Sankhya is not a mental activity. It is existential. What is the Sankhya experience that our sages talk about and use as the foundation of various darshanas? It is the moment when there is total awareness of things as they are, of oneself as part of the manifest world, without a point where the awareness is centered, when the subject too becomes the object, or as Krishnamurti said, the observer becomes the observed.
The goal, if there be one, is to realize the Purusha in its true essence and light.
Purushartha, which literally means to reach and experience the Purusha, happens when Sankhya is approached unintellectually and experientially. And then, develop the ability to return to the experience more and more, even at will if needed, until it becomes a permanent and living realization.
Sankhya is not a mental activity. It is existential. What is the Sankhya experience that our sages talk about and use as the foundation of various darshanas? It is the moment when there is total awareness of things as they are, of oneself as part of the manifest world, without a point where the awareness is centered, when the subject too becomes the object, or as Krishnamurti said, the observer becomes the observed.
The Purusha is pure awareness without reaction, without preference or choice, without direction, open, wide, free and still. Where things happen without obstruction, without obtrusion or will, where the sense of I too is external. It is the beginning of the collapse of the dualities of life, I and they, I and body, I and mind, I and feelings.
The awareness is effortless, without thought, unaffected, empty, shoonya. This is the bindu where the world begins to change into something entirely different, something utterly unknown, mysterious and unutterable. The intellect too becomes a shadow of that which knows directly, no longer via the tools of senses or the powers of induction or deduction.
The Purusha is the only intelligence, the Buddhi that is light, harmonious, laghu. Despite the seeming duality of Sankhya for the intellect, the Purusha is the beginning of true oneness, the unity that abides. It is this bindu, this ‘still point of turning world’, that enlarges into a new cosmos, that opens to us a world of direct sakshatkara, pratyaksha pramaan.
Sankhya then is not mere enumeration. It is an experience, or rather, the true experience, for the first time. And experience is no longer partial or shaded, unattended or restricted. It is to return to the center, the bindu, that has no location or presence in space, choicelessly and stay there, as one’s true home and self.
All of J Krishnamurti can be summarized in this experience. This is what he constantly tried to impart, with his words or presence. This is the true vipassana, the beginning of Buddha’s bodha, and eventually the journey to Vedanta and even Tantra. This is the anubhooti Sri Krishna expanded on and unified in the triune path of the Gita.
The point at which Western Philosophy struggles, whether it is existentialism or deconstruction, it is the state where we are most at ease and back to our own truth. As a fish returns to water or a bird to sky.
It is critical to experience this Saakshya bhaava, the witnessing, and not just understand it intellectually. For the Saakshya is the true pramaan, the witnessing is the evidence and proof, the true measure and compass. Notice, I did not say Saakshi bhaava, or the witness state, for there is no person or thing looking from behind. This is the new way of looking, or perhaps, looking as the new way.
DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.
