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INTRODUCTION
61
Brahmahatya is rejected by Kapila for all such rites according to him are impure. Further it leads to mere destruction. The method of sacrifice instead of leading to complete liberation from Samsara merely leads to another state of Samsaric existence. The end aimed at is happiness in Svarga and certainly this is not Mokṣa. Hence the path of sacrifice is the path of destruction and not of salvation. The traditional method is excessive or unequal. Sacrifice generally involves lot of expenditure, eg., in an Aśvamedha sacrifice sometimes hundreds of horses have to be sacrificed. Hence this method is not within the reach of all. Therefore as against such an impossible way of escape Kapila proposes a method which is quite adequate and feasible to all. The path to liberation according to Samkhya philosophy consists in the progress of acquiring discriminative knowledge of the nature of the self from its environmental existence. This discrimination that the spirit or Puruşa is quite different from Prakṛti or matter that leads to self-realisation which is the true Mokṣa. The material environment which practically imprisons the spirit is called by Kapila Prakṛti. The whole physical universe is but a manifestation of this Prakṛti. Hence the discriminative knowledge also means the knowledge of the number and the nature of the several Tattvas-ultimate principles. The problem relating to the path of Mokṣa resolves therefore into the problem as to the nature of the Tattvas. The next question therefore is what are the Samkhyan Tattvas? Kapila starts with the assumption that the self or Puruşa is quite distinct from Prakrti or the ultimate matter. The former is the spiritual principle in man whereas the latter, the primeval basic principle of the material universe. The cosmos is evolved out of this Prakṛti. In the midst of this unfolding and developing Prakrti the several Puruşsas are situated. According to Kapila the Purusas are infinite in number. Thus in the technical language of modern metaphysics the Samkhya system may be said to be the dualistic as well as pluralistic. Dualistic because it postulates two classes of reals Cetana and Acetana, spiritual and nonspiritual and pluralistic because it postulates an infinite number of Purusas or souls. Each Puruşa is encircled by Prakṛti or Pradhana which is another name for describing matter. In the earlier form of the Samkhya system each Puruşa was supposed to have his own peculiar and individual Prakṛti. But later schools of Samkhya maintained that all the different Pradhanas relating to different Purusas are really one in nature since they are all evolved from one and the same Prakṛti. The Puruşa who is encircled by an alien and extraneous matter forgets its true nature and pristine purity, identifies itself with bodily activities and conditions. This ignorance of its true heritage is the real cause of human misery. Hence the realisation of the true nature of the Puruşa as distinct from the material conditions is the ideal to be aimed at,
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