According to Sankhya Shastra, there are twenty-five fundamental Elements or
Tattwas as follows—one Avyakta (the un-manifest entity known as Prakiti or cosmic
Nature) + one Buddhi (intellect, wisdom, discrimination) + one Ahankar (the inherent
ego and pride that is integral to all the creatures) + five Tanmatras (senses—sight,
hearing, smell, touch and taste) + eleven organs (five organs of perception—eye, ear,
nose, skin and tongue respectively + five organs of action—hand, leg, mouth,
excretory and genital) + one Purush (the macrocosmic Consciousness; the cosmic
Self or Atma or Soul; the Male aspect of creation; the Viraat Purush who is all-
pervading, all-encompassing, omnipresent, eternal, infinite, un-manifest and almighty
Lord of creation; the macrocosmic gross body of creation).
There is another version as to what constitutes the twenty-five Tattvas. They are
the following—Purush (the primal cosmic Male; the Viraat Purush), Prakriti (primal
Nature), Mahtattva (the powerful Buddhi or intellect), Ahankar (ego, pride), the five
organs of perception (i.e. the eye, nose, ear, tongue and skin), the five organs of
action (i.e. the hand, leg, mouth, excretory and genitals), the Mana (mind), the five
perceptions (such as the spoken word or speech, sight, smell, touch and taste), the
five Bhuts (i.e. the five primary elements, the earth, water, fire, air and space or sky)
= 25.
(viii) The ‘Swan’ that speaks in a mystical and mysterious language is the
scripture that teaches a creature to become free from worldly delusions and see the
path of truth and reality. The scriptures are compared to the Swan because this bird is
believed to pick up only the best and the purest things to eat, lives in clean water, and
is coloured white which is the colour of purity and holiness. The language the
scriptures speak is ‘mystical and mysterious’ because it is difficult to understand
them and their true intent. More often then not they are misinterpreted. And their
teaching is also unconventional as they tend to pull the creature away from the
entanglements of the material world that look so enticing and attractive on their face
that anyone who says that the charms of the world would lead to pain and misery is
deemed to be out of his senses.
(ix) The ‘self-rotating wheel’ is the “Kaal Chakra”, the wheel of time and destiny.
This wheel keeps on rotating endlessly and sucks in everything that comes within its
grasp, sparing none and compromising on nothing.
(x) The ‘father’ is the selfless scripture, and the ‘real meaning or the real intent of
the orders’ of this father is to attain eternal peace, happiness and bliss. This is
possible by self-realisation that comes by meditating upon ‘self’ and contemplating
upon the truth and reality of creation and its various components. This will help the
‘son’, the creature, to attain eternal peace, happiness and bliss. Doing Tapa is one of
the ways to attain this objective in life. It teaches the creature to practice exemplary
self-restraint and austerity; it inculcates in him the desire to atone for his past sins by
doing penance that purifies his inner-self and enables him to attain the higher state of
existence at a transcendental plane of Consciousness.
Just as no loving father would want that his son should suffer and no father would
give his son a wrong advice, the scriptures also do not misguide anyone.
In other words, Narad advised the sons of Daksha that they should use the energy
derived from Tapa for their spiritual well-being and upliftment because it would
benefit them in every way, and they should not fritter away this opportunity by
wasting their energy in gross activities as procreation and indulgence in worldly
affairs.
The effect of this confabulation with Narad was so profound that these thousand
sons of Daksha did Tapa but utilised its rewards for their spiritual upliftment. They
renounced the material world and decided to become mendicants. They never went
back to their homes and forgot about raising families and populating the world.