SANKHYA and YOGA philosophies (compared) : Sankhya and Yoga are two of the six āstika* schools of Hindu philosophy.
Sankhya or Samkhya (Sanskrit: सांख्य, IAST: sāṃkhya) is most related to the Yoga school of Hinduism, and it was influential on other schools of Indian philosophy. Sāmkhya philosophy regards the universe as consisting of two realities, puruṣa (consciousness) and prakṛti (matter). Jiva (a living being) is that state in which puruṣa is bonded to prakṛti in some form. This fusion, state the Samkhya scholars, led to the emergence of buddhi ("intellect") and ahaṅkāra (ego consciousness). The ideas that were developed and assimilated into the classical Samkhya text, the Sāṅkhyakārikā, are visible in earlier Hindu scriptures such as the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita.
The Yoga school derives its ontology and epistemology from Samkhya and adds to it the concept of Isvara (Supreme Soul or God).
*Āstika (Sanskrit आस्तिक IAST: Āstika) derives from the Sanskrit asti, "there is, there exists", and means “one who believes in the existence (of a soul or Brahman, etc.)” and Nāstika means "an unbeliever".
A list of six systems or ṣaḍdarśanas consider the Vedas as a reliable source of knowledge and an authoritative source. These schools of Hinduism are the Nyaya (the school of logic), Vaisheshika (the atomist school), Samkhya (the enumeration school), Yoga (the school of Patañjali, which assumes the metaphysics of Sāṃkhya), Mīmāṃsā (the tradition of Vedic exegesis) and Vedanta (the Upaniṣadic tradition).
These are often coupled into three groups for both historical and conceptual reasons: Nyāyá-Vaiśeṣika, Sāṃkhya-Yoga, and Mimāṃsā-Vedanta.
Notes from Kisari Mohan Ganguli in the Mahabharata translation :
- Sankhya is renunciation of action, while Yoga is devotion through action.
- The sense seems to be this (in the Mahabharata, Book 12: Santi Parva: Section CCCLII) : in the Yoga system He is called the Supreme Soul, for Yogins affirm the existence of two souls, the Jivatman and the Supreme Soul, and assert the superiority of the latter over the former. The Sankhyas regard the Jiva-soul and the Supreme Soul to be one and the same. A third class of men think everything as Soul, there being no difference between the one Soul and the universe displayed in infinitude.
The Mahabharata, Book 1: Adi Parva: Sambhava Parva: Section LXXV (extract) :
And Narada taught these thousand sons of Daksha the excellent philosophy of Sankhya as a means of
salvation.
The Mahabharata, Book 6: Bhishma Parva: Bhagavat-Gita Parva: Section XXVI (Bhagavad Gita Chapter II) (extract) :
This knowledge, that hath been communicated to thee is (taught) in the Sankhya (system). Listen now to that (inculcated) in Yoga (system). Possessed of that knowledge, thou, O Partha, wilt cast off the bonds of action. In this (the Yoga system) there is no waste of even the first attempt. There are no impediments. Even a little of this (form of) piety delivers from great fear.
The Mahabharata, Book 6: Bhishma Parva: Bhagavat-Gita Parva: Section XXVII (Bhagavad Gita Chapter III) (extract) :
The Holy One said,--'It hath already been said by me, O sinless one, that here are, in this world, two kinds of devotion; that of the Sankhyas through knowledge and that of the yogins through work.
The Mahabharata, Book 6: Bhishma Parva: Bhagavat-Gita Parva: Section XXIX (Bhagavad Gita Chapter V) (extract) :
Fools say, but not those that are wise, that Sankhya and Yoga are distinct. One who stayeth in even one (of the two) reapeth the fruit of both. Whatever seat is attained by those who profess the Sankhya system, that too is reached by those who profess the Yoga. He seeth truly who seeth Sankhya and Yoga as one.
The Mahabharata, Book 12: Santi Parva: Rajadharmanusasana Parva: Section XLVIII (extract) :
Thou always conscious and present in self, the Sankhyas still describe thee as existing in the three states of wakefulness, dream, and sound sleep. They further speak of thee as possessed of sixteen attributes* and representing the number seventeen. Salutations to thy form as conceived by the Sankhyas! Casting off sleep, restraining breath, withdrawn into their own selves, Yogins of restrained senses behold thee as eternal light. Salutations to thee in thy Yoga form!
* Note from Kisari Mohan Ganguli : The sixteen attributes are the eleven senses and the five elements in their subtle forms called Mahabhutas. Added to this is Infinity. The Supreme Being, according to the Sankhya doctrine, is thus the embodiment of the number seventeen.
The Mahabharata, Book 12: Santi Parva: Mokshadharma Parva: Section CCXXXVI (extract) :
In both the Yoga and the Sankhya, systems, five and twenty topics of knowledge have been treated in nearly the same way. Listen to me as I mention their chief features. That has been said to be Manifest which is
possessed of these four attributes, viz., birth, growth, decay, and death. That which is not possessed of
these attributes is said to be Unmanifest. Two souls are mentioned in the Vedas and the sciences that are
based upon them. The first (which is called Jivatman) is endued with the four attributes already mentioned, and has a longing for the four objects or purposes (viz., Religion, Wealth, Pleasure and Emancipation). This soul is called Manifest, and it is born of the Unmanifest (Supreme Soul).
The Mahabharata, Book 12: Santi Parva: Mokshadharma Parva: Section CCXXXVI (extract) :
That person who cherishes no desire for earthly objects, who is not unwilling to take what comes, who is dependent on earthly objects to only that extent which is necessary for sustaining life, who is free from cupidity, who has driven off all grief, who has restrained his senses, who goes through all necessary acts, who is regardless of personal appearance and attire, whose senses are all collected (for devotion to the true objects of life), whose purposes are never left unaccomplished, who bears himself with equal friendliness towards all creatures, who regards a clod of earth and a lump of gold with an equal eye, who is equally disposed towards friend and foe, who is possessed of patience, who takes praise and blame equally, who is free from longing with respect to all objects of desire, who practises Brahmacharya, and who is firm and steady in all his vows and observances, who has no malice or envy for any creature in the universe, is a Yogin who according to the Sankhya system succeeds in winning Emancipation. Listen now to the way and the means by which a person may win Emancipation through Yoga (or the system of Patanjali). That person who moves and acts after having transcended the puissance that the practice of Yoga brings about (in the initial stages), succeeds in winning Emancipation. I have thus discoursed to thee on those topics (viz., Emancipation according to the Sankhya system and that according to the Yoga system) which are dissimilar if the speaker be disposed to treat them as such (but which in reality, are one and the same)*.
*Note from Kisari Mohan Ganguli : The commentator points out that in this verse the speaker shows a decided preference for the Sankhya philosophy.
The Mahabharata, Book 12: Santi Parva: Mokshadharma Parva: Section CCCI (extract) :
The evidences of Yoga are addressed to the direct ken of the senses; those of Sankhya are based on the scriptures. Both systems of philosophy are approved by me, O Yudhishthira. Both those systems of science, O king, have my concurrence and are concurred in by those that are good and wise. If practised duly according to the instructions laid down, both would, O king, cause a person to attain to the highest end. In both systems purity is equally recommended as also compassion towards all creatures, O sinless one. In both, again, the observance of vows has been equally laid down. Only the scriptures that point out their paths are different.
The Mahabharata, Book 12: Santi Parva: Section CCCII (extract) :
That high-souled person who is fully conversant with the vast, high, ancient, ocean-like, and immeasurable Sankhya system that is pure and liberal and agreeable, becomes, O king, equal to Narayana. I have now told thee, O god among men, the truth about the Sankhya system. It is the embodiment of Narayana, of the universe as it exists from the remotest time.
The Mahabharata, Book 12: Santi Parva: Section CCCVI (extract) :
Only the highest Rishis conversant with the Sankhya and the Yoga systems know that Supreme Soul which
Sankhya and Yogins and believers in all other systems say is beyond the Understanding, which is regarded as Knower and endued with the highest wisdom in consequence of its casting off all consciousness of identification with Prakriti, which transcends the attribute of Ignorance or Error, which is Unmanifest, which is beyond all attributes, which is called the Supreme, which is dissociated from all attributes, which ordains all things, which is Eternal and Immutable, which overrules Prakriti and all the attributes born of Prakriti, and which, transcending the four and twenty topics of enquiry, forms the twenty-fifth.
