Buddhiyoga in Geeta - Chapter 4 - Saankhya vs Yoga Discipline

4. Saankhya Discipline Vs Yoga Discipline

If attaining Yoga is the goal of life, there must be ways of achieving it. Indeed there are two main approaches: Saankhya, by means of formal studies, and Yoga, by way of discovering the meaning and purpose of life from experience, i.e., by living a life that will lead to the discovery and to attaining Yoga.

4.1. The Saankhya Argument
In Adhyaaya 2, to answer Arjun’s question, Krishna began with a synopsis of the argument based on Saankhya. In it, there were two main angles, one focusing on the permanence of the Soul and the other addressing the station and duty in this life.

The soul is without birth or death, is eternal, indestructible, stable, immovable, all-pervading. The soul adorns the body just as a person adorns clothes. And the soul discards a body to take on another one, as well. Thus death, i.e. discarding of a body, by itself is just an event in the soul's journey. And, one person causing the death of another is also a non-event by itself; except, as explained later in reconciling Saankhya and Yoga, Krishna explained that the horror or the sin is in the motive behind the death or the killing.

Even in modern law, killing is categorized from justifiable homicide (killing in self-defense) all the way up to first degree murder, with about a dozen shades or degrees of killing in between. One death by itself is still indistinguishable from another, at least by the dead; it's the motive and the modus operandi that today decide how the law deals with the accused – declaration of innocence all the way up to capital punishment.

Krishna then gave another aspect covered in the Saankhya garb, namely, the personal consequences of non-performance of one's own duty. Arjun had picked up the mantle of protecting subjects and protecting law-and-order. What he and his brothers experienced were the most heinous crimes at the highest level, leaving the lowly subject at the mercy of rulers who thought they owned the kingdom and the subjects. It was Arjun's duty and responsibility to take to the last resort, namely to declare war, after all other doors were slammed shut. And he had done just that in deliberations with his brothers and allies.

Now Arjun's mind was on personal wrongs and the price he was to extract to avenge them, a thought that now seemed repugnant to him. Krishna was going to expand his scope to include the well-being of all, because that’s the real purpose of a warrior’s life; Arjun was not to fight to regain a kingdom nor to avenge the most unspeakable personal humiliations, but rather to fight the root-cause of these horrible symptoms. And Krishna told him unequivocally that no price was too big for that goal.

Saankhya discipline dwells further at length on describing the universe as composed of five elements, namely earth, water, fire, air and space. Further in Adhyaaya 8 Krishna states that all creation is cyclical in that the Universe emerges from the Unmanifest at the dawn of the universe and dissolves back into the unmanifest at the "nightfall" of the Unmanifest. The metaphysical meanings of these pronouncements are beyond the scope of this book, and actually, beyond the scope of my understanding. Therefore, I will not pretend to discuss this further. The focus here is on the application of thought based on the Saankhya discipline to the resolution of the most difficult worldly dilemmas.

The other angle is based on Arjun’s station in life and the duties and responsibilities he has adopted as his own. Krishna used the word Dharma at the outset to mean the duties and responsibilities accruing to one’s station in life. He said, “Considering your Dharma too, you must not waver. There is nothing more beneficial for the eternal well-being for a Kshatriya than a battle arising from Dharma.” This would seem to incite the Kshatriyas, i.e., Protector/Warriors to look for battles to attain the eternal well being.
This is where the events leading to the Mahabharat war become crucial in understanding this admonition. Paandavas had done everything in their power to avert the war. They suffered ignoble humiliations with great fortitude. Subsequently they repeatedly tried to make peace by proposing a compromise greatly in Dhaarta-raashtras’ favor. They were soundly rebuked by Duryodhan. The war was the last resort. Even there, Arjun’s mind, as stated before, was on personal wrongs and personal loss, whereas Krishna was getting to the core issue of the abusive monarchs ruining the welfare of the subjects.

Krishna chided Arjun further that if he didn’t fight the war he would be abandoning his Dharma and thus earning ignominy and sin, that those who highly esteemed him as one of the bravest would now deem him to be a coward, that his ill-wishers would speak the unspeakable of him and question his claims to bravery, and what could be worse than death for a brave warrior; that Arjun would attain to heaven if slain and would be the royalty if victorious.

Finally, Krishna told Arjun that if he should establish himself equally toward pleasure and pain, toward gain and loss, toward victory and defeat, and thus prepare himself for the battle, then he would not beget sin. This is the core principle of the Yoga discipline and is mixed in with the Saankhya argument. Note, too, that another core principle of the Yoga discipline was at the opening of the Saankhya argument. Krishna was already headed toward uniting these apparently disparate approaches to the attainment of Yoga.

Conventionally, Saankhya approach engenders the methods of formal study. As stated in Geetaa, the primary method in Saankhya approach is the practice of Jnyaana Yoga, i.e., the Yoga of Knowledge. As such, it is the domain of academics of the spiritual variety. The Saadhus or Sannyaasees (the honorable kind) who give up the normal family life, adorn saffron robes and adopt ascetic life are prime examples of Saankhya practitioners. However, Saankhya is not exclusively for the saffron robed ones. Family life with few wants and filled with contentedness is also conducive to Jnyaana Yoga. In fact, there is a long line of sages who lived a married life and were among the most respected Seers of Truth.

A sannyaasee cannot be so neatly placed in the Saankhya box. A true sannyaasee cannot help but practice a life that straddles the Saankhya and Yoga approaches. He at once must depend on the society for whatever his meager needs are which include food and personal safety, and provide knowledge and guidance to the society. A Saankhyaa-yogee must live in the society, even if on the outskirts, physically or by involvement. It’s the well-protected society that provides a safe and healthy environment for the Saankhyaa-yogee’s pursuit of Self-Knowledge. If it weren’t for the society, the Saankhyaa-yogee would find it very difficult indeed, if not impossible, to protect and sustain self in such pursuit. The Saankhyaa-yogee is thus indebted to the society, a debt that he must repay by being of some wholesome service to the society. One can easily surmise what such services might be. Conventionally, a Saankhya-yogee imparts his knowledge to others and provides moral guidance as service to the society. There is a debate going on currently if the Sannyaasee should be doing much more. This debate is nothing more than addressing the gap between Saankhya and Yoga in accordance with Krishna’s declaration of their equality and inseparability.

This will become more clear with the discussion of the Yoga approach. In fact, Krishna makes it perfectly clear that Saankhya and Yoga approaches are equal and inseparable. If you practice one well, you must necessarily be practicing the other as well and the goal reached by both approaches is one and same, namely Self-Knowledge. A true Knower sees both approaches as one and the same (Geetaa Ch 5 V 5).

4.2. The Yoga Argument

Next, Krishna introduced the yoga argument for not withdrawing from the battle. He explained that Arjun's authority ended at determining his course of action and executing it to the best of his ability. He obviously would have a goal for the selected course of action; however, he could not dictate success. Nor should Arjun covet the intended outcome as a personal joy or triumph. Lastly, he warned that Arjun should refrain from inaction, since inaction verily has adverse effect on one's own nature and future, and on the society that depends on each member of the society for upholding his or her share of duties and responsibilities as well.

Krishna introduced the Buddhi Yoga as the yoga of action based on selfless thought and selfless execution of the action. Upon Arjun's query, Krishna described in details the nature of the Yogee whose Buddhi is established steadily in Yoga - you have already seen the long list in Chapter 2.

Obviously, this was not going to satisfy Arjun, and it didn’t. Arjun, at the start of Adhyaaya 3, expressed his confusion on exactly what Krishna was trying to say was his Shreyas, i.e., for eternal well being. Was Krishna prescribing the path of Karma Yoga or the path of Buddhi Yoga, which Arjun took to mean path of Jnyaana Yoga, i.e., Yoga of Knowledge. If latter, then why shouldn't Arjun just leave the battlefield and pursue his spiritual and eternal well being? Arjun asked Krishna to clarify.

4.3. Saankhyaa vs Yoga

When Krishna stated (Geetaa 3:3) that there are two primary disciplines or approaches to earning Shreyas (Saankhya discipline mainly by way of Jnyaanayoga, and Yoga discipline by way of Karmayoga), he used the word Yoga as a discipline apposite to Saankhya and then used the 'yoga' suffix for a worldly action-plan in either discipline for a far-reaching goal of eternal well-being.

Thus it appears that there are two distinct paths, one of action or empirical results and the other of formal study or direct knowledge. Conventionally, these are taken to be distinctly different in that practitioners are persons of very different natures and very different perspectives on life and lifestyle.

Let’s lay out the apparent differences.

Conventionally, a Saankhya-yogee holds that the human life itself to be of little value if not spent to attain Self-Knowledge, that indulging in the joys and sorrows of the society are so much childish waste of time, if not worse. A Karma-yogee holds that this life is the instrument of attaining that most desirable goal and that it is just another leg on the long journey. Joys and sorrows are to be endured and conquered and not to be sidestepped. (“Enduring the joys and sorrows” was in the opening remarks in Krishna’s offering of the Saankhya argument that I had mentioned before.)

Formal study of scriptures and practice of meditation are two primary modes of action in Saankhyaa-yoga. Any participation of a Saankhyaa-yogee in the society is merely incidental. Karma-yogee on the other hand is an active participant in the society. He withdraws personal selfish interest gradually from all actions. Ultimately all his actions are motivated totally by the well being of others and are executed to the best of his ability with enthusiasm and with the attitude of surrender to God.

A Saankhyaa-yogee historically led the march to pacifism in India and this has done great disservice to the Hindu society that let down its guard and let external forces invade, conquer and commit untold religious atrocities on the Indian population. Although that is not the topic of this book, any discussion of Saankhyaa-yoga out of context of a well protected social framework is at best preposterous and at worst disastrous.

A Karma-yogee, on the other had, has been absent from the Indian scene, in that even when there were some, they were not seen as yogees at all. Only one Sannyaasee comes to mind, Swami Ramdas in Maharashtra, who was able to properly label Shivaji as Yogee Raja, i.e, Yogee King, in other words a Karma-yogee. There were many other examples but little acknowledged. People neatly separated the spiritual and worldly affairs and the successful ones in those respective realms. There was little if any guidance to bring these together. There was even less encouragement that people could actually practice the two disciplines together in their normal day-to-day lives. If anything, there was disparaging of worldly success as getting in the way of spiritual eternal well being. Time is now to overcome these self-adorned strait-jackets of compartmentalized spiritual practices.