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XXIV] Kapila's philosophy in the Bhāgavata-purāņa 47 stituents of praksti. Time (kāla) also is to be identified as God, because it is by the agency of God that the gunas combine, that He is regarded as the cause of the combination of the gunas. T'he view which regards kāla as the cause of the combination of the gunas is grounded on this fact, and it is for that reason that in the scriptures kāla has been regarded as the name of lśvara. As everything proceeds from the category of mahat, that itself is called svabhāva or nature. Thus the two apparently conflicting views that kāla and svabhāva are to be regarded as the ultimate causes of the world may well be reconciled with the Sāmkhya according to the above interpretation.
The school of Sāmkhya which reckons nine categories counts merely puruşa, prakrti, mahat, ahamkāra and the five elements. Those who reckon eleven count the five cognitive and conative senses and the manas only. Those who reckon five categories count the five sense objects only. Those who reckon seven count the five sense-objects, the soul and God. Those who reckon six include within them the five sense-objects and the purusa. There are others, however, who regard earth, water, fire and the soul as four categories. Others take the five sense-objects, the eleven sense-organs and the puruşa as categories. By excluding manas some hold that there are only sixteen categories. Others take the five sense-objects, the five cognitive senses, manas, soul and God, and thus arrive at the thirteen categories. Others take the five sense-objects, the five cognitive senses and the sense as the eleven categories. Others count prakrti, mahat, ahamkāra, the five tanmātras and the puruşa as the nine categories.
It is regrettable that apart from a reference to the above schools of Sāmkhya and the attempts at their reconciliation found in the Bhāgavata, it is not possible to trace these doctrines to the original works, which must have long preceded the period of the composition of the Bhāgavata. The Bhāgavata is interested in the theistic Sāmkhya doctrine, as has already been shown, and attempts to reconcile the conflicting schools of Sāmkhya as being substantially one school of thought. It further holds that the prakyti and its manifestations are produced through the operation of the diverse power of the māyā of Isvara. At the time of dissolution (pralaya) God remains in absolute identity with Himself, and the gunas, which are the various manifestations of His māyā power, remain in
