Chapter 132 - Review of the principles of Sāṃkhya

The sages said:

1. This practice of Yoga, the path of Yoga, that has been approved of by dignified persons, O leading brahmin, has been well narrated to the pupil by you who wish his welfare.

2. Now please expound in essence the practice of virtue according to Sāṃkhya, for whatever is known in the three worlds has been understood by you.

Vyāsa said:

3. Listen ye, O sages, to the principles of Sāṃkhya, who have realised the souls. These principles have been laid down by the old men of yore, Kapila and others, who were not inferior to lords.

4. In that system, O excellent sages, a few complexities are seen. In it there are many good qualities and no defects.

5. That is achieved by practising the rites mentioned as under. By means of knowledge, O brahmins, all things are realised. All unconquerable human objects of pleasure and the entire objects of evil are also realized.

6. The objects of pleasure of Nāgas, Gandharvas, Pitṛs and lower creatures are known.

7. The objects of pleasure of Suparṇa (Garuḍa), Maruts, sages and royal sages are known.

8. The objects of pleasure of Asuras, Viśvedevas and divine sages are known. The great objects of Yogas are also understood.

9. The objects of pleasure of whatever is being eaten as well as the object of pleasure of Brahmā are known. The maximum period of life is understood in essence by the people.

10. The maximum duration of happiness is clearly understood, O excellent sages. The misery of persons indulging in worldly pleasures, coming at the due time, is understood.

11. The misery, O brahmins, of those souls that take birth among low creatures or fall into hell, is understood. The merits and demerits of heaven, O brahmins, are entirely understood.

12-14. The merits and demerits of the Vedic system are to be understood. The defects and merits of the path of knowledge should be understood. The merits and the demerits, brahmins, of the Sāṃkhya knowledge should be understood. The devotee shall understand Sattva of ten qualities and Rajas of nine qualities, Tamas of eight qualities, Buddhi of seven qualities, Tamas of three qualities, Nabhas of six qualities.

15-16. Rajas that has two qualities and Sattva of a single quality are also be understood. By knowing the path in essence and by seeing annihilation the devotees, richly endowed with perfect knowledge and wisdom, attain splendid salvation even as the subtle ones attain great Ether. Salvation is attained by purified souls.

17-23. The organ of vision is to be understood as combined with the quality of colour; the organ of smell is to be understood as combined with the quality of smell; the organ of hearing is to be understood through the quality of sound; the tongue is combined with the quality of taste. The quality of touch pertains to the skin. The wind that is dependent upon it can be touched and known. (Delusion) is to be understood as combined with tamas and covetousness is to be understood as combined with delusion. Viṣṇu is to be understood as combined with Krānta (that has taken three steps). Indra is to be understood as combined with power. Fire god is to be understood as attached to the belly. The goddess is to be understood as combined with water. Waters are to be understood as dependent on fiery element. The fiery element is combined with gaseous element. The gaseous element is to be understood as dependent on Ether. The Ether is combined with the principle of Mahat. The Tamas is stationed in Mahas (splendour); Rajas is attached to Sattva and Sattva is attached to the Ātman (soul); the Ātman is attached to Īśa as well as lord Nārāyaṇa. Lord is attached to liberation and liberation is not attached to any. The physical body with Sattva quality should be known as surrounded by sixteen qualities; the nature and imagination should be known as dependent on the physical body; the soul is as though stationed in the middle; there is no sin therein.

24. The Karman of the persons indulging in worldly pleasures, O leading brahmins, should be known as sinful; sense-organs and the objects of senses should be known as stationed in the Ātman.

25. The rarity of salvation should be known by means of the Vedic literature. The (vital airs such as) Prāṇa, Apāna, Samāna, Vyāna and Udāna should be known duly.

26. The primordial wind element should be known and then the resultant wind also should be known. They should be known as divided into seven. The remaining ones should also be known as sevenfold.

27-28. The following persons should be thought upon: Prajāpatis, sages, excellent creations, seven sages, royal sages who scorch the enemies, divine sages, Maruts, brahminical sages resplendent like the sun and persons who have slipped down from their gorgeous splendour in the course of a long period of time.

29. The destruction of the groups of elements, O brahmins, should be heard. The splendid movement of the words should be known. Those who deserve the worship of persons of sinful actions should be seen.

30. The misery of those who have fallen into the abode of Yama (in the river) Vaitaraṇī should be realised. The inauspicious movements of creatures in the variegated wombs should be observed.

31-32. Their residence in the inauspicious belly should be seen and understood, the belly in the city of nine entrances (i.e. the body with nine orifices, viz. two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, mouth, urethra and anus), which is the receptacle of blood and water, which is filled with phlegm, urine and faecal matter, which has a strong obnoxious odour, which is a mass of semen and blood, which is fixed up by means of marrow and sinews and which has a tangled web and woof of hundreds of nerves.

33-38. One shall thoroughly understand that the Ātman is conducive to one’s own welfare. O brahmins, one shall completely comprehend the different sorts of Yogas. O excellent sages, one shall observe the despicable activities of creatures of Tāmasa quality and those of the creatures of Sāttvika quality with handsome but false Ātmans. (In the same manner) one shall observe the despicable activities of the Sāṃkhyas for the sake of great men despite the fact that the Sāṃkhyas are persons who have comprehended the soul. One shall observe the terrible harassments of the moon (and other) luminaries, the fall of stars and revolutions of other heavenly bodies. One shall observe the miserable separation of couples, O brahmins. One shall observe also the inauspicious tendency of various living beings to devour one another. One shall also realise (people’s) delusion during childhood and the inauspicious nature of the wing body (?). In some places, even the Sattva quality depends on passion and delusion. By all these means one man among thousands resorts to salvation-consciousness. The rarity of liberation should be realised. The realisation is only through (Vedic Literature).

39. Respect for things not yet received, neutrality in regard to what has been acquired and the viciousness of objects of worldly pleasures, shall be fully comprehended again, O brahmins.

40. One shall comprehend residence in the families of creatures intending death as well as the emergence of creatures that are dead after breaking the splendid bodies (?)

41. The misery of even the Sāttvika creatures, O brahmins, must be comprehended. The fate of the persons who had killed brahmins and hence had a downfall, must be comprehended.

42. The evil fate of vicious brahmins addicted to the drinking of liquor, as well as those who indulge in illegitimate union with the wife of the preceptor shall be comprehended.

43-44. By means of perfect knowledge, O excellent brahmins, men behave well towards their mothers. They behave in the same manner towards the people of the world including gods. With the same knowledge one shall comprehend the fate of persons of inauspicious activities. The fates of those beings that are born in the wombs of lower creatures should be comprehended separately.

45-49. One shall comprehend the following: the glorious arguments in the Vedas, the successive orderly changes of the seasons, the passing off of the years, months, fortnights and days. The waxing and waning of the moon shall be observed directly. The ebbing and the flowing of the tides in the seas shall be perceived. Riches are observed to decline and increase. Unions are observed to come to an end and an era too is replaced by another era. The feebleness and bewilderment that one experiences due to egotism shall be duly comprehended. All the defects stationed in the soul and all the inauspicious defects arising out of one’s own body shall be perfectly understood.

The sages said:

50. What defects arising out of Utpātas (dangerous portents) do you see, O most excellent one among the knowers of Brahman? It behoves you to clarify this doubt of ours completely.

Vyāsa said:

51. O brahmins, intelligent scholars speak of five defects in the body, the scholars who are the followers of Kapila and his Sāṃkhya system. They are conversant with the path. Listen, O excellent sages.

52. Lust, anger, fear, slumber and breath—these defects are seen in the bodies of all embodied beings.

53. By means of patience they cut off anger; by avoiding close intimacy they remove lust; by resorting to Sāttvika substances they remove slumber; and they remove fear by means of avoidance of errors.

54. They cut off and remove breath, O brahmins, by means of reduced diet. Good qualities are known by means of hundreds of good qualities and defects by means of hundreds of defects.

55. Reasons must be known by means of hundreds of reasons; wonderful things should be known by means of wonderful things.

The world is like the foam of waters. It is created by means of hundreds of māyās by Viṣṇu.

56. It resembles the wall painted in a picture. It has as much strength as grass (i.e. it is flimsy and feeble). It is conducive to great harm. It wanders about in darkness. It must be seen as one resembling bubbles (of water) during rain.

57. It is almost ruinous though it appears to be pleasant. It instils fear even after its destruction. Just as an elephant that has got stuck up in mud becomes helpless, so also the world gets stuck up in the slough of Rajas and Tamas.

58-61. The Sāṃkhyas. O brahmins, are highly intelligent. They abandon all attachment towards their progeny by means of knowledge and the object of knowledge that is all-pervasive and great, O brahmins. With the weapon of knowledge of the Ātman, O excellent ones, and with the rod of penance, they sever off the inauspicious Rājasa odours, Tāmasa odours, meritorious Sāttvika odours and those odours based on the body arising due to the physical touch. Thereafter they cross the terrible watery expanse of misery wherein anxiety and grief are great eddies; it is extremely terrible due to sickness and death; great fear acts like great serpents. Tamas is like a tortoise. Rajas is like fìsh. They cross this terrible expanse by means of their intellect.

62-68. By the path of knowledge, the sinless persons, the sages of great achievement cross the ocean of worldly existence wherein affectionate attachment is mud; old age is the fort, and the sensation of touch is like an island, O excellent brahmins; Karman is the great depth; truth is the bank; holy rites are the places to stand by, O intelligent ones; violence is the quickness and rapidity of the current; it is turbid due to different Rasas; different gestures of love are great jewels; misery and fever are the winds; grief and thirst are the great whirlpools; it has great pain due to sickness; O excellent brahmins, the set of bones is the flight of steps with phlegm for joining them; liberal charity is the mine of pearls; the terrible outpourings of blood are the coral beads; laughter and lamentation are the loud reports; it is very difficult to cross on account of various acts of ignorance; the dirt accummulated by the tears of lamentation is the brine; contact and union are the goals; this world of birth is one that deceives with sons and relatives for their towns; this (ocean of worldly existence) is an ocean unto all living beings with nonviolence and truthfulness for its line of boundary; it is full of surging waves due to the (incessant) contacts of vital airs; milk flows in successive waves (?); the territory here is the rare salvation; it is an ocean with the submarine fìre at its mouth. Sinless ascetics cross this ocean (of existence).

69. After crossing (the ocean of) births which is difficult to cross they enter the pure sky and thereafter on seeing them come, the sun carries them with its rays.

70. The rays enter them like fibres of lotus, O brahmins, as it blows over the territories. O sinless ones, the wind Pravaha takes them up there.

71. O brahmins, the subtle, sweet smelling, cool wind Pravaha with gentle touch receives those ascetics who are devoid of passion and the Siddhas whose asset is penance and who are endowed with virility.

72. That wind which is the most excellent of all the seven winds, and which goes to the splendid worlds leads them, O great brahmins, to the most excellent goal from the firmament.

73. The firmament carries the lords of the worlds to the greatest goal from the Rajas. The Rajas carries, O great brahmins, to the greatest goal of Sattva.

74. The pure soul carries the Sattva to the great and splendid lord Nārāyaṇa. The lord of pure soul carries them to the supreme soul by himself.

75. After attaining the supreme soul they become rid of all defects. They are always free from dirt. They become capable of immortality. O brahmins, they do not come back.

76. That is the greatest goal, O brahmins, of those noble souls who are free from the mutually clashing pairs, who are devotedly engaged in truthfulness and straight-forwardness and who have kindness and sympathy for all living beings.

The sages said:

77. After attaining the most excellent region of the lord, do those persons of steady holy rites sport about there, till their death and rebirth?

78. It behoves you to describe accurately what exactly is the reality therein. Excepting you we cannot, O excellent one, afford to ask any other mortal.

79-80. This would be a great defect in salvation if other ascetics would also stay in the same place, perfect knowledge leading them to salvation, along with the sages who have attained spiritual achievement. Hence O brahmin, we consider Dharma characterised by Pravṛtti (i.e. life of pious activities as opposed to life of pursuit of knowledge) as the most supreme one. But on the other hand, there is likelihood of another misery in regard to a person completely engaged in the great knowledge.

Vyāsa said:

81. The question has been put most relevantly, O excellent sages. Your dilemma has been enunciated. O excellent sages, there is confusion and delusion even amongst scholars in regard to this problem.

82. Even here listen to my words in regard to the perfect truth where the great intellect of those noble souls, the followers of Kapila, finds a place.

83. The sense-organs too of the embodied beings, O brahmins, are aware of their body. They are Ātman’s Karaṇas (organs of activity and knowledge); the soul perceives all types of subtle entities through them.

84. (The sense-organs) devoid of Ātman as a result of sinful actions, perish like the waves in a great ocean,

85. While the embodied soul is asleep or agitated the subtle soul wanders about along with the sense-organs like the wind that blows everywhere.

86. It sees duly. O sinless ones, it touches after remembering (?). It becomes aware of all as before, O brahmins.

87. Since they are not masters, the sense-organs merge into their respective places like serpents which are killed.

88. The subtle soul encompasses the movements of sense-organs in their respective places and moves about.

89-91. The individual soul pervades different qualities of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, the qualities of intellect, O excellent ones, the qualities of mind, the qualities of firmament, the qualities of wind, O omniscient ones, the qualities arising from affection, the qualities of waters, O brahmins, and all the qualities of earth. The Kṣetrajña pervades, O excellent brahmins, the qualities in these individual souls and moves about due to auspicious and inauspicious Karmans.

92-97. Sense-organs move along with the soul just as disciples go along with a great saint (preceptor). After going beyond Prakṛti they attain the subtle, Nārāyaṇa of great soul, the great ultimate resort, greater than the greatest and devoid of all aberrations. He is free from all sins. He has entered a state of freedom from all ailments. That supreme soul is devoid of all qualities. He is blissful, excellent ones. There, O brahmins, the excellent mind and the sense-organs come at the proper time taking up the message of the preceptor. It is possible to attain tranquility and good qualities in the course of a brief period by means of the above mentioned Sāṃkhya and Yoga. The highly intelligent Sāṃkhyas attain the highest goal. O great brahmins, there is no other knowledge equal to this one that brings about salvation.

98. May you be in no doubt in this matter. It is knowledge that is the great Sāṃkhya. The primordial and the eternal Brahman is imperishable and Dhruva (everlasting).

99. Persons of tranquility and calmness speak of it as that which has no beginning, middle or end; that which is free from mutually opposed pairs; the Agent, the eternal one and the Kūṭastha (firm and steady like the peak of a mountain).

100. It is from this that all the processes of creation and annihilation issue forth. So say the eloquent great sages in the sacred scriptures.

101-103. The brahmins, Vedas and persons who are conversant with the Sāman verses call him the greatest lord, the endless one, the greatest Acyuta (one who does not slip or swerve) and Brahmaṇya (favourable to the Brahman). Brahmins with their intellect turned towards Guṇas, the followers of Yoga who are united with the great one and the Sāṃkhyas with their vision directed towards the unmeasured one (praise him). He has no manifest form, O great brahmins. The Veda says that knowledge is (his form). O excellent sages, they speak about many means of recognizing it.

104. There are two types of living beings on the earth, O excellent brahmins, the stationary and the Gamya (the mobile ones). Of these two the mobile ones are better.

105. Jñāna (knowledge) is greater than all great things, O brahmins. O great sages, whatever is seen in the Vedas, in Sāṃkhya, in Yoga and in Purāṇa—everything has come from Sāṃkhya.

106. What is seen in the great Itihāsas (epics), what is particularly seen in truthful scriptures and whatever knowledge is there in the world, O great sages, has come from Sāṃkhya.

107. Everything that is seen in the world, the great strength, knowledge, salvation, penance—all these subtle things have been duly laid down in Sāṃkhya, O brahmins.

108. Sāṃkhyas attain their welfare easily even from the things opposed to it. After realising them they become content. They fall in the abodes of brahmins again.

109. After breaking their bodies they enter salvation. The followers of Yoga and Sāṃkhya reside in heaven. Hence they are more interested in Sāṃkhya, that is very valuable and resorted to by dignified persons, O brahmins.

110. O sages, in the case of those brahmins who are not devoted to this knowledge their oblique movement (i.e. their birth among lower creatures) is seen but not downfall into the abode of those who commit sins. Those brahmins are not important at all.

111. The Sāṃkhya system is vast, great, ancient and free from impurities. It is as vast as the great ocean. It is dignified and splendid. The followers of Sāṃkhya dedicate everything unto Nārāyaṇa.

112. This great truth that the ancient universe originates from Nārāyaṇa has been spoken by me. At the time of creation he creates and at the time of annihilation he annihilates them again.