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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
SİMKHYA EVOLUTIONISM
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rium of the three constituents of prakỉti, viz, sattva (principle of buoyancy and illumination), rajas (energy) and tainas (inertia). "The first evolute is rahat or buddhi (intellection) which is followed by ahamkāra (ego or selfhood) as the second. From the ahamkāra are evolved the following sixteen--the five tanmātras (fine elements), the five organs of cognition, the five organs of action and the mind. From the five fine elements again the five gross elements arise. These twentythree evolutes together with praksti and the puruşa make up twenty-five principles. If the class of emancipated puruşas is added, the number comes to twenty-six. And Maheśvara is the twenty-seventh according to the Samkhya school which accepts God.
Liberation, according to this school, consists in the reinstaternent of the purusa in its own nature, which is attained by means of the discriminative knowledge of purusa and prakrti. It is likened to the state of dreamless sleep.
The Jaina philosopher has raised objections against the Sámkhya concept of prakrti and its evolution. Prakrti is eternal, ubiquitous and partless. Being partless, it should exist in its entirety everywhere and that would mean the existence of everything everywhere. But this is opposed to experience. We perceive different objects in different places and times, and not everything everywhere at all times. 1 But the opponent might contend that though it is admitted that everything exists everywhere, it is the presence or absence of manifestation I, which determines the perceptibility or otherwise of the object. But then what is this manifestation ? If it stands for the cognition of the previously uncognized object, you have to state whether the manifestation is eternal or occasional. li manifestation is occasional, it must be admitted to be freshly produced. And consequently what is the harın if the objects are also admitted as freshly produced. If, on the other hand, the manifestation is eternal, the original contingency of the perception of everything everywhere would revive.
Moreover, what is the relation between the prakrti and its evolutes ? Are the evolutes the products of the prakrti or only the transformations of it? If the evolutes are the products, they must be either pre-existent or pre-non-existent. But the production of pre-existent products is futile, and the production of the pre-non-existent products is impossible according to the Sānıkhya philosopher. An absolutely non-existent object cannot be produced. If, on the other hand, the evolutes are considered to be the transformations of the prakrti, they are
1 na hi pratyakşena sarvam sarvatra drśyate. -SŚP, p. 31.
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