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The Bhagavata-purāṇa
[CH.
being already contained in the cause) or by ignoring some of the successive causal entities (as being present in the effect)1. Thus, there may be systems of Samkhya schools where the tanmatras are not counted or where the gross elements are not counted as categories. The explanation in all such cases is to be found in the principle that some thinkers did not wish to count the tanmātras, as they are already contained in the gross elements (ghate mṛdvat); whereas others did not count the gross elements, as these were but evolutes in the tanmātras (mrdi ghatavat). But there are differences of opinion not only as regards the evolutionary categories of prakṛti, but also as regards the souls or the purusas and God. Thus there are twenty-four evolutionary categories (including prakṛti); purusa is counted as the twenty-fifth category, and according to the theistic Samkhya God or Isvara is counted as the twenty-sixth. It may be objected that the above principle of reconciliation of the diverse counting of categories by subsuming the effect under the cause, or by ignoring the former, cannot apply here. The theistic Samkhya admits Isvara on the ground that there must be some being who should communicate self-knowledge to individual souls, as they cannot, by themselves, attain it. If on such a view the theistic school of twenty-six categories is regarded as valid, the other school of twenty-five categories becomes irreconcilable. To this the reply. is that there is no intrinsic difference in the nature of puruşa and Isvara, as they are both of the nature of pure consciousness. The objection that even on the above supposition the self-knowledge communicated by Isvara has to be counted as a separate category is invalid, for self-knowledge, being knowledge, is only the heightening of the sattva quality of the prakṛti and as such falls within prakṛti itself. Knowledge is not a quality of the purusa, but of the prakṛti. The state of equilibrium in which the gunas are not specifically manifested is called prakṛti. An upsetting of the equilibrium leads to the manifestation of the gunas, which have, therefore, to be regarded as attributes of the prakṛti. The puruşa, not being an agent, cannot possess knowledge as an attribute of its own. So, all activity being due to rajas and all ignorance being due to tamas, activity and ignorance are also to be regarded as con
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1 anupraveśam darśayati ekasminnapiti pūrvasmin kāraṇabhūte süksma-rupena praviṣṭāni mrdi ghatavat. aparasmin karya-tattve kāraṇa-tattvāni anugatatvena pravistäni ghate mydvat. Sridhara's commentary on sloka 8.
tattve
