History of Indian Philosophy

SR No.: 007593
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Surendranath Dasgupta
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication Year: 1922
Total Pages: 2517
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 125 MB

Page 282

VII]
Sorrow and its Dissolution
265
eradicate the roots of sorrow, he will not be anxious for mukti or the final uprooting of pains. A man must feel that all pleasures lead to sorrow, and that the ordinary ways of removing sorrows by seeking enjoyment cannot remove them ultimately; he must turn his back on the pleasures of the world and on the pleasures of paradise. The performances of sacrifices according to the Vedic rites may indeed give happiness, but as these involve the sacrifice of animals they must involve some sins and hence also some pains. Thus the performance of these cannot be regarded as desirable. It is when a man ceases from seeking pleasures that he thinks how best he can eradicate the roots of sorrow. Philosophy shows how extensive is sorrow, why sorrow comes, what is the way to uproot it, and what is the state when it is uprooted. The man who has resolved to uproot sorrow turns to philosophy to find out the means of doing it.
The way of eradicating the root of sorrow is thus the practical enquiry of the Sāmkhya philosophy! All experiences are sorrow. Therefore some means must be discovered by which all experiences may be shut out for ever. Death cannot bring it, for after death we shall have rebirth. So long as citta (mind) and purusa are associated with each other, the sufferings will continue. Citta must be dissociated from purusa. Citta or buddhi, Sāmkhya says, is associated with puruşa because of the non-distinction of itself from buddhi?. It is necessary therefore that in buddhi we should be able to generate the true conception of the nature of puruşa; when this true conception of puruşa arises in the buddhi it feels itself to be different, and distinct, from and quite unrelated to purusa, and thus ignorance is destroyed. As a result of that, buddhi turns its back on purusa and can no longer bind it to its experiences, which are all irrevocably connected with sorrow, and thus the purusa remains in its true form. This according to Sāmkhya philosophy is alone adequate to bring about the liberation of the purusa. Prakrti which was leading us through cycles of experiences from birth to birth, fulfils its final purpose when this true knowledge arises differentiating
1 Yoga puts it in a slightly modified form. Its object is the cessation of the rebirthprocess which is so much associated with sorrow (duhkhabahulah samsāraḥ heyah).
2 The word citta is a Yoga term. It is so called because it is the repository of all sub-conscious states. Samkhya generally uses the word buddhi. Both the words mean the same substance, the mind, but they emphasize its two different functions. Buddhi means intellection.