1 Dr.Dr.P.V.Vartak M.B.B.S. Tel.No.020.4450387 Sankhya in Geeta Among the Shad-Darshanas i.e.

the six great philosophies of India, Sankhya is supposed to be the first. It is held that Sankhya Karika of Ishwarkrishna is the original Sankhya philosophy. But I do not Agree with this supposition because those Karikas do not contain a great knowledge and are quite recent in origin composed around second century A.D. On the contrary Sankhya philosophy told by Lord Krishna in his Geeta is profound in knowledge and is much ancient, told on Sunday, the 16th October 5561 B.C. as is calculated by me. Here I shall give the Sankhya from Geeta, which is recorded in chapter 2 from Verses 11 to 30. Wise men do not weep for either the dead or alive. It is not that we were not present before or will not be in future. One has to experience infancy, youth and oldness in the same body and in the same way has to get another body [rebirth]. We have to suffer from pairs like heat and cold, pleasure and worry, because they come and go. They are not persistent. The wise accepts bliss and sorrow equally, and is not hurt by anything and is capable of attaining Brahma. Asat [non-existent] never exists and Sat [existent] never disappears; even then the philosophers have seen the ends of both. The imperishable has occupied the whole Universe. Nobody can destroy it. That imperishable has occupied these bodies which are perishable. That imperishable does not kill or die. It does not take birth, does not die even if the body is killed. A person knowing that principle does not kill anybody. A man throws away old garments and takes new, in the same manner he leaves this body to join with a new. It cannot be cut, burnt, be wet or dry. It is stable, persistent, omnipresent, primeval, ancient. It is unmanifested, unthinkable. It never deviates, never transforms. One who knows this fact does not aggrieve. It takes birth and death repeatedly. A born is bound to die and a dead is bound to reborn. It is inevitable and should not be mourn for. All the existent things are unmanifested to begin with and after the end. They are manifested only in between, so why worry? Everybody is surprised to see it, hear it or tell it, but nobody understands Atman. Atman is present in all bodies and is imperishable. In short this is Sankhya Yoga. It is very ancient and original propounded by Kapila Muni. Krishna does not speak here about God or Ishwara or Prakruti or Purusha. He tells only about the eternal principle governing the Universe, which is 521 Shaniwar Peth, PUNE 411030

2 present in every body and every thing. It is astonishing to see that our ancestors achieved that principle. Let us now consider Sankhya philosophy here. Krishna says that the wise does not weep for either the dead or alive. Usually all the common people are aggrieved by death of a relative or friend. But wise men never weep for the dead because they know what death is. If a person understands death he will never lament. Death is supposed to be the greatest grief, other troubles are trivial. Then how can a wise wail for a living person in troubles? Ordinary people too do not lament for the living friend in any trouble because that distress is not permanent. Arjuna was aggrieved for Kauravas though they were alive. Therefore Krishna had to narrate this Sankhya philosophy. To explain why one should not lament on death, Krishna tells that death is a common factor in this living world. Hence he tells, it is not that I was never present before this life, or you were not there or all these kings were not present before. And it is not so that we will never appear in future. Krishna wants to insist that all of us were living on this world once upon a time, then we all died and after some time all of us have born again. Here Krishna expressed his firm belief in the rebirth theory. To explain rebirth, Krishna gives a simile. He tells that every body has to be in infancy for some time, then he has to be in a state of youthfulness for some period and then he has to suffer an old age. All these three stages are irresistible. We cannot skip any of these three stages. These three steps are inevitable for any body. Similarly the last step of death is also inevitable. There the body itself is changed while in the first three stages the condition of the body changes. But the change is there. Then why mourn for that change? A wise never laments for it. There are always some pairs in this world. Heat and cold, pleasure and grief, and so many other pairs are present on this globe. These twin conditions are unavoidable. But they come and go. They are never persistent. Hence we have to bear them, there is no alternative. These pairs are situated in all the objects or things [Matra] in this world. As soon as we come in contact with them they induce either pleasure or grief. By its mere touch we are glad or aggrieved. If we touch a carpet or cotton, we are delighted; but if we touch a thorn we get grief. By a touch of a cat or a hare we are happy, but the touch of a porcupine is grievous. Ice or snow gives pleasure if touched, but a hot pan gives pain. Thus a mere touch induces either fun or grief. When we talk of touch we consider only the tactile sense of skin. But other four sense organs, too, exhibit either pain or pleasure by touch.

3 Do ears, eyes, tongue and nose work through touch? Yes, they do use touch. For example, when we hear something, the sound waves touch the ear-drums. While looking at something, the light rays come from that object, enter our eyes and concentrate on the retina. It means the light touches the retina and therefore we can see. In the case of tongue the foodstuff has to touch the tongue to experience its taste. In the case of smell some particles or gas enter the nose and touch the mucous membrane there, then only we can smell. Thus all the five sense organs work on the principle of touch. Therefore Krishna has used the word 'Sparsha' which means touch to include all the senses. All these sense organs give bad or good touches of their objects. But those contacts with the bad or good are not permanent, they come and go. Therefore a wise is sure that though at present there is some grief, it will disappear after some time and so he does not lament on it. The good situations are also temporary, they are likely to vanish after some period, therefore, the wise does not boast for it. It is for this reason that one has to bear with the situation, good or bad, for some time without being pleased or aggrieved. The pain or bliss is sensed by the mind. We have to teach this philosophy to our mind. A wise equates sorrow and bliss so that no object of any of the five sense organs trouble him. The five functioning organs [tongue, hands, feet, sexual organ and anus] and their aims also do not harass him ever. Death of any close relative too does not agonize him. Similarly killing of somebody does not cause distress to him. If a wise is not able to bear a sorrow, he will never attain Moksha [total liberty]. Here I have used the word Moksha, but Krishna uses the word Amrutatwa. Many people, even scholars, translate Amrutatwa as immortal, but it is wrong; because nothing is immortal in this world. Krishna states that death is inevitable for any thing born. Amrutatwa is a principle which never dies, and that undying principle is Brahma Tatwa. To attain the Brahma Tatwa means releasing all the bonds of life, which means Mukti or Moksha. Here Krishna tells that one should never be afraid of death and hence need not run away from killing enemies. Non-existent Asat can never exist while Sat the existent will never be absent. Even then, the wise who have understood that principle, have seen the ends of both the Sat and Asat. How is this possible even if told by Krishna? Let us see here. Sat means the existent things. Depending on this word Sat, a new word Asat is coined for the things, which never exist. Can there be any thing, which never exists? Of course it is impossible. Even then this word is prepared to express our

4 imagination. Horse is Sat, but in its relation we can imagine a flying horse, which is not existing and so is Asat. If we see a flying horse instantly it will become Sat, and we can never say it to be Asat. Thus Asat can never exist. Then how its end is seen by the Seers? The sages went on examining every article in the world, every Sat, to its origin and found that the Sat is originated from a thing, which now does not exist. Therefore they called it as Asat. Thus they saw the origin of the Sat which is one end. They also saw the end of Asat. They visualized the end of Asat from where Sat arose. Thus they knew ends of both the Sat and Asat. This is narrated in the famous Nasadeeya Sukta of Rgveda [10/129]. This concept is principally accepted by modern science which states that the present Universe has born from a primordial gas which is now absent. Thus Sat has arisen from Asat. There is a play between Sat and Asat. Behold that Sat is always existent. We see this chair. Is it Sat? Anybody will say that it is Sat because we can see it. But can it be always existing? No. It will be damaged some time when it cannot be said to be Sat. But the steel from which it is prepared will exist. So one may say that steel is Sat. But it is also not true, because some time steel will rust and become Asat. That rust is a part of a Mahabhoota named as Pruthvi. One may say that Pruthvi, the Earth is Sat. But the earth also cannot exist for more than four billion years. It will disappear. Hence it is also not Sat. Prithvi disappears in Apa at the time of Pralaya. Apa merges with Teja, Teja mixes with Vayu, Vayu disappears in Akasha. So Akasha is really Sat, every thing else present in Akasha is Asat. Akasha may dissolve in Atma Tatwa. Thus the real Sat is only Atma Tatwa. It is also named as Brahma Tatwa. That Brahma is imperishable. Brahma has occupied the whole Universe. Brahma cannot diminish, decay, decline. Nobody can destroy Brahman. Modern science has not thought about Brahman but it has come to particles like Protons which never disappear practically. Science has not found out the matter of which Protons are composed. But the sages have gone within the particles to say that those particles also have composed of Brahma. Thus Sankhya is parallel to science. All the bodies are perishable which are occupied by the imperishable Atma Tatwa. That indestructible Brahman is beyond imagination, it is infinite. The bodies die or decay but that persistent principle remains unaffected. Therefore the one who thinks it to be a killer or killed does not know that it neither kills nor dies. In a body of a man there exists some energy. That energy effects the movements of

5 body just like a fan is rotated by electricity. If some one puts his fingers in the rotating fan and gets the finger severed do we blame the electricity? No. Similarly when Atman moves a body and another body gets killed we should not blame Atman. We cannot destroy electricity, similarly Atman residing inside a body cannot be destroyed. Atman neither originates nor dies. We cannot say that once born it will die and will not come again or will come again.; because Atman is unborn, continuous, eternal. It does not die even if its body is killed. The wise who understands that perpetual constant cannot kill any one. We throw old garment and wear a new, in the same way Atman leaves the old body to possess a new body. Atman cannot be cut, burnt, soaked or dried. It is constant, omnipresent, steady atom. It is invariable, perpetual. Therefore one should not lament on anybody'sdeath. If you think it to be born and dead again and again, then also you should not worry, because it will definitely come again even if killed. Every born has inevitable death and every dead has to take rebirth. Hence one should not lament on any death. What is death? Note that all the existing things were unmanifested to begin with, they manifest in the middle and get lost into unmanifested world again. If it is a routine then why lament? Any animal or object gets manifest at birth. But before the birth it was unmanifested. After its death again it becomes unmanifest. Thus it is a cycle continuous one. This is Sankhya philosophy told by Krishna in Geeta. He has not mentioned any God. He narrates only a perpetual principle. That eternal principle is termed as Atman or Brahman. Everybody gets surprised to see it or hear about it. Every body gets perplexed to talk about it. That Brahman controls this Universe. No other controller is needed, because it is the ruler, it is the ruled and the action of ruling is also Brahman. As it is all pervading, omniscient, knowing every thing, nothing can be hidden from it. It has established the laws of Karma. It is all scientific philosophy, nothing is superstition. Because only one principle is taken for granted in this philosophy, it is termed as Adwaita philosophy depicting non-duality. Because that one principle known as Atman or Brahman governs this world it is also named as Ishwar, the controller, because the root Ish means to govern, to control. Modern science is approaching this unique principle. Formerly, science held four different energies controlling the world namely electromagnetic, gravitation, weak and strong nuclear forces. Now it accepts only one force having four different aspects. Thus science also comes closer to the Adwaita philosophy.