[Advaita-l] Yoga - aparOkshAnubhUti - Vedanta Sara

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Wed, 2 Feb 2005 bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com wrote:

> It is clear that shankara in sUtra bhAshya clearly says that both sAnkhya &
> yOga are dvaita shAstra & the same have been refuted by him...But, oflate I
> heard that patanjala yOga is not that of yOga which has been refuted by
> bAdarAyaNa & bhAShyakAra & the sEshvara sAnkhya of patanjali is very much
> in line with shankara philosophy...
>

It depends on what one means by Patanjala yoga.  As we have discussed on
the list in the terms past "samkhya" and "yoga"  have not been used
consistently but have gone through three broad phases of development.

1. pre-systematic: samkhya and yoga merely mean "theory" and "practice"
   basic notions such as guna, prakriti etc. are developed.  This is the
   type in Gita, Mokshadharma etc.  Some variants are dualistic, some
   theistic and some monistic.

2. classical: samkhya and yoga are full-fledged systematic darshanas.
   samkhya is atheistic while yoga adds ishvara as the 26th tattva.  Both
   are dualistic.  This is the type in Yogasutras, Samkhyakarikas etc.

3. Vedantic: largely due I think to Shankaracharyas efforts, samkhya and
   yoga are absorbed into Advaita Vedanta and their texts and terminology
   are reinterpreted in an Advaitic way.  This is the type in
   aparokshanubhuti, vedantasara etc.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
It's a boy! See the pictures - http://www.braincells.com/nilagriva/