by Jayram Daya

Editor’s note: The beautiful Indian word दर्शन does not equate to philosophy. दर्शन is much more than mere philosophy. It is a comprehensive, holistic view of life — a view on which a person stakes his or her entire life. Indian history is replete with men and women bravely seeking their own दर्शन of universal, eternal truth. Over millennia, many holistic views of life have thereby emeged and guided Indian society. These views complement and enrich one another, in a historic process which has been creative, vibrant, adaptable, dynamic — and unparalleled anywhere else.

Today’s post by Jayram Daya is about सांख्य — samkhya — a well-known दर्शन which is generally considered as being ‘dualistic’. Jayram’s post was prompted by a question posed to him by Ved, a younger reader of the blog.

Let us hope Ved and Jayram continue the good work! Enjoy!

[To clearly see the connection between this post and ‘modern life’, we may note one fact. On Wall Street and in other financial centres, the common view is that ‘booming markets’ need ‘animal instincts’ to drive them. Clearly, colonial conquests are also driven by the same instincts.]

VED: Your post on kali yuga was something I have been exploring for a long time. As a conversation in Mahabharata between Bhishma and Dharmaraja says: It is about prakriti tattva increasing more than purusha tattva; and somewhere an analysis is made that in kali yuga, we slide more toward prakriti tattva — more and more into the forest, survival-of-the- fittest type of world.

I believe this has something to do with samkya darshana, and would love to know your thoughts on this.

JAYRAM: What a fascinating and insightful question! It is a pleasure to hear from you, Ved, and I am delighted the blog has sparked such deep contemplation. Yours is an excellent recollection, with a profound theme.

Your intuition is spot on. The relationship between purusha, pure consciousness, and prakriti, material nature, is the foundational principle of the samkhya view. Applying this principle to the decline of the yugas offers a sophisticated way to look at the changing human condition worldwide.

The conversation you are thinking of is indeed a critical one from the Mahabharata, where Bhishma, lying on his bed of arrows, instructs Yudhishthira on the nature of kingship, duty, and the world. Your question shows how ancient wisdom can diagnose the spiritual disease of our time.

The core of that dialogue is about the progressive deterioration of dharma (righteousness, order) across the four yugas. Bhishma explains that in the satya yuga, dharma is whole, standing on all four legs. With each subsequent deterioration of a yuga, a leg is lost, and adharma increases.

This process can be framed perfectly through the samkhya categories of purusha and prakriti.

Purusha is pure consciousness, the eternal, silent, unchanging witness. It is the self or atman of all beings. Its nature is pure awareness, freedom, and stillness. Realizing purusha, rather than remaining bound to prakriti, is the ultimate aim in samkhya darshan, culminating in kaivalya – liberation through the absolute isolation of consciousness.

Prakriti is the primordial nature, the fundamental, creative force from which everything material, including our minds, intellects, and egos, evolves. It is dynamic, ever-changing, and constituted of the three gunas (qualities): sattva (goodness, harmony, light), rajas (passion, activity, motion), and tamas (inertia, ignorance, darkness).

During satya yuga, purusha holds the balance of power. The gunas are in equilibrium. The consciousness of all beings is naturally turned inward, toward the self. Dharma is spontaneous and intuitive. The principle of purusha is dominant. People easily see one consciousness in all.

In kali yuga, we have, as you say, ‘slid more toward prakriti tattva’. Identification with the material world is almost complete. The reality of prakriti is outward-facing, ever-changing, and survival-driven. This manifests itself as the ‘survival of the fittest’ type of world that you have mentioned.

How prakriti dominance devolves into the ‘forest world’

When purusha is forgotten, and we identify solely with the body and mind (products of prakriti), the world is viewed through the lens of the gunas, particularly rajas and tamas.

The lens of rajas (passion and activity): Life becomes a frantic, endless pursuit of objects, wealth, power, pleasure, and status. This creates intense competition. Everyone is a ‘separate self’ fighting for limited resources, just like a hungry animal in a forest. The ‘fittest’ are those skilled at this jungle game.

The lens of tamas (inertia and ignorance): This causes confusion, delusion, and lack of clarity. People act out instinct and habit rather than wisdom. They are ‘asleep’ about their true nature. The social fabric breaks down in the absence of the guiding light of dharma, which flows from the realization of purusha. The strong exploit the weak, truth is abandoned for deception, and greed replaces generosity.

In this state, the world operates on the principle of the strongest, the most cunning, or the most aggressive. It is a ‘might is right’ world, and ‘forest’ is a metaphor for a general state of consciousness which is wild, untamed, and competitive.

The deterioration of the yugas is a progressive veiling of the purusha-tattva and a corresponding, overwhelming activation of the prakriti-tattva. ‘Survival of the fittest’ is the symptom of a world where beings have forgotten the one purusha that unites them and see only the bewildering variety of competing and conflicting forms of prakriti. This is in effect the ‘materialist’s trap’. In kali yuga, prakriti gets so ‘thick’ that we forget purusha exists. We come to resemble characters in a film who are no more than the images formed by coloured pixels.

Stages of the slide into prakriti

(1) Loss of discernment (viveka): Sattva (purity/light) is the main force behind the higher yugas, which are tied to purusha; that is, people know their spiritual identity even while engaging in worldly activities.

(2) The dominance of matter: In kali yuga, tamas (darkness/inertia) and rajas (unbridled passion) take over. We become heavily entangled in prakriti. When we say ‘slide into the forest’, we are implying that we lose our true identity and start identifying entirely with our biological, animalistic urges.

(3) Survival of the fittest: Prakriti is bound by cause and effect (karma) and biological necessity. If we dismiss purusha (the moral and conscious witness), we are left with only jungle laws. Compassion and dharma (which stem from purusha) are replaced by competition, consumption and conflict — all of which stem from unsettled prakriti.

When leadership and society lose their connection to higher truth, purusha, the social contract dissolves back into the ‘state of nature’. The ‘forest’ is more than simply a physical location; it is a state of mind in which might makes right, since the light of truth has been overwhelmed by the darkness and the onerous burdens of material desires.

Thank you, Ved, for this wonderful question. You have articulated a subtle but complex idea with clarity, and given me much to reflect on. Please feel free to continue on this exploration. These are conversations that nourish the soul.