[Advaita-l] The 6 darshana-s

[bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com]

But I would like to know the stand of the Sankara mutts on this. Do
the Shankaracharyas practice asana-s, pranayama, etc? They would
certainly be practising dhyaana (meditation), but is there a
difference between Patanjali's concept of Dhyaana and Adi Sankara's?

 praNAms
 Hare Krishna

 As a darshana,  yOga is a dualistic school & advocates eternal difference
between jIva, Ishwara & prakruti (since its philosophy is very close to
sAnkhya school it is also called as sEshvara sAnkhya)....shankara
categorically says yOga is a dualistic theory since they are not the
proponents of shruti praNIta Atmaikava darShana (ref. vide sUtra
bhAshya)...But with regard to *sAdhana* part of advaita darshana, shankara
accepts first five limbs of ashtAnga yOga of patanjali i.e. yama, niyama,
Asana, praNAyAma & pratyAhAra for chitta shuddhi...but the last three limbs
of patanjala yOga dhAraNa, dhyAna & samAdhi differs from shankara's usage
of those terms in his prasthAna trayi bhAshya-s.  What shankara teaches as
dhyAna Yoga  is based on shruti's adhyAtma yOga not patanjali's dhyAna -
asaMprajnaThA samAdhi yOga...shankara's dhyAna leads to
svasvarUpAnusaNdhAna & Atma svarUpa chiNtana where as patanjali's dhyAna
aimed towards concentrating on external objects & ends in being one with
that after losing own identity in samAdhi..(svarUpa shUnyatva).  patanjali
emphasizes on deliberate suppression & oppression of thoughts & individual
time bound experience of non-duality  to attain the ultimate state in yOga
school (asaMprajnAtha through chitta vrutti nirOdha & Ishwara praNidAna)
whereas shankara's advaita teaches us how to transcend these vrutti-s &
realizing one's true nature which is beyond the time & space frames!!!

 Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
 bhaskar