Extract from: Jawaharlal Nehru, ‘The Six Systems of Philosophy’, The Discovery of India (London: Meridian, 1951), pp.162-70

The six systems are known as: (1) Nyaya, (2) Vaishesika, (3) Samkhya, (4) Yoga, (5) Mimamsa, and (6) Vedanta. (Nehru, p.162)

…

The Samkhya system, which Kapila (c. seventh century B.C.) is said to have shaped out of many early and pre-Buddhist currents of thought, is remarkable. According to Richard Garbe: ‘In Kapila’s doctrine, for the first time in the history of the world, the complete independence and freedom of the human mind, its full confidence in its own powers, were exhibited.’

The Samkhya became a well-co-ordinated system after the rise of Buddhism. The theory is a purely philosophical and metaphysical conception arising out of the mind of man and having little to do with objective observation. Indeed, such observation was not possible in matters beyond its reach. Like Buddhism, Samkhya proceeded along rationalistic lines of inquiry and met the challenge of Buddhism on the latter’s own ground of reasoned argument without support of authority. Because of this rationalistic approach, God had to be ruled out. In Samkhya thus there is neither a personal God nor an impersonal one, neither monotheism nor monism. Its approach was atheistic and it undermined the foundations of supernatural religion. There is no creation of the universe by a god, but rather a constant evolution, the product of interaction between spirit, or rather spirits, and matter, though that matter itself is of the nature of energy. This evolution is a continuous process.

The Samkhya is called dvaita, or a dualistic philosophy, because it build its structure on two primary causes: prakriti, or an ever-active and changing nature or energy, and purusha, the spirit which does not change. There is an infinite number of purushas or souls, or something in the nature of consciousness. Under the influence of purusha, which itself is inactive, prakriti evolves and leads to the world of continuous becoming. Causality is accepted, but it is said that the effect really exists hidden in the cause. Cause and effect become the undeveloped and developed states of one and the same thing. From our practical point of view, however, case and effect are different and distinct, but basically there is an identity between them. [end p.163]

And so the argument goes on, showing how from the unmanifested prakriti or energy, through the influence of purusha or consciousness, and the principle of causality, nature with its immense complexity and variety of elements has developed and is ever changing and developing. Between the lowest and the highest in the universe there is a continuity and a unity. The whole conception is metaphysical, and the argument, based on certain hypotheses, is long, intricate, and reasoned. (Nehru, pp.163-4)

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