I. HUMAN RIGHTS & RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

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18. Hinduism: the Sankhya school. Hinduism is a religion of great internal diversity. Six ancient and divergent philosophical schools are acknowledged as orthodox. One of these, Sankhya, is neither theistic nor pantheistic. Like Jainism, Sankhya teaches that primordial matter and the individual soul are both uncreated and indestructible. The soul may be liberated by knowing the truth about the universe and by control of the passions. In some texts, Sankhya denies the existence of a personal supreme deity, and, in any case, any concept of deity is regarded as superfluous and potentially self-contradictory, since the working of karma governs man's affairs up to that point where he himself can determine that he should seek liberation. The four goals of Sankhya are similar to those of Buddhism: to know suffering, from which man must liberate himself; to bring about the cessation of suffering; to perceive the cause of suffering (the failure to discriminate between soul and matter); and to learn the means of liberation, namely, discriminating knowledge. Like other schools, Sankhya teaches the karmic principle: rebirth is a consequence of one's actions, and salvation is escape from the cycle of rebirths. >>>>>