9 Apr 2022 HYN Himalayan Yoga Academy
Both Samkhya and yoga aim at reserving the process of awareness which at present is identified with the senses and the external objects. That awareness has to be disassociated from the objects and redirected internally to experience our spiritual nature. That experience of Purusha, the pure consciousness, may be termed as Samadhi, moksha, nirvana, self-realization, or union with the higher self. However, the problem is that we identify with the sensory objects that give us pleasure. We condition ourselves to think that we are not able to live without these objects, and this is the beginning of attachment asakti.
The association of the mind and senses with an external object creates attachment. Attachment is a strong magnetic force that holds the mind down to the experiences of the pleasure that we are searching for through our senses. The time comes when we suddenly find that all of the attachments in life serve no purpose because one day we have to leave them.
In yoga, this fear is called abhinivesha—the fear of disconnection. When we realize we will be separated from our family, society, body, and mind, and that our sense of self will cease to exist, fear arises. While often translated as the fear of death, abhinivesha is more accurately the fear of disconnection.
Fear of disconnection arises because we are tamasic by nature. Tamas must be understood from the right perspective—it is not inherently bad or negative, but a conditioned state of existence. For example, a lump of clay shaped into a pot is identified as a pot, not as clay. Similarly, tamas is the experience of identifying with our conditioned nature and being unable to separate awareness from it. This quality of tamas manifests in psychological, social, and religious conditionings, creating belief patterns we must struggle to change, overcome, or transcend as we evolve.
Tamas itself is not negative; negativity arises when we reject change. An aggressive reaction to change is a negative outcome of tamasic conditioning. The principles of Samkhya and yoga help us understand our conditioning. Since we remain in tamas as long as we have a body, we must understand how the components of life and existence interact with us through these conditions.
Samkhya and Yoga give us an understanding of this process, and help to free us from the impressions created by the conditioning of tamas, rajas, and sattva are known as samskaras. Or, to put it another way, samskaras are an expression of the unconditioned state of tamas, rajas, and sattva.
Understanding of Samkhya
We have to work through the samskaras in pratyahara and dharana meditation to experience higher levels of consciousness. In this process, yoga is the practical aspect and Samkhya is the theoretical aspect. Samkhya influences yoga, and Sage Patanjali, who codified raja yoga, is also considered an exponent of the Samkhya tradition. In the past, there were eighteen schools in Samkhya.
Like yoga today, Samkhya was once popular for explaining how we become conditioned and how to free ourselves from it.
Samkhya explains how the senses work, how mental states interact with them, and the nature, interplay, and attributes of the gunas at both the individual and cosmic levels. It clarifies the relationship between the mind, ego, and higher intellect. Samkhya also explores the manifest (vyakta) and unmanifest (avyakta) dimensions, and how our consciousness and mind interact within these realms.
Scientists recently discovered that the universe consists of 5% white matter and 95% black matter. Yoga and Samkhya describe this using different terminology. The black matter in science is the moola prakriti—primordial energy, the source in which everything is fused, like a seed. While the seed holds the potential to become a tree, its leaves, wood, flowers, and fruits are not yet visible.
The seed’s potential is realized when the conditions are right. To actualize it, you must plant the seed at the right time and provide water, compost, and protection, allowing it to grow into a tree. Similarly, moola prakriti, or dark matter, holds both Prakriti (the potential for creation and individual identity) and Purusha (unified awareness of God). The 5% white matter represents the manifest universe, the created aspect we experience through our body, senses, mind, and ego.
This understanding highlights another dimension of existence beyond the body. The material body is just one expression of life; insects, reptiles, birds, and mammals all embody moola prakriti, the primal energy, in different forms. When the body dissolves, the connection with the material world ends, allowing consciousness to evolve and express itself in a new dimension of existence.