न संख्योपसंग्रहादपि, नानाभावादतिरेकाच्च ॥ ११ ॥
na saṃkhyopasaṃgrahādapi, nānābhāvādatirekācca || 11 ||
na—not; saṃkhyopasaṃgrahādapi—even from the statement of the number; nānābhāvāt—on account of the differences; atirekāt—on account of the excess; ca—and.
11. Even from the statement of the number (fivefold five, i.e. twenty-five categories, by the Sruti, it is) not (to be presumed that the Sruti refers to the Pradhana) on account of the differences (in the categories) and the excess (over the number of the Sankhyan categories).
“That in which the five groups of five and the (subtle) ether are placed, that very Atman” etc.
(Brih. 4. 4. 17).
Now five times five makes twenty-five, which is exactly the number of the Sankhyan categories. So the Sankhyas say that here is the scriptural authority for their philosophy. This Sutra refutes such an assumption. For the Sankhyan categories cannot be divided into groups of five on any basis of similarity, for all the twenty-five categories differ from each other. Secondly, the mention of the ether in tiie text as a separate category would make the number twenty-six in all, contrary to the Sankhyan theory.