Sankhya Philosophy, Swami Vivekananda (Gita)

The Bhagavad Gita/Vedanta and the dualistic philosophy of Samkhya Yoga (Swami Vivekananda). Kapila

Bhagavad Gita Subject

The Sankhya Philosophy by Swami Vivekananda translated into Spanish by Pedro Nonell

Introduction to Sankhya Yoga
Study on Sankhya Philosophy
Kapila: The great father of philosophy
Comparison between Sankhya and Advaita Vedanta
Yoga Philosophy
The Sankhya doctrine by Mahadev Desai

The Sankhya Philosophy by Swami Vivekananda. Kapila

Example of the subject: The Sankhya Philosophy by Swami Vivekananda
The Sankhya Yoga Philosophy and the Bhagavad Gita (Swami Vivekananda) Kapila

Bhagavad Gita 2-39 Knowledge (Sankhya Yoga); action (Karma Yoga)
Jnana Karma Sannyasa Yoga

Samkhya Yoga (a school of dualistic Hindu philosophy) is one of the six main traditions of Hinduism. Sage Kapila is considered to be one of the founders of the Samkhya school. The Sankhya-Karika is the most important reference work of his. Vedanta (Advaita Vedanta school) considered the Samkhya doctrine to be totally opposite to Vedanta.

Samkhya Yoga is extensively analyzed in Chapter 2- Yoga Knowledge (Sankhya) of the Bhagavad Gita. The Bhagavad Gita managed to harmonize different traditions, including Samkhya Yoga.

Below are some reflections on Swami Vivekananda's Sankhya philosophy:

According to Sankhya philosophy, “nature is omnipresent, an omnipresent mass of nature, in which are the causes of everything that exists.”

The first manifestation of this Prakriti in the cosmos is what the Sankhya calls “Mahat.” «We can call it intelligence: The great principle, its literal meaning. The first change in Prakriti is this intelligence.. It covers all the realms of subconsciousness, consciousness and supraconsciousness”

“There is no philosophy in the world that is not indebted to Kapila. Pythagoras came to India and studied this philosophy, and that was the beginning of the philosophy of the Greeks. He later formed the Alexandrian school and, later, the Gnostic one. It was divided into two; one part went to Europe and Alexandria, and the other remained in India; and from there, the Vyasa system was developed.

Kapila's Sankhya philosophy was the first rational system the world ever saw.

All metaphysicians in the world must pay tribute to him. I want to impress on his mind that we are obliged to listen to him as the great father of philosophy.

Wherever there is any philosophy or rational thought, it owes something to Kapila. Pythagoras learned it in India and taught it in Greece. Later, Plato had an idea of it; and even later the Gnostics took the thought to Alexandria, and from there it reached Europe. So wherever there is any attempt at psychology or philosophy, the great father of it is this man, Kapila.»

«Of all the trees, I am Ashvattha; of the divine sages, Narada; of the heavenly choir, I am Chitraratha; of the perfect ones, I am the ascetic Kapila» Bhagavad Gita 10-26.

«I will point out here the difference between Schopenhauer and Indian philosophy. Schopenhauer says that desire, or will, is the cause of everything. It is the will to exist that manifests itself to us, but we deny it. The will is identical to the motor nerves. When I see an object there is no will; when its sensations are carried to the brain, the reaction comes, which says “Do this”, or “Don't do this”, and this state of ego-substance is what is called will. There cannot be a single particle of will that is not a reaction. So many things precede the will.

It is just something manufactured from the ego, and the ego is a product of something even higher: intelligence, and that again is a modification of the indiscreet nature. That was the Buddhist idea, that all we see is the will. Psychologically it is totally wrong, because the will can only be identified with the motor nerves. If the motor nerves are removed, man has no will at all. This fact, as is perhaps well known to you, has been discovered after a long series of experiments made with the lower animals.»

The Bhagavad Gita according to Swami Vivekananda