Practical Vedanta

Practical VedantaPractical Vedanta12. A study of the Sankhya PhilosophyPrakriti is called by the Sânkhya philosophers indiscrete, and defined as theperfect balance of the materials in it; and it naturally follows that in perfectbalance there cannot be any motion. In the primal state before any manifestation,when there was no motion but perfect balance, this Prakriti was indestructible,because decomposition or death comes from instability or change. Again,according to the Sankhya, atoms are not the primal state. This universe does notcome out of atoms: they may be the secondary or the tertiary state. The primordialmaterial may form into atoms and become grosser and bigger things; and as far asmodern investigations go, they rather point towards the same conclusion. Forinstance, in the modern theory of ether, if you say ether is atomic, it will not solveanything. To make it clearer, say that air is composed of atoms, and we know thatether is everywhere, interpenetrating, omnipresent, and that these air atoms arefloating, as it were, in ether. If ether again be composed of atoms, there will stillbe spaces between every two atoms of ether. What fills up these? If you supposethat there is another ether still finer which does this, there will again be otherspaces between the atoms of that finer ether which require filling up, and so it willbe regressus ad infinitum, what the Sankhya philosophers call the "cause leadingto nothing" So the atomic theory cannot be final. According to Sankhya, nature isomnipresent, one omnipresent mass of nature, in which are the causes ofeverything that exists. What is meant by cause? Cause is the fine state of themanifested state; the unmanifested state of that which becomes manifested. Whatdo you mean by destruction? It is reverting to the cause If you have a piece ofpottery and give it a blow, it is destroyed. What is meant by this is that the effectsgo back to their own nature, they materials out of which the pottery was created goback into their original state. Beyond this idea of destruction, any idea such asannihilation is on the face of it absurd. According to modern physical science, itcan be demonstrated that all destruction means that which Kapila said ages ago —simply reverting to the cause. Going back to the finer form is all that is meant bydestruction. You know how it can be demonstrated in a laboratory that matter isindestructible. At this present stage of our knowledge, if any man stands up andsays that matter or this soul becomes annihilated, he is only making himself,ridiculous; it is only uneducated, silly people who would advance such aproposition; and it is curious that modern knowledge coincides with what thoseold philosophers taught. It must be so, and that is the proof of truth. Theyproceeded in their inquiry, taking up mind as the basis; they analysed the mentalfile:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/Chitra%20Selva...oksBySwami/PracticalVedanta/PracticalVedantaPDF.html (89 of 113)2/26/2007 12:24:34 AM