Knowledge of the absolute truth (Sankhya #04)
Starting from chapter 3.26, Lord Kapila offers a more detailed explanation of the Sankhya philosophy, an explanation that goes all the way up to chapter 3.32 of Srimad Bhagavatam.
« SANKHYA, The Philosophy of Lord Kapila
Knowledge of the absolute truth
The verses we studied in the previous chapter correspond to the 25th chapter of the third canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, where Lord Kapilla offers a summary of his teachings, explaining the supreme goal and how the process of devotional service allows us to achieve it. This chapter is also explained by Srila Prabhupada in his book Teachings of Lord Kapila, which offers a very concise explanation of the Sankhya philosophy and how it elevates us to the platform of pure devotional service to the Lord.
Starting from chapter 3.26, Lord Kapila offers a more detailed explanation of the Sankhya philosophy, an explanation that goes all the way up to chapter 3.32. This is a school of knowledge that has existed for billions of years, since the reign of Svāyambhuva Manu, billions of years ago, and can liberate us by helping us to understand both the nature of this material world and the process of devotional service that makes us free from it. These chapters include some of the deepest purports Prabhupada wrote in the entire Srimad Bhagavatam, and in this work I try to explain them in detail, hoping this effort may help you to go deeper into his teachings.
Like in other passages of the Srimad Bhagavatam, a blessing is offered to those who study this section of the teachings of Lord Kapila with faith and attention. The blessing offered by Maitreya is that by studying this section one becomes fixed in meditation into the Supreme Lord, and at the time of death goes to the Supreme abode, where he attains the transcendental loving service of the Lord.
"The Personality of Godhead, Kapila, continued: My dear mother, now I shall describe unto you the different categories of the Absolute Truth, knowing which any person can be released from the influence of the modes of material nature. Knowledge is the ultimate perfection of self-realization. I shall explain that knowledge unto you by which the knots of attachment to the material world are cut." (SB 3.26.1-2)
In the Bhagavad-gita, Krsna explains the concept that different forms of sacrifices and spiritual realization culminate in transcendental knowledge. This transcendental knowledge is compared to a weapon that can be used to cut down the tree of material illusion, breaking the knots of attachment that keep us bound to it.
When one achieves love of Godhead, knowledge becomes secondary. Mother Yashoda doesn't remember that Krsna is God, she just loves Him as her son. However, as long as we are in the conditioned platform, transcendental knowledge is essential, because it allows us to differentiate reality from illusion and thus maintain ourselves in the spiritual path.
Lord Kapila continues:
"The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the Supreme Soul, and He has no beginning. He is transcendental to the material modes of nature and beyond the existence of this material world. He is perceivable everywhere because He is self-effulgent, and by His self-effulgent luster the entire creation is maintained. As His pastime, that Supreme Personality of Godhead, the greatest of the great, accepted the subtle material energy, which is invested with three material modes of nature and which is related with Viṣṇu." (SB 3.26.3-4)
Vedanta philosophy deals with five basic truths: The Supreme Lord, the jivas, material nature, time, and activities (karma). The jivas are eternally connected with the Supreme Lord, but when they somehow come in contact with material nature, their natural propensity to serve Krsna is converted into material activity, performed under the influence of the three modes. These material activities generate reactions that keep the soul entangled in the material world. All material activities happen under the purview of material time, and both time and material nature are eternal, being energies of the Supreme Lord. However, the interaction between them, which leads to the creation of the material world, is temporary.
All material activities happen inside this material manifestation, which exists under the limits of material time. Although material nature (as an energy) is eternal, the universe goes through innumerable cycles of creation and destruction. The soul is not part of the material manifestation, but we are here for so long that it is not possible to trace it back. In this way, Krsna, the souls, material nature, and time are eternal, but the material manifestation is not, and thus karma, or the actions and reactions of the living entities, is also not eternal. Since Karma is not eternal, it can be changed and eventually destroyed, and when this happens we can return to our original spiritual nature. The only true process to achieve this is devotional service to the Lord. Other processes of self-realization, such as jñāna and yoga are effective only to the extent that they are mixed with bhakti.
These five truths, as well as the interactions between them and the process of devotional service, are explained in detail by Lord Kapila in his Sankhya philosophy. In these first verses, He explains about the Lord.
a) He is the chief amongst all living entities.
b) He is eternal, without beginning. This also implies He doesn't change and has no end.
c) He is transcendental to this material world and to the three modes.
d) He is present everywhere as Paramatma and can be seen everywhere by the pure devotee.
e) He is self-effulgent, and this transcendental light (the brahmajyoti) maintains all creation.
f) Different from the souls, who somehow become covered by the material energy, the Lord participates in the material creation just as a pastime, without being affected by it.
Description of material nature
Having described the Lord, Kapila Muni now describes the material nature:
"Divided into varieties by her threefold modes, material nature creates the forms of the living entities, and the living entities, seeing this, are illusioned by the knowledge-covering feature of the illusory energy. Because of his forgetfulness, the transcendental living entity accepts the influence of material energy as his field of activities, and thus actuated, he wrongly applies the activities to himself. Material consciousness is the cause of one’s conditional life, in which conditions are enforced upon the living entity by the material energy. Although the spirit soul does not do anything and is transcendental to such activities, he is thus affected by conditional life." (SB 3.26.5-7)
The soul is transcendental, just like the Lord is, but because the soul is very small, it can fall under the control of material energy, while the Lord never falls into illusion. Even though it may be difficult to understand how the transcendental soul falls into illusion, and how the spiritual soul can become related to matter, it is still a fact that we are here.
Material nature is originally undifferentiated, as pradhāna, but after being agitated by the time energy it manifests three qualities: the modes of goodness, passion, and ignorance. When the three modes become manifested, pradhana becomes the mahat-tattva. By the combination of these three modes with time and the energy of the mahat-tattva, everything else is created, including the false ego, sense objects, material elements, etc.
Material nature manifests thus into many temporary manifestations that attract the conditioned souls. The souls thus accept many layers of material coverings to try to enjoy these creations, starting with the false ego, mind, and intelligence, going all the way to the material body and senses. Due to these coverings, the soul forgets his real nature and identifies with the body, accepting the body and the environment around it as his ksetra, or field of activities.
Originally, the soul is free to go anywhere in the creation, but becoming attached to a particular body and certain objects of the senses, the soul becomes restricted to a certain space, where he lives under very strict conditions, just like in a prison. That's what we call conditioned life. However, under the influence of illusion, the soul considers himself happy and has no desire to leave this position. When Indra was cursed to become a hog on our planet, he was initially very afraid, but when he finally came, he became so attached to his hog's life that he didn't want to go back to his position as the king of the heavens. Such is the power of illusion.
In reality, the soul has no relationship with the body and performs no material activities, but under the influence of illusion, we erroneously accept the activities of the body as our own, and due to this illusion we become affected by conditioned life, sharing the pains and pleasures of the body. One example that can be offered is that there are many cars parked all over the city. If one sees a truck crashing into some random car, he will not think much about it, but if he sees the same truck crashing into his own car, the reaction will be very different. The situation is the same, but because he is attached to this particular car, he feels pain and anxiety when it is damaged, although the damage to the car doesn't directly affect him as a human being. Similarly, the soul has nothing to do with the body or the objects related to the body, but due to attachment to it, the soul becomes affected.
The nature of material attachment is such that it always ends in pain and frustration because everything in the material creation is temporary. Being the soul eternal, we always hanker for a permanent situation, where we don't have to part from whatever we have. However, this is impossible in the material world. We thus become attached to different people and objects and lament when they wither and are taken away. The final loss is the body itself. One may lose a son, a spouse, or a limb, but death means losing all of this simultaneously.
In this way, as long as we are not ready to return to our original position of service to Krsna, we live engrossed in anxiety and lamentation, accepting one temporary situation after the other in the material ocean.
Who is responsible for our current position?
Lord Kapila continues:
"The cause of the conditioned soul’s material body and senses, and the senses’ presiding deities, the demigods, is the material nature. This is understood by learned men. The feelings of happiness and distress of the soul, who is transcendental by nature, are caused by the spirit soul himself." (SB 3.26.8)
When the Lord comes to this material world, He comes and goes according to His own will. He is completely free to play His pastimes and assume any form He wants. What about the soul? Who determines what kind of body we will accept? Who is responsible for our happiness and distress in this material world? Are we also just playing a pastime here, just like Krsna?
Mayavadis sometimes cynically say that, but that's not the fact. One may imagine himself as Narayana, and claim that he can control everything, but when a toothache comes he screams in pain and begs a dentist for help. It's quite easy to understand that our situation in the material world is different from the Lord when He comes as an incarnation.
We receive bodies according to the superior judgment of material nature based on our past activities. In this sense, we are different from Krsna. He is completely free, while we are forced to take one body after the other according to the results of our previous actions. We are thus the cause of our own happiness and distress and we indirectly choose in which condition we will live by our actions and desires.
We come to this material world due to our free will and at every step, we can choose between continuing our existence here, moving up or down, or starting our way back. Although the soul is part of the spiritual potency of Krsna, it is called the marginal potency due to the presence of free will. This free will is an intrinsic characteristic of the soul, the very thing that makes us different from inanimate matter. Free will implies that we are free to make the wrong choices, decisions that even Krsna respects. However, when we desire to return to our original, eternal position, Krsna helps us in every way.
As Prabhupada explains in his purport: "The living entity is the cause of his own suffering, but he can also be the cause of his eternal happiness. When he wants to engage in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, a suitable body is offered to him by the internal potency, the spiritual energy of the Lord, and when he wants to satisfy his senses, a material body is offered. Thus it is his free choice to accept a spiritual body or a material body, but once the body is accepted he has to enjoy or suffer the consequences."
Devahuti enquires further
Up to this point, Lord Kapila spoke about the Lord, the material energy, the jivas, and the relationship of the jivas with material nature. Now Devahuti wants to know more about the interaction between the Lord's different energies and the causes of the material creation. She asks:
"O Supreme Personality of Godhead, kindly explain the characteristics of the Supreme Person and His energies, for both of these are the causes of this manifest and unmanifest creation." (SB 3.26.9)
In the Bhagavad-gita (2.16), Krsna defines the spiritual potency as sat (existent) and the material world as asat (nonexistent), nāsato vidyate bhāvo, nābhāvo vidyate sataḥ. This is a quite delicate point of our philosophy. In one sense, the material world exists, because it is a manifestation of the energy of the Supreme Lord. Just like the Lord is not false, His energies are not false, and whatever is produced from the interaction of these different energies is also not false. However, at the same time, the material world is temporary, and in this sense, it is called "asat", because it is impermanent. The material world is thus different in nature from the spiritual reality.
The material manifestation is the result of the interaction of two potencies of the Supreme Lord: the external potency and the time potency, or kala. To this, are added the conditioned souls, who want to enjoy it, and the Lord Himself, present inside each universe as Garbhodakasayi Vishnu and everywhere as Paramatma.
Both the external potency and the time potency are spiritual and eternal, but the material manifestation that comes from their combination is temporary. The fact that they are eternal, also implies that both energies don't change as a result of the material creation, since change would contradict their description as eternal. Only temporary things can undergo change because once changes happen, one change leads to the other, which eventually leads to destruction.
As you can see, this is quite difficult to explain. How can something eternal produce something temporary, and how can the external potency give birth to the material manifestation without being changed?
These are points Lord Kapila will answer in detail in the next verses. In short, the material creation exists eternally in a subtle form as the energy of the Lord, but it sometimes becomes manifested and sometimes unmanifested. The energies are thus eternal, but the interactions between them that give birth to the material manifestation are not. One example that can be given is that when we go to a cinema, we see many images projected onto a screen. The screen is permanent, and the projector is permanent, but the images we see are impermanent and constantly changing. The movie in itself is impermanent and eventually comes to an end, just to be repeated in the next session. In this example, both the screen and the projector don't change, although temporary images are projected onto the screen.
Another example that can be given is that the external potency is like a piece of gold, and time is like a hammer that is used to shape it into different forms. Although the form of the gold changes, the metal itself remains the same, and in the end is returned to the original form, just to be again shaped into different forms later.