TERM PAPER

TOPIC- SANKHYA-YOGA AND SCIENCE

विशिष्टसंस्कृ ताध्ययनके न्द्रम्

जे.एन.यू,दिल्ली-११००६७

GUIDED BY PRESENTER

Dr.R.N.Jha RAVI PRAKASH

M.A (1ST SEM )
INTRODUCTION

The association of Philosophy and science has been the topic of scholarly
discussions for several centuries. According to definition Science is totally a new
branch of study that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable
explanations predictions about the world. It is extracted from the Latin world,
‘Scientia ’meaning Knowledge. An older and closely related meaning still in use today
is that of Aristotle, for whom scientific knowledge was a body of reliable knowledge that
can be logically and rationally explained". On the other hand the word Darsan is derived
from the root drsir darsane i.e to see by adding lyut suffix in the sense of instrument.
’दृश्यते अनेन इति दर्शनम ् ’signifies that instrument through which something
particular be seen. In Sanskrit literature the branch of Metaphysics is called darshana,
i.e. sight or vision. The vision of real nature of the substance may be called philosophy .
Science and philosophy have always learned from each other. Philosophy
tirelessly draws from scientific discoveries fresh strength, material for broad
generalisations, while to the sciences it imparts the world-view and
methodological impulses of its universal principles.

As far as my topic
is concerned it is about Samkhya yoga and its relation with Science. This includes
huge discussions. I am not going to describe all those perspectives but yet
whichever are important are the contents of my this term paper. From the early
readings we may find that science is inbuilt in day to day lives of our ancestors.
For eg people of that time used to worship the Peepal tree it means obviously
they knew the importance of that tree. There were a lot of examples which shows
that they were aware of the importance of science. To show these all things are
not under my concern despite this I have to show the association between
Samkhya-Yoga and science.

Samkhya darsan

The Samkhya system is considered to be the oldest Indian Philosophical systems.

There are references to this system in the Upanishads, the Gita, and the
Mahabharata. The word sankhya has two meanings; the knowledge and the
number.Maharshi Kapila is the originator of the system. The two important
source books for the system are Isvara Krishna’s Sankhyakarika and the
Vachaspati’s Tattva-Kaumudi. This system contains elaborate discussions on
Purush and Prakriti.The most important principles are that of Purusha and Prakriti,
which are consciousness and primordial matter. Everything else emerges from
Prakriti, and then is infused with Purusha. So, for example, all the levels of
manifestation of the human (gross and subtle) are Prakriti, but have life due to the
infusion of Purusha.

Purusha: Of the two companion principles, Purusha is consciousness that is

untainted, ever-pure. It is self-existent, standing alone from other identities of
individuality; conscious being-ness; the principle of spiritual energy.

Prakriti: The other of the two companion principles, Prakriti is the unconscious,
unmanifest, subtlest of the material aspect of energy. It is the primordial state of
matter, even prior to matter as we know it in the physical sense. Prakriti manifests
as the three gunas and the other evolutes.

Samkhya philosophy accepts both the substratum and the world of subatomic particles as two
independent existences. The former it labels as sentient Purusha and the latter as insentient
Prakriti. Prakriti as Primordial Energy is composed of three sets of subatomic particles, Gunas -
sattva, rajas, and tamas. Innumerable permutations and combinations, and predominance of
one or more gunas, create characteristic universe of qualities, names, and forms.
Yoga

The Yoga System of Maharshi Patanjali is the most widely known and popularly
appreciated system of thought. The system of Yoga is a psychosomatic process for
training the mind and keeping the body under control. The source and significantly
single inspiration for Indian psychology is the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. The date
assigned to Patanjali is the second century B.C. The Yoga system is considered to be
complementary to the Sankhya. If Sankhya is the theory; yoga is its practical side. The
Yoga System enables one to realize kaivalya (liberation), i.e., his true nature. It tells
that By gaining control over mind and its modifications one can attain the highest
state of wisdom or Samadhi and also When you come to realize your essential nature,
you get freedom.

You are constantly identifying yourself with the objects of the world. That is why you are
suffering.
RELATION BETWEEN SAMKHYA-YOGA AND SCIENCE

Metaphysics is the science that investigates into the first principles of nature and
thought. It is that part of philosophy, which is concerned with the study of things and
their ultimate causes and their underlying but unseen nature, often called philosophy.
Philosophy is the study of the nature of knowledge. Philosophy is a covered system of
thoughts, backed by logic as reason and arguments and manifests itself as a cream or
essence of spirituality.

Physics must recognise that nature or matter is layered, from gross to subtle as subatomic
particles. For the last one hundred years, the principle of causation used mind-body reasoning
to account for the behaviour of gross matter. However, until recently, Quantum Physics had to
abandon such methods, as it explores nature in its subtle states, and thereby finds it enigmatic
to explain how subatomic particles behave.

Samkhya is also physics, to the extent of twenty four elements, Purusha excluded, being
analysed for the effects of behaviour. Rather than the causal methods of analysis or reasoning
from observation, Samkhya employs the technique of awareness or feelings from the effects of
subtle matter, as prāna. This leads to knowing by intuition or revelation, having exceeded the
mind or body consciousness. Even Sir Isaac Newton made use of the principle of intuition, as he
popularly remarked that the mind wills the results.

Renee Descartes, eighteenth century French philosopher, in his famous dictum declared: “Cogito
ergo sum” – I think, therefore, I am. Thus, dualism was born showing a separation of body from
mind, causing a taint of genuiness and authenticity of the ‘observer’ and the ‘observed’ in the
limitation of physics. basic philosophy is a culmination of matter that arose in quantum theory,
and demonstrates an essential and universal interrelationship or dynamic content of relativity, as
in the concepts of Purusha and prakriti, two of the twenty five elements of Samkhya
metaphysics. As part of such dynamism, Purusha and prakriti may be analogized as strong and
weak particles, or matter- antimatter. Within the Samkhya tree of twenty five elements,
analogous to the approximately 108 elements of the periodic table of chemistry, there is constant
transformation marked by cohesive interrelationship of matter in a state of Being and Becoming,
within the laws of conservation and symmetry.
Samkhya metaphysics and Patanjali “Yoga Sutras” are schools within a unified system of
Hinduism. Samkhya Metaphysics consists of the Yoga Sutras, an enumerative principle of
analysis, by its twenty five principles; Yoga Psychology, the Karikas or verses, and Philosophy
provide a basis for an individual Self-analysis. Liberation or emancipation, a severance from
matter or the body, is directed to reaching such higher planes. Self-Realisation is not be meant
as an elixir or momentary spiritual state of Bliss, while remaining on prithvi lok, the lowest
plane, but to go to higher planes, in fulfillment of the divine ordinance 1 for further evolution,
and refinement of the individual. Discussed hereinbelow, the behaviour of matter or nature by
having several layers from the gross to the subtle, may not be known by mind-body reasoning
of physics, nor be otherwise known without conscious beyond the mind.

Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras, IV, 34 states:

पुरुषार्थशून्यानां गुणानां प्रतिप्रसवःकैवल्यं स्वरूपप्रतिष्ठा वा चितिशक्तिरिति ॥.

There is a reconciliation of matter and Spirit, or [Quantum Physics and Samkhya

Metaphysics]. Spiritual life is the inverse resolution of the potencies of nature, emptied of
value for the seer. It is a return to Consciousness. The gunas are the natural attributes of
prakriti which exists for the sake of the purusa in achieving its object.Pursuant to the
fulfillment of their purpose in relation to the purusa their existence is no more relevant
to the specific Purusa.In that eventuality ,the gunas completely get dissolved in the
prakriti after having been separated from the particular Purusa. Thus Purusa remains
alone and abides in its own real nature.This state of Purusais called (liberation)the
state of pure consciousness.

The Dance of Shiva, a dynamism, affirms matter is in a state of transformation of Being and
Becoming, while Quantum, or degree of change, in Physics recognise that there is rhythm in the
universe , as shown by change of seasons, or night-day.
A Synthesis or a unified theory necessitates the part-counterpart of physics changing, meta, into
metaphysics. Just as a blind man may not walk too far into unfamiliar territory, as is one with
broken legs; by equal coexistence, they can become functional if the blind man takes the other
upon his shoulders and walk at his guidance. In sum, a dualism of nature conceived by physicists
brings a certain denoument without the help of Metaphyics. Thusly, western conception of
Enlightenment by of the mind, rather than Feeling, or Consciousness dissipates

Samkhya has huge perspectives than science. The following topics are describing about samkhya
and science and how Samkhya is special than Science….

1. The method of elliptical negation provided logical internal proof. Even today, Physics would
not impose such a constraint for it cannot unify even one set of forces.
2. It was based on numerical axioms, which cannot be disproved and was valid for all times. No
theory in science is based on numerical axioms as of today
.

1
3. The entire mathematical process involved only counting. Sir Roger Penrose, author of twister
theory, foresaw that a correct theory could only be based on some principle of combinatorial
counting.

4. Sankhya theory is based on starting from a clean slate. Physics was started right in the middle
from experimental inputs that became empirical and so has tremendous complications for it to
find its clean slate.

5. All manifestation processes were defined by one type of event and that was an interaction in
three
modes. Science today has a variety of definitions, like mass, momentum, acceleration, energy
etc, except quantum theory which counts the rate of phenomenon, based on the Planck's constant.
It is the closest to Samkhya principles.

6. The first interaction can axiomatically be only between the first two objects. So all the laws of
interaction must be completely derived within the very first interaction. Physics having started in
the
middle has a very long way to go before it can define the first interaction.

7. All counts of interactions were always a ratio between one set and another similar unit, so that
dimensionality of the interacting objects cancelled out and only a pure relational and
dimensionless
number formed the solution. The unit 1 in Sankhya is a ratio of infinity upon infinity. This is an
important feature in science for keeping account of dimensionality, which complicates Physics to
ridiculous levels.

8. Since only interactions were to be counted, all manifestation consisted only of oscillations or
vibrations. In terms of a scientific concept, it meant that Sankhya treated the Universe as a
vibrating hologram(spirituality or ethereal vibrations in lay equivalence). It was either changing
its state by transmigration of stresses or oscillated in the same location as a frozen hologram. It is
an advanced concept that removes all the anomalies in Physics mentioned in the second
paragraph.

9. Interactions took place in 3 Guna modes namely simultaneous, resonant and radiant states.
The
equivalent in Physics is the inelastic or Tama, elastic or Satwa and weak interactive force or
Raja. The three Sankhya modes dealt only with time cycle variations as a counting procedure.
Logically in a dynamic theory cyclic time was the true variable, for Sankhyan space being real
and substantial, could not vary.

10. Space as the foundation of the Cosmos or Universe was described only by the relative
interactive
qualities needed to sustain manifestation and ensured that only the process of counting
interactions was used to account for its balanced state. From the scientific point of view it was
not necessary to consider the quality of space or its contents and showed that Sankhya was a
relativistic theory.
11. Manifestation is self-similar and scale-invariant. This allows the same formulation to be
applied
mathematically to define the Universe, Galaxy, Sun, Nucleon, Electron or any particulate state
through one constant parameter. Physics, not being scale invariant, needs at least three
parameters and they are not constants.

12. The fundamental field of space in Sankhya is mathematically defined in Sanskrit as Aikanta
(coherent or frozen as a single entity), Athyantha (without end-perpetual), Atho (dynamic) and
Abhavath (unmanifest or balanced). Physics cannot define space as it is classified as a vacuum.

13. The holographic mode of manifestation is proved mathematically by showing that all
phenomenon is bound simultaneously by a spectrum of seven states and released sequentially be
one mode. The enigma in science, why sound, light, particulate, molecular, atomic, nuclear and
sub particle level have a periodicity spectrum, is resolved axiomatically.

The above parameters are some of the 'easy to understand' aspects that differed from Physics.
Sankhya enables the tabulation of the entire Cosmic manifestation parameters similar to any
mathematical log table or almanac, with the certainty there will be no phenomena found falling
outside it. This aspect is not possible in science today. How do we know Sankhya is right?
Differentiating the Sankhya-derived mass of the Universe by its smallest displacement leaves a
precise single unit-angular displacement value of the very first interaction. Such accuracy is
possible only in the realm of the divine! Sankhya also gives equally accurate numerical solutions
to both scientific and holistic problems in phenomenon. The latter process by itself is an
extraordinary confirmation of Sankhyan supremacy, for science has deliberately closed its eyes
to it and actually believes holistic perception does not exist!

Samkhya view of space.

The characteristics of space has been accurately identified and defined numerically
in Sankhya theory. It will enable us understand how and why we should submit to
its resonant state.

a.) It is in a coherent state. Therefore it presents a unified

and homogeneous state of existence.

b.) It exists continuously. It acts as a continuum and

therefore seems to exist permanently.

c.) It is amorphous and flexible. It therefore changes and

interacts dynamically.

d.) It is observed to be in a passive state normally. It therefore seems un-manifest

and un-detectable. When any two adjacent objects interact, it must collide, rebound
and separate. This is a cycle of three phases in an interaction. Space is formed by a
sea of fundamental components called ‘Moolaprakriti’, in Sankhya. When each of
these units interact with adjacent ones, the cyclic interactions continue endlessly
and follows a unique and axiomatic law. Over a period of time, the interactions
organize into harmonious and balanced groups of resonant vibrations. All the
phenomena we witness are just such groups in various degrees of organised
states.A human being (and every other thing too) can be seen simply as a very
highly organized bundle of Moolaprakritis. It cannot be anything other than a
Moolaprakriti, but this bundle is called a Purusha state, to identify it as a separate
unit. . Scientifically speaking, such an organized group of cyclic vibrations form a
holographic state. It lays the foundation for the concept of spirituality or the
amorphous state of all existence. Quantum theory in current physics has concepts
similar to Sankhya but without the latter’s advanced mathematical structure. We
(and all other things too) are always immersed in this resonant

CONCLUSION
Samkhya is considered as one of the oldest philosophical systems in India. It is one of the six
orthodox systems of Hindu philosophy. They have in common that they all recognise the
authority of the Vedas.

Ancient Samkhya stands for a pluralistic spiritualism, without any place for a creationist God in
it. The old Samkhya denies the existence of Ishvara (God), and maintains there is an
intermingled duality between spirit/consciousness (Purusha) and matter (Prakriti).

Samkhya studies or observes matter and Spirit, and physics is an extension of such studies.
Matter is the common denominator, and as a common source for both disciplines, is amenable
to synthesis or convergence. The individual, as shown by Samkhya Yoga, can achieve or
experience Self-Realisation, reaching a Spiritual or Superconscious plane, within the confines of
matter and spirit. Thus, a synthetically reciprocal relationship may be obtained by Samkhya
Metaphysics, Spirit; with Quantum Physics, matter. An affirmation of the instant case of
Realisation is then possible for the individual, also extends to the two disciplines that synthesis
may naturally occur.

Under Samkhya Yoga, Superconsciousness may be reached by means of the synergistic effect of
matter and Spirit. Spirit in the form of meditation or awareness, helps the control or influence
of matter or nature on consciousness. The realism is that the individual takes birth in nature, so
as to be afforded the opportunity of realising a higher state of consciousness. A combination of
matter and spirit, as the individual is akin to a synthesis for physics and Samkhya. Consciousness
can be bodily or in the mind, as cognitive or perceptive reasoning. Even if physics use inference
with mind-body reasoning, it does not appear to be amenable to intuition, a form of valid proof
Matter has only incidental or collateral importance to the primary goal of reaching
Superconsciousness by Samkhya. Matter or nature is to be disentangled from Spirit, in
necessitating such consciousness. Physics, on the other hand is wholly entangled with nature or
matter, and does not have the clarity of reasoning, as occasioned by Samkhya, to properly
explain the truth, independent of mind-body reasoning.

In September 1893, Vivekanannda highlighted the future unification of

Western science and Indian philosophy (then especially Vedanta). To the august assembly of
Westerners gathered at the Parliament of Religion of Chicago held in 1893, Vivekananda
declared:

“Science is nothing but the finding of unity. As soon as science would reach perfect unity, it
would stop from further progress because it would reach the goal. Thus chemistry could not
progress further when it would discover one element out of which all the others are but
manifestations. And the science of religion would become perfect when it would discover Him,
who is the one life in a universe of death, Him who is constant basis of an ever-changing world,
one who is the only Soul of which all souls are but delusive manifestations. Thus is it through
multiplicity and duality, that the ultimate unity is reached. Religion can go no further. This is the
goal of all science.” (The complete work of Swami Vivekananda, Vol.1,p.14-15.)

Science is supposed to be concerned with identification of reality.  Science is a means of gaining

knowledge, and that means a grasp of what reality is.  Knowledge isn't just used to predict how
an experiment will turn out.  It also aims at creating new opportunities.  By understanding what
is going on, you can act to further your life.  The more knowledge you have, the more options
available.

So if scientists try to divorce themselves from philosophy by ignoring it, they will fall victim to
it.  And worse, they probably won't know it.  Philosophy is concerned with one's fundamental
premises, and sets the stage for how you interpret the evidence of your senses.  If you accept
that knowledge is not concerned with identifying reality but with making predictions, it should
be no surprise that you will eventually come to the conclusion that knowledge can only make
predictions, and that reality is ultimately unidentifiable.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

(a)… Pantanjali yoga sutra by G.L.verma

(B)…Secret of Sankhya by G.Srinivasan

(c)…Modern physics and Vedanta by Swami.Jitatmanand.

(d)…Sankhya unifies Science and Riligion by G.srinivasan

(e)… Internet Resources…….

(f)…Samkhyadarsana by Dr. Ramnath jha.

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