The Yoga Philosophy

At first, there was no great difference between Yoga and Sāṇkhya. A group of Sāṅkhyas did not believe in God and they were called Nirīśvarasāṅkhyas. But later, the Sāṅkhya philosophy came to be known as a theistic school of thoughts. The Sāṅkhyas who first accepted God were called the philosophers of Yoga. The Yoga adopts the Sāṅkhya metaphysics. Yoga, like Sāṅkhya, accepts prakṛti. Evolutionary theory is the same for both. Puruṣas are several and there is only one God. According to them, Prakṛti is the material cause of the world. God is the supreme cause. Prakṛti is not something created. Puruṣas are also eternal like God. The evolution of prakṛti happens when the three major guṇas, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas are disturbed. The Vedas are told by the God. He reveals them for the enlightenment of Puruṣas. He unites and separates the Puruṣa and prakṛti according to their merits and demerits. On the world, everything is under his control. When a Puruṣa really wants to attain liberation, it is the God who helps him by removing the obstacles. All the twenty five realities accepted by Sāṅkhyas are agreeable to the philosophers of Yoga. The only difference is that they accept the twenty sixth principles as God.

While analyzing the theories of both, one can see a slight difference underlying between them. Though for both the bondage of Puruṣa is due to his ignorance of Prakṛti, the way of getting liberation differs in each system. Sānkhya’s liberation is attained by chance but, in the system of Yoga, the liberation is attained by practice of Yogic principles. The knowledge thus attained is named by them as Vivekakyāti^[1] . This is a special feature of the system. Patañjali who was the founder of this system was also the author of the Yoga sūtras. The system has been systematized by him like the Nyāya system by Gautama.