Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals :Ch-4. Part - 22.

Chapter-4. Swami Sri  Adi  Sankaracharya - The Genius ( Sankara Jayanti ) :

 Part-22.

But, and a great but, can you get on with this philosophy?

Can you answer all questions of ethics and practical life with these two principles of Purusha and Prakriti alone?

No, we cannot answer all questions and solve all problems with these two principles alone, because there is a small difficulty caused by the acceptance of the law of Karma which is recognised even by the Sankhya.

Karma is nothing but the reaction that is set up to an action.

It is the nemesis that follows every action that an individual or Purusha does.

Merit is rewarded and demerit is punished.

But who does this?

Does Purusha reward himself for the merit he does, and does Purusha punish himself for the sin he commits?

This would be a very absurd conclusion, obviously.

Who would like to punish oneself?

Even if I do a wrong, I would not like to be punished.

But there is nobody else who can punish the Purusha for the wrong that he does.

Prakriti cannot do it because it is unintelligent, and Purusha will not do it because he himself is the doer.

So, this is no good.

The need for someone to dispense justice was felt by the Yoga system of thought which came after the Sankhya.

Swami Krishnananda
To be continued  ....