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Kapila's philosophy in the Bhagavata-purāṇa 25
In addition to these there is the twenty-fifth category, called time (kāla), which some regard as a separate category, not as an evolute of prakṛti, but as the transcendental effort of puruşa (used in the sense of God)1. It is said that God manifests Himself in man internally, as his inner self, as the controller of all his experiences, and externally, as time in the manifold objects of experience. Thus there are twenty-five categories if time, individual soul, and God are taken as one; if time is taken separately and God and puruşa are taken as one, there are twenty-six categories; and if all the three are taken separately, there are twenty-seven categories2. It is the puruşa which is to be taken as being under the influence of prakṛti and as free of it in its transcendent capacity as God (in an implicit manner). It is by the influence of time (kāla) that the equilibrium of the gunas in the prakṛti is disturbed and that their natural transformations take place; and through the direction of laws of karma superintended by God the category of mahat is evolved. It is curious that, though mahat is mentioned as a stage of prakṛti, it is only regarded as a creative state (vṛtti) or prakṛti, and not as a separate category. In another passage in the Bhāgavata it is said that in the beginning God was alone in Himself with His own dormant powers, and not finding anything through which He could reflect Himself and realize Himself, He disturbed the equilibrium of His māyā power through the functioning of time and through His own self (puruşa), impregnating it with consciousness; and thus the process of creation started through the transformations of the prakṛtis. In another passage the question is raised how, if God is free in Himself, can He put Himself in bondage to māyā; and the reply given is that in reality there is no bondage of God, but, just as in dreams a man may perceive his own head to be struck off his body, or may perceive his own reflection shaking in water on account of its ripples, so it is but the reflection of God that appears as individual souls suffering bondage to world-experiences. It follows therefore, according to this view, that individual souls are illusory creations, and that both they and their world-experience must consequently be false. In another passage which immediately
1 prabhavam pauruşam prahuḥ kālam eke yato' bhayam. Ibid. III. 26. 16. 2 Prakṛti is not included in this enumeration; if it were, there would be twenty-eight categories.
4 Ibid. III. 5. 22-27.
3 Ibid. II. 5. 22, 23.
