the Six systems of Orthodox Hindu philosophy [1]
the Sankhya System
This important system of thought was in the first instance a reaction from the
monism expressed in the Upanishads. It is almost as old as the first Upanishadic
specualtions and finds expression itself in some of the later Upanishads. Its
founder is said to have been one Kapila, born at Kapilavastu, a century before
Gautama Buddha was born there. The Sankhya system derived from him profoundly
influenced both Jainism and Buddhism. It is staunchly dualistic and atheistic,
maintaining that there are two eternal categories of being:
(1) Matter or the phenomenal world (prakriti, nature) and
(2) Soul (purusha).
The latter is not an All-Soul, like the Brahman-Atman of the monists, but an
infinite number of individual souls, each independent and eternal. The souls
entangled in nature have fallen into misery and suffering through ignorance
(avidya) of the distinction between soul and matter, an ignorance which has led
directly to the fettering of the soul to bodily processes and to nature
(prakriti), and this casues the soul to be reborn again and again. Salvation from
the recurring cycle of existences comes, not through knowledge of identity with
any All-Soul (declared non-existent), but through knowoledge of the soul's
existential diversity from matter, followed by the final passage into a state of
eternal but unconscious individuality, in the purity of the spirit. Here, too,
salvation is sought by the Way of Knowledge. / p 243
----
Of late, Western humanism and new departures in ideology like Marxism have
increased the process of religious dissolution. In some circles, especially where
Communism has penetrated, a new attitude of defiant atheism has been
voiced. However prepared one may be to hear it, one is nevertheless startled by
the knowledge that young Hindus have written for publication: "Of all the people
in the world it is we Indians that require more and more materialism. We have had
too much religion." 37 / p 267
37 Charles S. Braden, Modern tendencies in world religions (Macmillan
1933) p 31
- in John B. Noss, Man's religions (Macmillan: NY 1956)
