Whose Sankhya is the authorized Sankhya – the sage Kapila’s or of the avatara Kapila’s?
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Hare Krishna Question Which is the authorized Sankhya, the Sankhya of the sage Kapila or the Sankhya of Lord Kapiladeva as mentioned in the Srimad Bhagavatam. Answer here to understand the answer we need to specify what we mean by the word authorized. As there are in the Indian systems of philosophy there are six schools of philosophy which are considered orthodox.
Orthodox means they are astik which they are called astik because they accept the existence they accept the authority of the Vedas. So now among these six systems one of them is Sankhya and that Sankhya is propagated by Kapilamuni. So now when he taught Sankhya if we see no philosophy actually stays unless there is a proper parampara through which it is exactly preserved the philosophy changes over time.
So over time this Sankhya philosophy has come out to be seen as atheistic where although there is Purusha and Prakriti in Sankhya and Prakriti is made of gunas Sankhya literally means Sankhya to analyze, to count. So to analyze the material world, to analyze existence into its components. So firstly existence is analyzed into Purusha and Prakriti and then Prakriti is analyzed into the gunas and Prakriti is analyzed into further elements Mahabhutani and like that there is an analysis of counting and eventually this counting evolved into a complete philosophical system and although Purusha is talked about as an agent of consciousness there is no Ishwara as the final cause postulated in the Sankhya which was propagated by Kapil Muni and which has been subsequently propagated by various thinkers prominent of whom was Ishwara Krishna who propagated the systematized and propagated Sankhya teachings through his Ishwara Karika, Sankhya Karika which is a very important text in the Sankhya tradition so now this because there is no direct role for Ishwara so the Purusha is not considered the Ishwara in Sankhya the Ishwara as an independent source of everything as God in the theistic sense is not accepted in the Sankhya as is being taught by Kapila, so that’s why that is the system of philosophy is often considered as atheistic and it is not accepted as authorized by the Vaishnavacharyas Baldevidya Bhushan in his Vedanta Sutra commentary Govinda Bhashya explains systematically what are the faults with the atheistic Sankhya he explains how how unless there is Brahman as the source of everything we cannot have consciousness and matter existing because there is a question comes around that if neither of them is independent reality then where have they come from like that he gives various reasons by which he actually refutes Sankhya so when he is refuting Sankhya at that time he is refuting Sankhya as a metaphysical school of thought which claims to be which claims to be which claims to draw from Vedic authority but which defies the Vedic conclusion of surrender to Ishwara so that is the specific kind of Sankhya which the Vedanta Sutra refutes and Baldevidya Bhushan in his commentary he clarifies and elaborates on that refutation in terms that were contemporary to his times and now in his commentary he also mentions that the sages who propagated the six systems of philosophy were themselves great sages but by the arrangement of the Lord they were put under illusion so that they could propagate these philosophies by which people who wanted to claim the authority of the Vedas but did not want to follow the authority of the Vedas they could get certain ways in which by which they could claim to be in knowledge but stay in illusion so the Lord facilitates such people who want to pretend to be in knowledge but do not want to actually surrender to the Lord of knowledge for them the Lord arranged through the sages to propagate these forms of illusion now subsequently after the so now this is what was traditionally present in India so if we want to consider the six systems of philosophy one of them is Sankhya and the version of Sankhya that is prominently known in Indian history is or which is studied even mostly by philosophers whether in India or in the west is the atheistic Sankhya propagated by Kapil Muni and later by Ishwara Krishna so now the Srimad Bhagavatam actually shows how the various various strands and systems of thought that were there in the Bhagavatam that were there in India at various times they are at their core theistic not atheistic and that’s and it is this devotional reintegration of these systems of thought that is one of the distinctive contributions of the Srimad Bhagavatam so when Lord Kapiladeva teaches his teaches Sankhya in the Bhagavatam then at that time he is presenting the devotional reintegration of Sankhya with the conclusion of the Vedic wisdom that is Vedanta so therefore what the Bhagavatam presents as theistic Sankhya so from the point of view of being authorized in the sense of providing the authorized conclusion of the Vedas definitely the Sankhya that is taught by Kapiladeva in the Srimad Bhagavatam where the elements are analyzed but Prakriti is shown as the energy of the Purusha and the purpose of the analysis of material elements is shown to be as ultimately surrendering to the Lord of Prakriti surrendering to the Supreme Purusha the Purushottama that is the that is the Sankhya which is the authorized Sankhya so the Mahabharata also mentions about 24, 25, 26 Sankhya that means Sankhya which analyzes the material world 24 elements alone and that is does not talk about Purusha as being independent reality apart from Prakriti but just as a volute which at the time of liberation merges back into Prakriti and 25 Sankhya is which talks about Purusha as a distinct reality but it doesn’t talk about Purushottama that is talked about in 26 Sankhya so 26 Sankhya is what is talked about in the Bhagavatam so therefore the word Sankhya can have multiple meanings it can refer to simply a system of counting it can also refer to whole system of philosophical thought a school of thought and within that it can have different connotations so when generally we talk about six systems of philosophy in today’s convention as well as in most of recent historical memory the 24th the atheistic Sankhya is what is referred to and that’s why the Vedanta Sutra and commentaries on Vedanta Sutra refute that atheistic Sankhya but in intent that Sankhya was actually meant to be an analysis of material elements so that one could recognize these elements as energies of the Supreme Lord and surrender to that Supreme Lord and that devotional reintegration of Sankhya with its original purpose is done by Kapil Dev in the Bhagavatam so in the sense of the authorization in terms of fulfillment of its ultimate purpose it is Kapil Dev’s Sankhya which is authorized thank you question by