Sankhya

The explanation of the true nature of the Self belongs to the system called Sāṅkhya. It describes the Self as devoid of birth and the six modifications, and as a non-agent. (Shankara Commentary Introduction after BG 2-11)

1) Self-knowledge (Sāṅkhya): the nature of the Self

The Self is eternal and imperishable: it has always existed and will always exist (BG 2.12). Bodies change, but the Self acquires new bodies when the previous one falls (BG 2.13, 2.22). The unreal has no existence and the real never ceases to be; the Self is real, the non-Self is unreal (Śaṅkara on BG 2.16). The real cannot be destroyed (BG 2.17–2.18) and is unborn, eternal, and everlasting (BG 2.20). BG 2.23–2.28 further underline this indestructibility. In truth, “I am not the agent or experiencer; therefore I do not perform actions” (BG 4.18, as cited). Actions are performed by the guṇas of prakṛti (BG 3.27); regarding the divisions of guṇas and actions, “the guṇas act upon the guṇas” (BG 3.28).

2) Knowledge of Bhagavan: the nature of the Lord

Bhagavan is unborn and imperishable; yet, mastering His own nature, He appears by His māyā for restoring dharma—protecting the good, destroying evildoers, and establishing dharma age after age. One who knows His divine birth and deeds is not reborn and comes to Him (BG 4.6–4.9). One who knows Him as unborn, beginningless, and the great Lord is released from all sins (BG 10.3). Sāṅkhya-knowledge also sees Brahman alone in offering, oblation, fire, and the doer absorbed in Brahman (BG 4.24), and knows that by such knowledge one ceases to fall into delusion and sees all beings in the Self and in Bhagavan (BG 4.35). He declares, “I am the rites, the sacrifice, the mantra, the ghee, the fire, and the offering” (BG 9.16); “I am the father, mother, sustainer, grandsire, the knowable, purifier, Om, and the Vedas” (BG 9.17); “I am karmaphala, nourisher, master, witness, abode, refuge, friend, origin, dissolution, standing place, repository, imperishable seed” (BG 9.18); “I heat; I restrain and release the rain; I am immortality and death; being and non-being” (BG 9.19). He accepts even simple offerings given with devotion by the self-disciplined (BG 9.26). Bhagavan is the Self abiding in the heart of all, and is the beginning, middle, and end of beings (BG 10.20). Brahman is beginningless, neither being nor non-being (BG 13.13–13.18).

3) Knowledge of action and agent: how doing is understood

The knower of truth maintains the inner stance, “I do nothing at all,” even while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, going, sleeping, and breathing (BG 5.8). While speaking, releasing, taking, opening and closing the eyes, one knows, “the senses act upon the sense-objects” (BG 5.9). This aligns with the teaching that prakṛti’s guṇas perform action (BG 3.27–3.28) and the Self does not act (BG 4.18, as cited).

4) Right seeing (samyag-darśana)

Right seeing is taught in BG 13.27–13.35. It is steady vision that recognizes the same imperishable reality in all beings and discerns the working of prakṛti without superimposing agency on the Self.

5) Beyond the three guṇas

When the seer perceives no other agent than the guṇas and knows what is beyond them—My state—he attains it (BG 14.19). This is the consummation of Sāṅkhya/Jñāna-yoga.

Summary

Sāṅkhya/Jñāna-yoga is knowledge that: the Self is eternal and actionless; Bhagavan is the unborn, all-pervading Lord known as the inner Self; action belongs to prakṛti; right seeing removes delusion; and freedom comes by standing beyond the guṇas. This vision is the content of Self-knowledge and the means to liberation, as taught in the cited verses.