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44
The Bhagavata-purāņa
[CH.
(avidyā), which makes them subject to various kinds of affliction, and, as a result thereof, their own natures are hidden from themselves and they appear to be undergoing all kinds of virtuous and sinful experiences of pleasures and pains; and, being thus affected, they are first associated with the creative power (śakti) of God, and then, as this power first evolves itself into its first category of time as the all-determining necessity (niyati), they become associated with it; and then, as the third movement posits itself as all-grasping time, they become associated with that category, and then, as the sattvagunas gradually evolve from kāla, the rājasa gunas from sattva and the tāmasa gunas from rajas, the colony of purusas is associated first with sattva, then with rajas and then with tamas. When all the gunas are evolved, though the three gunas are then all disturbed for further creative operation, they are not disturbed in all their parts; there are some parts of the guna conglomeration which are in equilibrium with one another; and it is this state of equilibrium of the gunas that is called prakṛti1. The account of the evolution of the various categories from the creative will of God up to the prakṛti does not occur in the seventh chapter of the Ahirbudhnya, which is definitely described as the Samkhya philosophy of Kapila; it is only a Pañcarātra account given to supplement that of the Samkhya, which starts from the evolution of the categories from the prakṛti -the equilibrium of the gunas. According to the Pañcarātra account of the Ahirbudhnya-samhita the colony or the honeycomb of the purusas thus forms a primal element, which is associated with the self-evolving energy of God from the first moment of its movement, continues to be so associated with each of the evolving stadiums of categories up to the evolution of the prakṛti, and later on with all the other categories that are evolved from the prakṛti. In the account of Kapila Samkhya as found in the Ahirbudhnyasamhita this conglomeration of the purușas is admitted to be the changeless category that is associated with the evolution of the categories and descends gradually through the successive stages of their evolution until we come to the complete human stage with the evolution of the different senses and the gross elements. Unlike the account of puruşa that is found in the classical Samkhya
1
codyamane'pi sṛştyartham pūrṇam guna-yugam tadā amfataḥ samyam āyāti viṣṇu-samkalpa-coditam.
Ahirbudhnya-samhitā, VI. 62.
