________________
[CH.
24
The Bhāgavata-purāņa rather very new in the history of Indian philosophy, though it is unfortunate that it has not been further developed here. It seems to maintain that the discrete elements of the substantial part (upādānāmía) of māyā derive their appearance of reality from God, and that through God's élan or activity as time these elements are held together and produce the notion of wholes, since there is no other whole than God. How time is responsible for the combination of atoms into molecules and of molecules into wholes is not explained.
Kapila's philosophy in the Bhāgavata-purāņa.
The Bhāgavata-purāna gives an account of Sāmkhya which is somewhat different from the account that can be got from the classical Sāmkhya works. There is one beginningless qualityless purusa, which shines forth as all the individual souls, self-shining, which transcends the sphere of the prak’til. It is this puruşa that playfully (līlayā) accepts the prakrti that approaches it of its own accord; it is this puruşa that is probably regarded as īśvara or God?. He however, having perceived the prakrti as producing diverse kinds of creation out of its own stuff, was Himself blinded (vimūdha) by the veiling power of ignorance (jñāna-gūhaya) of this prakrti3. By a false imposition the puruşa conceives itself to be the agent in the changes that take place by the natural movement of the gunas of prakrti; and hence it exposes itself to births and rebirths and becomes bound by the laws of karma. In reality the prakrti itself is the cause and agent of all its own self-abiding effects, and puruşa is only the passive enjoyer of all pleasures and pains. In describing the evolution of the categories we have the five gross elements or mahābhūtas, the five tanmātras, the ten senses and the microcosm (antarātmaka-consisting of manas, buddhi, ahamkāra and citta.
anādir ātmā puruso nirgunaḥ prakặteh parah pratyag-dhāmā svayam-jyotir viśvam yena samanvitam.
Bhāgatata-purāna, III. 26. 3. 2 ayam īśvara ity ucyate. Subodhini commentary on ibid.
3 Subodhini points out here that in this state, in which the puruşa blinds himself, he is called jīva. Vijaya-dhvaji, however, takes it in the sense that the transcendent puruşa or īśvara which had accepted the prakrti as its own thus blinds the individual souls through it. Sridhara says that there are two kinds of puruşa, īśvara and jira; and, further, that according to its blinding power (ātarana-sakti) and creative power (viksepa-sakti) prakyti is twofold; and that purusa also is twofold, according as it behaves as individual souls or as God.
