Chapter 24: Analytic Knowledge, Sânkhya, Summarized

(1) The Supreme Lord said: 'And now I shall discuss with you the analytic knowledge as established by the classical authorities. Knowing this a person is immediately able to give up the bewilderment that is based upon the duality. (2) In the beginning, during the epoch of dutifulness [Krita] and before that time there existed people expert in discrimination to whom the seer and the seen were simply one and the same [see also 11.22: 29]. (3) That one undifferentiated truth inaccessible to speech and mind turned into the twofold of the forms brought about by material nature on the one hand and the complete whole [the integrity of nature itself] on the other hand [prakriti and purusha, see 11.22]. (4) One of the two indeed is she, the substance of material nature, consisting of a double self [products and causes, symmetry and complementarity] while the other entity is he, the knower, who is called the original person [the enjoyer or male principle]. (5) In order to fulfill the desires of the living entity manifested from My agitation of material nature [in the form of time, of Kâla], the modes themselves: tamas, rajas and sattva [the gunas]. (6) From the realization of these arose the possibility of the lead, the thread, of primeval nature [the sûtra], because in the transformation of the greater reality [the mahat-tattva] that is associated with it the identification came about [of the purusha with it leading to ahankâra or false ego], which is the cause of bewilderment. (7) That I-awareness [or false ego] is thus of the three categories and [makes accordingly] with emotion, clarity and ignorance [alternately use of] the sense objects [tanmâtra], the senses [indriyas] and the mind [manas]. Thus it [the identified self] constitutes the cause of understanding and not understanding [the so-called conscious and unconscious]. (8) From the darkness of the false ego arose the subtle sensations of gross matter, from its clarity arose the senses and from the goodness of the identified self arose the eleven gods [see deva]. (9) Because all the elements under My influence were combined came the egg of the universe into being which serves as My supreme residence [see from 11.22: 18].

(10) Within that egg situated in the water of the causal ocean I appeared [as Nârâyana], whereupon from My navel a lotus arose that is known as the universe. On that lotus found the selfborn one his existence [Brahmâ, see 3.8]. (11) He, the soul of the universe endowed with passion, created from his penance by My mercy the three different worlds called earth, the atmosphere and heaven [bhûh, bhuvah and svaha], along with its rulers [see Gâyatrî and loka]. (12) Heaven became the home of the demigods, the atmosphere the home of the ghostly spirits, the earthly places are the home of the humans and other living beings and the beyond of these three is there for the ones of perfection [Siddhaloka]. (13) The places of the underworld were by the master created as the residence of the unenlightened and the ones perfect to the ego [the 'snakes', the Nâgas]. All the destinations of the three worlds thus owe their existence to the fruitive activities of the souls who are entangled in the modes [see B.G. 4: 17, 10.1: 42-43]. (14) By penance, yoga and even by forsaking [in sannyâsa] one is of the spotless destinations of mahar, janas, tapas and satya, but My destination [Vaikunthha] is reached by devotional service. (15) As arranged by Me, the Supporter, the Self of Time, one rises up from or drowns in the mighty stream of the modes of this world in which one is bound to profit-minded labor. (16) Whatever the small, the great, the thin and the massive of the manifestation, is all brought about by the combination of the two of material nature and the enjoyer [see also B.G. 18: 16]. (17) That what constitutes the cause of something is there in the beginning, during the life as well as in the end of that what was produced. The transformation [the ingredient as well as he who transforms and not so much this or that form] is what makes the real of common utensils like matters of gold and things of clay [compare 6.16: 22, 10.87: 15, 11.22: 8]. (18) Something which operates as a previous ingredient in the production of another thing that is thus a modification of that ingredient, is called the true of something when it is present from the beginning to the end [compare B.G. 2: 13, 2: 16]. (19) Material nature constituting the basis [âdhâra] of the causal ingredient [the transformed], the real of the Original Person [He who transforms], and that what sets in operation, viz. Time [the transformation], are the three [of resp. prakriti, Purusha and kâla] who together constitute the Absolute Truth [the Brahman] that I am. (20) The bountiful creation will for the sake of the variegatedness of its qualities generation after generation continually be maintained until its dissolution for as long as I look after it [see also B.G. 3: 24]. (21) When the universal form that is pervaded by Me has manifested the planetary variety of its time periods [of creation, maintenance and decay], this variety with its different worlds [losing its synergy] becomes fit for [dissolution into] its five composing gross elements [see yugas, manvantaras, and B.G. 11: 13]. (22-27) The mortal frame [at the time of annihilation] merges with the food, the food with the grains, the grains with the earth and the earth with the fragrance. The fragrance is merged with the water, the water with its quality, that taste with the fire and the fire with the form. Form is being merged with the touch, the touch then with the ether, ether with the subtle object of sound and the senses [of sound etc.] with their sources [the gods of the sun and moon etc.]. The sources [as the ahankâra ego of passion] are merged with the emotions [the ego of goodness], My dearest, and they merge with the mind, the controller of the sound, which dissolves in the original of the elements [ego of slowness], and that all powerful primal elementary nature merges with the cosmic intelligence [mahat]. That greater nature merges in its own modes and they on their turn merge with their ultimate abode of the unmanifest which merges with the infallible Time. Time merges with the individuality [the jîva] of the Supreme in command of the illusory potency and that individuality merges with Me, the Supreme Self Unborn [âtmâ], who, characterized by creation and annihilation, perfectly being established in Himself remains alone [see also 3.11: 28, 4.23: 15-18, 11.3: 12-15]. (28) Just as the darkness cannot remain with the sun rising in the sky, the same way the bewilderment of the dual mind cannot remain in the heart of someone who seriously studies this. (29) This is what I, the Overseer of the Spiritual and Material world, had to say about this Sânkhya direction of analysis [see also 3.25 - 3.33] which breaks the bondage of doubts of people who in their lives go along with and go against the nature of things.'