Charaka-Samhita — trans. Kaviraj Avinash Chandra Kaviratna

By those that are Emancipated among also the Sankhyas who have taken the measure of every duty, the same has been spoken of as the road to Emancipation.*I57-58

* ' Tat ' is, literally, ‘ That,’ implying the Unknowable Principle of the Universe, vis.. Supreme Soul or Deity. All other objects are capable of being explained or described by means of their attributes. The Supreme Soul is incapable of being so explained or described. By vesting Him with attributes, one limits what is in reality illimitable. He is, again, without sex, and attributes diametrically opposed to each other may co-exist in Him. The following hymn explains the matter clearly. “ Salutations to that which Is inconceivable, of unmanifest form, divested of attributes, and the soul of attributes, etc., etc.” In the Upanishads the deity is described by negatives. He is not this ; not this ; not this ; and so on. Hence, the pronoun ‘ That ’ is a convenient mode of referring to Him. ‘ Tattwa ’ is ‘ Thatness,1 if such a derivative could be formed in English.

It is by strength of memory relating to the highest principle or ‘ Thatness ’ that one can attain to Emancipation. The first couplet has reference to the theory of the Vedantists, that oblivion of its own true nature leads the soul to birth and rebirth. By reverting to its own true nature, which can never be accomplished without the aid of Memory, the soul or self avoids rebirth or becomes Emancipate. Yogins also regard memory as the only path to yoga-success. The memory of which yogins speak as the sole means of success is not the memory of ordinary occurrences, or memory relating to ordinary branches of knowledge, but it has reference to Iswara as distinct from both Purusha and Prakriti. Of course, it is the yoga-system of Patanjali which endorses this view.

The Sankhyas also regard Memory as the path to Emancipation, for, according to them, when one succeeds in distinguishing Purusha from Prakriti,

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CHARAKA SAMHITA.

All this, which has a cause, is misery ; is not of 'Self; is not immutable.

Nor is it Self ; since it is created ; in it arises (the idea of) Selfness, as long as true understanding arises not, by which, knowing that this is not Self and this is not of Self, the Knower transcendeth all.*1®9-60 that is, when one realises that one is not identical with Prakrit! and lias, further, no relation with Prakriti or what is born of Prakriti, — one becomes Emancipate.

The Rishi gives in the last line of the verse something like an explana¬ tion or derivation of the word ‘ Sankhya.’ Some European scholars take the word as implying a connection with numbers. According to them, the ‘Sankhya system of philosophy was probably connected with mathematics or the science of numbers before it assumed the form in which we know it. Atri (or Charaka), in the passage before us, uses the adjective ‘ Sankhyltadharma ’ for qualifying ‘ Sankhyas.’ The word, literally, means * those who have measured all the duties,’ probably in the sense of ‘ those who have taken the measure, by study and observation, of the entire range of duties, or of all the duties prescribed by religion or the religious systems or creeds of the country.’ Evidently, in the popular estimation, the Sankhyas were •more deeply learned in religious lore. It is worthy of note that the Pauranik and the Tantrik forms of faith are all entirely based upon the two main principles of the Sankhya philosophy, vis., Purusha and Prakriti. On the one hand, Vishnu, Brahman, Siva, Ganesha, Surya, and all the male deities represent Purusha, while Durga, Kali, Lakshmi, Saraswati, etc., are symbols •of Prakriti. — T.

* The first verse : is exceedingly ahstr-use. The Bengali translators have misunderstood it completely. Gangadhara also makes a mess of it.

What the Rishi wishes to say is this : All this, meaning the not- Self, has a cause, being created. Hence, it is misery. Being so, it is not of the Self, for Self is increate. It is also not immutable, for all that is not-Self is characterised by mutability. Having said so much in the first line, the Rishi says, in the second line, though in one sense it is only a repetition,

CHARAKA SAMHITA.

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