K.C. Bhattacharyya and Spontaneous Liberation in Sāṃkhya *

This chapter discusses K.C. Bhattacharyya’s reading of the Sāṃkhya philosophical tradition as a system of spontaneous liberation, where freedom from pain, nay, from the possibility of pain, is continuous with the flow of life and is not the result of some external factor, such as yogic practice. Bhattacharyya’s understanding of liberation in Sāṃkhya has gone almost unnoticed by historians of this school. Commonly, it is regarded as Bhattacharya’s philosophical innovation, which does not represent the actual position of classical Sāṃkhya. This chapter, however, presents an argument that the spontaneity of liberation in Sāṃkhya is well supported by traditional sources, although Bhattacharyya interprets it in a unique way, assisted by Hegelian dialectics. The chapter also analyzes Bhattacharyya’s exploration of the mysterious transition from physical pain to the determination to seek liberation from the possibility of pain, involving both “analytic necessity” and actual uncertainty.