Invocation and preface

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The Sāṃkhyatattvavivecana ("Discrimination of the Principles of Sāṃkhya"), composed by the illustrious Ṣimānanda.

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This [work] is set forth by Ṣimānanda, son of Raghunandana, a resident of Iṣṭikāpura, foremost among the brāhmaṇas of Kānyakubja. // 1 //

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Salutation to you, O great-souled Kapila, originator of the Sāṃkhya, the promoter of the true knowledge of the twenty-five {{tattva|ontological principle}}s. // 2 //

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[A disciple asks:] "Overwhelmed as I am by the threefold suffering, how can there be peace for me here? Therefore instruct me, O treasury of compassion, in such a way that birth and the rest [of saṃsāra] may cease." // 3 //

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Thus questioned, the sage—a treasury of compassion—spoke to the world-weary [disciple]: the twenty-five sūtras have been expounded by the great-souled ones. // 4 //

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Some poets have composed [it] in verse, other poets have expounded [it]: that very real import of the Sāṃkhya teaching is here being discriminated—by the dull Ṣimānanda, [self-deprecatingly] called "a hundred-fold belly-filler" and the like. // 5 //