Sankhya covered up the Veda rendering it obscure and remote

Re: Instruments of Knowledge and Post-Human Destinies
by Vladimir on Sun 17 Dec 2006 06:53 PM PST Profile Permanent Link

Sankhya (lit. ‘enumeration’) is a system based on mental analysis, it came much later when the mental speculations were a norm of philosophical enquiry. The correspondence of pancha mahabhutani with five senses is somewhat tense and in many regards mechanical, as it were. There was another great system of intuitive knowledge developed before in the Upanishads on the basis of the Vedic vision, where Agni is Word, and the Sun is Sight, and the Wind is Prana. These three constitute a basis of Vedic sacrifice. Agni is the essence of the Earth, Prithivi, Vayu is the essence of the Space between Heaven and Earth, Antariksha, and Aditya is the essence of Heaven, Dyauh. It is by the union of these three fires that the aim of the sacrifice is achieved and yajamana gets the boon of Immortality. It is by this sacrifice that the redemption is completed and the gods are freed from papa, sin, and return to their origin and the rishis join the Creator. Sankhya has made a clear cut between the ancient times of intuitive knowledge and the modern times of mental enumeration. It is still great, but it covered up the knowledge of the Veda, which now became obscure and remote.

by Vladimir on Sun 17 Dec 2006 08:58 PM PST Profile Permanent Link

Dear Deshpande, thank you for your inspirational overview. Such an accent of sight, as you describe, would be impossible within the Sankhyaic paradigm, where all the faculties of consciousness were determined and submitted to the mind as its senses only, completely dependant on it, as it were. It is purely Vedic, where the Sight, Drishti, Revelation is the faculty of consciousness equal to or in some respect even greater than the Mind, according to Sri Aurobindo. The same we can say about Shruti, Hearing, as the faculty of consciousness pertaining through the body of Space and Time and the Beyond; and about the Word, Vac, expressing and manifesting the potential and hidden powers of the Supreme throughout the Creation, the power of Savitri.