Missing Verse in Samkhya Karika
ne...@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca
Path: bcr3.uwaterloo.ca!mvishnu
From: mvi...@bcr3.uwaterloo.ca (Meenan Vishnu)
Subject: Missing Verse in Samkhya Karika
Message-ID: <C0wHJ...@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca>
Sender: ne...@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1993 14:57:13 GMT
I recently read a paper written in 1924 by the Indian freedom
fighter Bal Gangadar Tilak. The title of the paper is "The
Missing Verse in Samkhya Karika".
Samkhya Karika is a commentary on Sage Kapila's Samkhhya
aphorisms by Ishvara Krishna and is believed to be the oldest
surviving work on Samkhya philosophy. Samkhya philosophy
is a dualistic philosophy that concerns with the removal of
pain through discriminative knowledge.
The last sloka says that there are 70 verses in the book but one
finds only 69 verses (excluding the concluding three verses which
talks about the guru-parampara.
No satisfactory explanation has been given for this discrepancy.
However, in this paper, Tilak shows conclusively that the sloka
following the 61st verse is the one missing. The 61st sloka says:
"Nothing is more modest than Nature (Prakriti): such is my opinion.
Once aware of having been seen, she does not again expose
herself to the view of the Spirit (Purusha)"
Following this sloka, which states that the Nature (moola-prakriti) as
the ultimate cause, the author refutes theories which puts other
ultimate causes such as Ishwara, Paramathma, Time, Svabhava.
Later Vedantins found this verse offensive (they hold the view that
the quality-less Brahman (=Paramathma) is the ultimate cause) and
deleted it from the Karika. However, they took the commentary of
the deleted verse and attached to the commentary of the 61st verse.
A Chinese translation of the Karika contains more information.
Using the quotations in the commentary, Tilak has recontructed the
missing verse.
The paper contain many other interesting facts about Vedantins
screwing up Hindu philosophical works. I found the paper in the
appendix of Colebrooke's translation of the Karika. This
translation was done around 1930.
Recently, a German shcolar has found some missing verses and extrapolated
verses of the Yoga Sutra of Sage Patanjali. According to him, all those
verses dealing with Ishwara (there are about 5) are later interpolations.
However, I have not read this paper yet.
Comments Welcome.
M Vishnu
Virendra Verma
In article <930115145...@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca>, ne...@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca writes...
>Newsgroups: alt.hindu
>Path: bcr3.uwaterloo.ca!mvishnu
>From: mvi...@bcr3.uwaterloo.ca (Meenan Vishnu)
>Subject: Missing Verse in Samkhya Karika
>Message-ID: <C0wHJ...@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca>
>Sender: ne...@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca
>Organization: University of Waterloo
>Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1993 14:57:13 GMT
>
>
>
>I recently read a paper written in 1924 by the Indian freedom
>fighter Bal Gangadar Tilak. The title of the paper is "The
>Missing Verse in Samkhya Karika".
>Later Vedantins found this verse offensive (they hold the view that
>the quality-less Brahman (=Paramathma) is the ultimate cause) and
>deleted it from the Karika. However, they took the commentary of
>the deleted verse and attached to the commentary of the 61st verse.
>A Chinese translation of the Karika contains more information.
>Using the quotations in the commentary, Tilak has recontructed the
>missing verse.
>
What are you trying to accomplish with your half baked knowledge
of Hinduism? Are you suggesting that all various views of Hinduism
are in contradiction with each other? This is exactly what has been
happening in India. Dividing people and let them fight. If you
follow this approach of learning the Hinduism, you will simply get
Brahminism which is the root cause of our downfall in History.
Please follow a synthetical approach rather than a discriminative
approach (analytical) if you want to understand Hinduism. An analytical
approach is best for the explanation of the principles of matter.
But a synthetical approach is best for understanding cultures,
spirituality and philosophies. It doesn't mean that one is right
and other wrong. One has to use the right tool.
namaste,
-- Virendra Verma
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