Asuri plays the ‘Hindu conspiracy’ card against any point that he has no formal argument for. Almost like playing a race card for every bad incident that happens. He says that only Hindus make the argument that the Samkhya Sutras is a late medieval text, but actually this is the opinion of current scholars, most of whom are Western. Gerald Larson, considered one of the top contemporary scholars on Samkhya, whose major work you can partially read on Google entitled, “History and Samkhya” actually says that the Samkhya Sutras is not representative of classical Samkhya philosophy because it is a late medieval text and to base ones reading of Samkhya on that text would lead to a misleading and inaccurate understanding of classical Samkhya. Like most scholars he based his understanding of classical Samkhya philosophy on the Samkhyakarika. He is not a Hindu.
That is a bit of an understatement. Vijnana Bhiksu went to great lengths to try to show that the philosophy does not conflict with the Vedas. Now you may ask yourself, why did he think it was so important to do so? Because prior to his time the work was considered to be contrary to Vedic teachings and was not made available for general use until Vijnana Bhiksu was able to convince the authorities that it was OK.
No, Vijnana Bhiksh did not try to show that Samkhya does not contradict with the Vedas, he was showing it did not contradict with Vedanta. Samkhya considers itself an Astika philosophy, meaning Vedic. It always has. In the Samkhyakarika it clearly states that Vedic scripture is valid proof to establish what cannot be established by perception and reason. Asuri consistently ignores this fact to try to make Samkhya look like some anti-vedic philosophy like Buddhism, when in fact anybody on this forum can look up Hindu philosophy and Samkhya and confirm that it is in fact considered a Vedic philosophy(Astika, orthodox) Scholarship does not at all agree with what Asuri is saying and most would actually find it quite laughable.
The hallmark of Sankhya is simply that it is based on scriptural interpretation and reasoning
This is the hallmark of Vedanta philosophy, not Samkhya. Asuri is right here Sarva. Samkhya philosophy merely only pays lip service to scripture, it bases all its argument on perception and reasoning. The dual categories of Purusha and prakriti are established purely on the basis of reasoning of empirical data, and no appeal to scripture is made to establish these conclusions(There are 5 arguments for the existence of Purusha and 5 for the existence of Prakriti)
On the other hand, Vedanta philosophy is based on interpretation of the Upanishads and then trying to prove how rational it is using reasoning. Here perception is not very important, and is actually considered a faulty means of knowing reality, because whatever that is perceived is maya. Thus scripture is given importance because it is the vision of reality by rishis who have seen reality beyond maya.
Still more, Yoga is based on direct internal perception, and not ordinary perception. Although it begins with ordinary perception like witnessing your breath etc, the aim is to penetrate into even deeper and internal perception. Hence why Yoga is considered a practical psychology.
To sum up: Yoga is predominantly based on perception; Samkhya predominately on evidence based reasoning, and Vedanta predominately on scripture based reasoning. They all use other means of knowledge as well, but the primary ones are as noted. They do not lead to the same viewpoint of reality, which is why they are considered separate darsanas. The degree of separation between Yoga and Samkhya is small, and it could be even said Yoga is just Samkhya in practice. The degree of separation between Samkhya and Vedanta is much greater, but not as great as Asuri’s exaggeration of Judiasm and Christianity. It is still clear that Samkhya and Vedanta share a similar philosophical root and similar enough for one to draw many similarities, but Vedanta seems to begin where Samkhya ends, and Samkhya is incomplete without the closure Vedanta provides. So in a way Vedanta is Samkhya+.
