AT THE FEET OF THE MOTHER
Ask Alok da

There is Sankhya Yoga (Buddhi Yoga – as described in the Second Chapter of the Bhagvad Gita) and there is Sankhya Darshan described by Kapil Mahamuni. Could you please explain the difference between the two. 🙏🏻🪷

The Gita is a synthesis of Sankhya, Yoga (synonymous with Karma Yoga) and Vedanta (the Gyaan aspect). To these, it adds a powerful and uplifting element of Bhakti and surrender, which are not found in Sankhya or Vedanta. It is an integral path. Also, the Gita speaks of the double nature, the higher Divine Nature (Paraprakriti), while the Sakhya speaks only of Prakriti as it operates here. There is only one Purusha in the Sankhya who is primarily a Sakshi or else involved in Nature and thereby bound. The Gita speaks of three Purushas, the Uttam Purusha, beyond these two. Sankhya is in its philosophy is quite an atheistic and mechanical in the determinism. The Gita is Theistic and looks to a state beyond the three gunas that are deterministic. The only elements of Sankhya taken by the Gita is the role of the discerning intellect, Buddhi, the Witness state, the three gunas, the Self above nature and the multiplicity of souls. But there is so much more that the Gita brings in as its own unique revelation, as well as synthetic elements that make it a much more complete system than any other before that.

Affectionately,

Alok Da

Follow-up question:

Sri Aurobindo has talked about Sankhya(of Kapil Mahamuni) in his Essays on the Gita. Am I right, Alok Da?

Yes, but with reference to the Gita. He has also spoken about it in the Synthesis of Yoga, Letters on Yoga, volumes 1 and 2, and Karmayogin. 

Affectionately,

Alok Da

Share this…

Related Posts

Alok da, Beggining with your training in psychology to walking in the path of The Mother today, what is your estimate of psycho spiritual condition of humans at large, I don’t even mean spiritual or yogic but atleast of what you’d consider a healthy mind and spirit. How much percentage of humanity do actually fit the bar of being healthy souls? I was curious to ask this question cos I was reading a bit of these psychiatric studies and the characteristics which describe those who are supposedly to be found only in psychiatric wards doesn’t seem to be too far away from your everyday “normal” human beings whom we meet all around and i felt this to be a bit scary. If not a supramental life, what you’d consider atleast of the essentials required of living a healthy life mentally and emotionally?

Let us leave the supramental, spiritual and psychic apart for a moment. Nor can we arrive at the real problem if we just think in terms of numbers and case studies.

1. Has there been an increase of psychiatric as well as other illnesses?

Most probably yes. The reason is manifold. Science with its expansion of medication has lowered the natural resistance as far as physical conditions go. Labelling is another problem as far as psychiatric illnesses go. Labelling isolates a person and then instead of treating him as an organic whole we treat symptoms. There is also…

Read More >

I feel now that I was never unhappy. Just disillusioned with the world around me after a certain point in life. Needed to find the truth. About people. Reality of time. Other things. Work. Things told/said to me vs my own experience. 🌱🌟 […]

The purpose is inbuilt within us as the tree is held back within the seed. So too the soul within is the seed within and its purpose is to realise, express and thereby fulfil the Divine Possibility or the Divine Purpose within it. It happens through a process of unfolding across lives. As we draw closer to the soul the more we feel conscious of …

Read More >