The Self in Sahkhya-Yoga

who considered these questions became distracted from the chief problem of life, viz., how to deal with suffering.⁶ Among this list of questions was the problem of the nature of the soul in the in­carnate and in the liberated states. In Buddhism the term soul or self (atmari) designates a composite or aggregation (sanghatd) of five groups of fleeting, changing states (skandhas): body, feeling, perception, will, and consciousness. The atman is but a case of rapid continuity, just as a lighted stick when whirled around pro­duces the illusion of a circle of fire. Human life is an unbroken series of causes and effects without a spiritual substratum. Rebirth is a becoming without a transmigrating entity. The illusion of a permanent self is part of the human suffering which the Buddha came to alleviate.⁷

The dstika systems are usually regarded as six in number, al­though there is historical evidence for the existence of many more. The six are Nyaya, Vaisesika, Sankhya, Yoga, Mimamsa, and Vedanta. In spite of obvious differences and apparent contradic­tions among the six systems the almost universal tendency of modern students of Indian philosophy is to emphasize the agree­ment of the systems. The following quotations are representative of the prevailing opinion of recent scholars on the six systems:

⁶ See Troy Wilson Organ, "The Silence of the Buddha", Philosophy: East and West, Vol. 4, No. 2 (July, 1954), pp. 125-140.

⁷ Among the vast literature on Buddhism the following works are re­ commended: Edward Conze, Buddhism: Its Essence and Development (Oxford, Bruno Cassier Ltd., 1951); Paul Dahlke, Buddhism and its Place in the Mental Life of Mankind (London, Macmillan and Co., 1927); Ed- mond Gore Alexander Holmes, The Creed of Buddha (New York, John Lane Co., 1908); Christmas Humphreys, Buddhism (Harmondsworth, Pen­ guin Books, 1951); Arthur Berriedale Keith, Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon (Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1923); Louis de La Vallee- Poussin, Le dogme et la philosophic du bouddhisme (Paris, G. Beauchesne, 1930); T. R. V. Murti, The Central Philosophy of Buddhism (London, George Allen and Unwin, 1955); Hermann Oldenberg, Buddha, His Life, His Doctrine, His Order, translated by William Hoey (London, Williams and Norgate, 1882); Bhikshu Sangharakshita, A Survey of Buddhism (Ban­ galore, The Indian Institute of World Culture, 1957); Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, Outlines of Mahay ana Buddhism (London, Luzac and Co., 1907); Junjiro Takakusu, The Essentials of Buddhist Philosophy, edited by Wing- tsit Chan and Charles A. Moore (Honolulu, University of Hawaii, 1947). The Sacred Books of the Buddhists, edited by T. W. Rhys Davids and I. B. Horner, is published by the Oxford University Press.

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The Self in Sahkhya-Yoga

"agree on certain essentials";⁸ "development, according to certain points of view and in varied directions ... of a single doctrine";⁹ "complementary projections of the one truth on various planes of consciousness, valid intuitions from differing points of view";¹⁰ "a graduated interpretation of the Ultimate Reality, so interrelated that the hypothesis and method of each is dependent upon the other";¹¹ "so many stages on the road to truth";¹² "present an integrated development of thought";¹³ "a kind of unity behind the variety of the various philosophical systems, each being regarded as a step towards the highest and final truth".¹⁴

Three of the six systems are concerned chiefly with metaphys­ics; these are Vaisesika, Sankhya, and Vedanta. The Nyaya deals with logic, the Yoga with practical psychology, and the Mlmarhsa with ritual. Because of similarities of doctrine of certain pairs of schools, the six schools are commonly considered as three joint schools: Nyaya-Vaisesika, Sahkhya-Yoga, and Mimamsa-Vedanta. This classification is especially appropriate for a study of the self. However, since the Mlmamsa has little to offer on the nature of the self, it will be omitted altogether in this study; whereas two of the sub-schools of the Vedanta are so divergent in points of view that each is worthy of a chapter. Thus, the Indian conception of the self in the classical schools of philosophy will be considered in four chapters: the Sankhya-Yoga, the Nyaya-Vaisesika, the Advaita Vedanta of Sankara and the Visistadvaita Vedanta of Ramanuja. The order of treatment is the chronological order. Sahkhya-Yoga is the joint system formed by uniting what is

* S. Radhakrishnan, Indian Philosophy, Vol. 2 (London, Allen and Un­win, 1951, p. 24.

" Rene Guenon, Man and His Becoming According to the Vedanta. Translated by Charles Whitby (London, Rider and Co., 1945), p. 4.

¹⁰ Heinrich Zimmer, Philosophies of India (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1952, p. 605.

¹¹ Theos Bernard, Hindu Philosophy (New York, The Philosophical Li­ brary, 1947), p. 5.

¹² M. U. Mishra, History of Indian Philosophy, Vol. 1 (Allahabad, Tirab- hukti Publications, 1957), p. vii.

¹³ N. V. Thadani, The Secret of the Sacred Books of the Hindus (Delhi, Bharati Research Institute, 1953), General Editor's Note.

¹⁴ Max Miiller, The Six Systems of Indian Philosophy (New York, Long­ mans, Green and Co., 1928), p. 601.