[Advaita-l] What is the Sankhya view of Prakriti in Pralaya

[vinayaka ns]

On Sun, Mar 24, 2013 at 12:40 AM, Srikrishna Ghadiyaram <
srikrishna_ghadiyaram at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Om!
>
> I read the following sentence in the book, 'Popular Essays in Indian
> Philosophy' bu Prof. M. Hiriyanna.
> "But even in Pralaya, we must remember, Prakriti does not cease to to be
> dynamic; only its component parts, the gunas, constantly reproduce
> themselves then, instead of acting on one another and giving rise to a
> heterogeneous transformation."
>
> What does this mean? What is this constant reproduction of gunas within
> themselves?


sAmkhyas are satkAryavAdins; according to them nothing new can come into
being. Whatever exists will be either in the manifest form or latent as in
the case of praLaya. I am not sure what the Prof. is trying to convey. In
praLaya, guNas don't act on one another and it is a balanced state.


> What is the explanation in the Sakta terminology or Vedanta? What does
> Brahma Sutra comment about this saamyavastha?
>

View of Vedanta:

Bhagavat Gita Bhashya:

8.18 With the coming of day all manifested things
emerge from the Unmanifest and when night
comes they merge in that itself which is called the
Unmanifested (mAyA or aparA prakruti).

8.18 Ahar-agame, with the coming of day, at the
time when Brahma wakes; sarvah vyaktayah, all
manifested things, all things that get manifested,
all creatures characterized as moving and non-moving; prabhavanti, emerge,
become manifested;
avyaktat, from the Unmanifested-avyakta
(Unmanifested) is the state of sleep of Prajapati;
from that avyakta. Similarly, ratri-agame, when
night comes, at the time when Brahma sleeps;
praliyante, they, all the  manifested things, merge;
tatra eva, in that itself; avyakta-sanjnake, which is
called the Unmanifested referred to above. In order
to obviate the defect of the emergence of some
unmerited result and the destruction of merited
results; [The following verse  says that the very
same multitude of beings continues in the different
cycles of creation, and there-fore these two defects
do not arise.] for pointing out the meaningfulness
of the scriptures [For the earlier reason the
scriptures do not lose their validity.] dealing with
bondage and Liberation; and with a view to
propounding detachment from the world on the
ground that the helpless multitude of beings
perishes after being born again and again under
the influence of accumulated results of actions that have for their origin
such evils as ignorance etc.


Best Wishes,

Vinayaka