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II–THE GITÃ AND THE UPANIŞADS
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only after the word 'māyā' came to be used in the Upanisads with reference to Name-d and Form-ed 'avidyā', that the Gītā has come to be written.
Now, if one considers what difference exists between the respective expositions of Vedānta in the Gitā and the Upanisads, one sees that greater importance has been given in the Gitā to the Kāpila-Sāmkhya philosophy. In the Brhadāranyaka or the Chāndogya, which deal with Spiritual Knowledge, Sāmkhya philosophy has not even once been mentioned ; and although the words 'avyakta', 'mahān' etc. from Samkhya philosophy are found in the Katha and other Upanisads, yet, those words are clearly interpreted there according to Vedānta philosophy and not according to Sāmkhya philosophy; and the same argument applies to the exposition in the Maitryupanisad. The idea of boycotting Sāmkhya philosophy has been carried to such an extent, that the diversity of Names and Forms in the world has been explained in the Vedānta-Sūtras by the 'Trivșt-karana' (union of three Elements) consistently with the Chandogya, instead of by reference to the ‘Pañcikarana' (union of five Elements) of Sāmkhya philosophy (Ve. Sū. 2. 4. 20). Although this method of explaining the Perishable and Imperishable in Metaphysics without the slightest reference to Sāmkhya philosophy has not been adopted in the Gītā, yet, it must also be borne in mind that Sāmkhya doctrines have not been taken as they are into the Gītā. The Sankhya doctrine that the visible world came into existence from the three-constituented imperceptible Matter (prakrti) by the process of the developing-out of the constituents' (gunotkarşa), and that the Spirit (purusa ) is quality less and is the See-er, is accepted by the Gitā. But the Sāmkhya doctrine regarding the Perishable ( ksara) and Imperishable (aksara ) has always been mentioned in the Gītā with the rider of the Non-Dualistic Vedānta that Matter (praksti ) and Spirit ( puruşa ) are not independent Elements, but are the forms or manifestations (vibhūtı) of one and the same Parabrahman in the shape of the Ātman. This tacking on of the order of creation of the universe according to the Dualistic Sāmkhya philosophy with the Non-Dualistic doctrines of the Upanisads, which looks upon the Brahman
