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The Samkhya admits two ultimate realities, viz. Purusa and Prakrti, which are independent of each other in respect of their existence. Purusa is the soul, the self, the spirit, the subject, the knower. It is neither body nor brain nor mind nor ego nor intellect. It is not a substance which possesses the quality of consciousness. Consciousness is its essence. It is itself pure and transcendental consciousness. It is the ultimate knower which is the foundation of all knowledge. It is the pure subject and as such can never become an object of knowledge. It is the silent witness, the emancipated alone, the neutral seer, the peaceful eternal. It is beyond time and space, beyond change and activity. It is self-luminous and self-proved It is uncaused, eternal 18. Brahmasutra 2.3.46. 19. Ibid. 1.2.6.

171 21 and all-pervading. It is the indubitable real, the postulate of knowledge, and all doubts and denials pre-suppose its existence. It is called nistraigunya, udasina, akarta, kevala, madhyastha, saksi, drasta, sadaprakasasvarupa and jnata.20 Samkhya gives the five proofs for the existence of the Purusa. 2 (1) The aggregate of things must exist for the sake of another. Gaudapada says that even as a bed, which is an assemblage of different parts, is for the use of the men who sleeps upon it, so "this world, which is an assemblage of the five elements, is for another's use; there is a self for whose enjoyment this enjoyable body consisting of intellect and the rest, has been produced," (2) All knowable objects have the three gunas, and they presuppose a self who is their seer devoid of the gunas. (3) There must be a presiding power, a pure consciousness which co-ordinates all experiences. (4) Since Prakrti is nonintelligent, there must be someone to experience the products of Prakrti. (5) There is the striving for liberation (kaivalya), which implies the existence of a Purusa with qualities opposed to those of Prakrti. The longing for escape from the conditions of existence means the reality of one that can affect the escape. Samkhya believes in the plurality of the Purusa. Samkhya Purusas are subject to qualitative monism and quantitative pluralism. The selves are all 20. tasmacca viparyasat siddham saksitvam asya purusasya/ 21. kaivalyam, madhyasthyam, drastrtvamakatrbhavasca // Samkhya-karika k.19. sanghatapararthatvat trigunadiviparyayad adhisthanat / puruso'sti bhoktrbhavat kaivalyartham pravrttesca // Ibid. k.17.

172 , essentially alike; only numerically they are different. Their essence is consciousness. Bliss is regarded as different from consciousness and is the product of the sattvaguna. Samkhya gives the following three arguments for the proving the plurality of the Purusas: (1) The souls have different sensory and motor organs and undergo separate births and deaths. Had there been only one Purusa, the birth or death of one should have meant the birth or death of all and any particular experience of pleasure, pain or indifference by one should have been equally shared by all. Hence the souls must be many. (2) If the self were one, bondage of one should have meant bondage of all and liberation of one should have meant liberation of all. The activity of one should have made all persons active and the sleep of one should have lulled into sleep all other persons. (3) Though the emancipated souls are all alike and differ only in number as they are all beyond the three gunas, yet the bound souls relatively differ in qualities also, since in some sattva predominates, while on others rajas, and in still others tamas.²² 22