This book offers a detailed account of Sage Kapila's Sankhya philosophy in a Question-Answer form. Kapila propounded the Sankhya doctrine in the 8 or 7 century B.C.E. with a view to providing a permanent panacea for the persistent pain and suffering of people in their mundane life. The desire arose in view of the permanence of suffering and impermanence of the available Vedic remedies. True to Kapila's credo, Sankhya has provided a lasting solace to the suffering humanity right from its inception. It is therefore considered as the most influential doctrine of the post-Vedic period. The evidence lies in the fact that the dominant Hindu scriptures such as the Svetasvatara Upanishad, Mahabharata, Bhagavatpurana, and Bhagavadgita show a keen interest in the Sankhya philosophy and devote sizable space to its discussion in their respective narratives. Besides, the chief Sankhya tenets pervade Buddhism, Jainism, Shaivism, and Shaktism (Tantrism) etc.
The book formulates questions based on the fundamental principles of the Sankhya philosophy and explicates the evolution of the cosmic elements or tattvas in lucid answers. In the process, it illustrates the ontology of the Sankhya metaphysics in comparison with and contrast to the metaphysics of the proximal Indic spiritual systems. The extensive answers simultaneously point out ambiguities in the existing commentarial literature and advance exhaustive explanations to them. The readers would acquire from this book the necessary knowledge of the Sankhya philosophy needed for the complete comprehension of the complex Sankhya scriptures.
SUKHBIR SINGH worked until recently as Professor and Dean in the School of Buddhist Studies, Philosophy, and Comparative Religions at Nalanda University, Rajgir (India). At Nalanda, he lectured on the Sankhya Philosophy, Vedanta, Shaivism, Tantrism, Kundalini Yoga, Patanjali Yoga, Hatha Yoga, and History and Philosophy of Yoga. This book is based on his those experiences. He has also published books on a wide variety of interdisciplinary subjects and his scholarly articles have appeared in many international Journals.
I am delighted to be writing the preface to this book by Dr Sukhbir Singh on the school of Indian philosophy known as Sankhya, which rescues this school of philosophy from comparative neglect.
In order to appreciate the significance of Sankhya as a school of Indian thought, one needs to become aware of a striking feature of our daily existence. Our life is lived constantly, if not consciously, on two planes simultaneously the material and the immaterial. As you are reading this book, for instance, you are probably doing so sitting in a chair which is a material object. But the book is conveying ideas to you which are immaterial. Only a little effort is required to see that this binary of the material and the immaterial runs not just through us but through the entire cosmos. All the experiences we have in life can be reduced to this distinction between the material and the immaterial.
It is a striking feature of this distinction, between the material and the immaterial that these two dimensions are radically opposed to each other. The immaterial is inert while the material possesses consciousness, and yet pervade our life in equal measure.
"There is no knowledge like Sankhya, no power like Yoga" (Bhishma in the "Shantiparva" of the Mahabharata).
The Hindus firmly believe in the immortality of the soul, impermanence of the world, retribution of the karmas, and suffering as the persistent condition of life in the phenomenal world. The karmic reprisal and the perpetuation of sorrows in life are inextricably intertwined: "As you sow, so shall you reap." The virtuous karmas fetch reward and the vicious punishment by the irreversible karmic law of nature. The noble karmas done as an ordained duty, without the expectation of any material reward, mitigate the sorrows of the mundane life. But it is difficult to do good karmas all the while unless one has a strong will and a sharp sense of right and wrong. The attribute of the distinctive perception dawns with the attainment of knowledge by the study of the holy books, listening to the utterances of the enlightened seers, and keeping company with the noble persons. The knowledge thus obtained induces clarity in the cognition of real and unreal, permanent and impermanent, timeless and temporal, and natural and supernatural. This discriminatory sense fosters the ultimate awareness of distinction between the soul and the matter. The person thus enlightened attains eternal freedom from pain and suffering here and hereafter. He or she rises above the selfish karmas and acts selflessly in the interest of the entire humanity, without any desire for recompense. This is precisely the objective of the major philosophic and spiritual disciplines in Hinduism. The Sankhya philosophy of Sage Kapila is no exception in this regard even though it makes a radical departure from the Vedic ways of salvation.
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