, to yoke, bind together – theistic systems: union with divine –Vyāsa: unification of the mind/self in meditation – inner control – method, exertion, diligence
Different Yogas –BG: karma-, bhakti-, jñāna-yoga –Haṭha-yoga, Yoga of force: body strength, postures – Patañjali: Rāja (royal) Yoga . Kriyā yoga – yoga of action . Aṣṭāṅga yoga – Eight-limbed yoga
12 What is Yoga?
Physical & spiritual disciplines – not limited to Hindu realm Not just a ‘system’ of belief / metaphysics A method of getting something – usu. liberation “Sāṅkhya → knowing, Yoga → doing” Patañjali’s system: – Knowledge of person as whole – Action integrating knowledge – Theory + practice
Bryant on “Agency in Sāṅkhya & Yoga”
13 Some Sanskrit Terms
anvaya-vyatireka – presence / absence – agreement / difference
pūrva-pakṣa – prima-facie argument – objection
Puruṣa
Ideally – no intentionality – no object consciousness – eternal & unchanging, pure, unmixed – spectator / witness – 5 Attributes . witnessing sākṣitva, seeing drāṣṭṛtva, autonomy kaivalya, indifference mādyasthya, non-agency akartṛ-bhāva
14 Prakṛti
Source of Free Will & Agency – intellect, buddhi . locus of knowledge –ego, ahaṃkāra –mind, manas
Nyāya – Vaiśeṣika Ontology
7 Categories, padārtha: 1. substance, dravya . earth, water, light, air; ether, time, space, ātmā, manas (9) 2. quality, guṇa . Color, taste, odor, touch, sound, number, magnitude, separateness, conjunction, disjunction, remoteness, proximity, weight, fluidity, viscidity, cognition (buddhi), pleasure, pain, desire, dislike, volition (prayatna), dharma, adharma, saṃskāra (24) 3. action, karma . (5: upward, downward, contraction, expansion, motion) 4. generality, sāmānya (2: comprehensive, less comp.) 5. particularity, viśeṣa (infinite) 6. inherence, samavāya 7. absence, abhāva (4)
15 Nyāya pūrva-pakṣa
Ātman – Is a fundamental substance, dravya – All-pervading, eternal, unique per body – Substratum of knowledge – Has qualities, guṇa-s, such as . Agency, Pleasure / Sorrow Consciousness & Cognition are collocated
Sāṅkhya Response
Happiness / Sorrow cannot be in ātman – changing – qualities cannot be separate from substance . can never gain liberation as a result Agency cannot be in ātman – causes karma, bondage (saṃsāra) – Contradicts scripture, BG 3.27 . All qualities are effected by the qualities (guṇas) of nature (prakṛti), but deluded by individuality, the self thinks “I am the actor.” (Miller 31)
16 Inert prakṛti & agency?!
No puruṣa is ever bound / liberated – ever liberated, all-pervasive –only prakṛti bound puruṣa has notion of agency due to reflection of prakṛti – distorted reflection in mirror prakṛti has consciousness due to puruṣa – iron ball & heat puruṣa : inert prakṛti :: calf : inert milk
Proximity, saṃyoga / sannidhi
Jar becomes hot/cold via proximity to heat/cold buddhi becomes as though conscious via proximity of puruṣa puruṣa as though agent due to contact with guṇa-s
proximity ≠ spatio-temporal, = suitability, yogyatā, potential for enjoyment
17 Other Objections
Why is one puruṣa bound but another liberated? – How linked to saṃskāra, manas ? puruṣa & prakṛti both all-pervasive, eternal – Once liberated, how is proximity overcome? –Ans: prakṛti “destroyed” for one liberated Scripture (BS 2.3.33) says Self has agency – “passive agency” (33) – through proximity, like a magnet
Sāṅkhya in the BG
Ideas subsumed for Kṛṣṇa bhakti Agency in prakṛti alone, via guṇa-s – BG 18.13-17, 20-36 puruṣa = cause for agency via consciousness Liberation = – passive sat-cit-ānanda –Advaita – active, blissful service to Īśvara – Vaiṣṇava
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