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The Darsana gives an astanga-yoga with yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and. samadhi more or less after the fashion of Patafijali, with a supple- mentary treatment of nerves (na@di) and the movement of the prana and other va@yus in them. The final object of yoga here is the attain- ment of Brahmahood and the comprehension of the world as maya and unreal. The Dhydna-bindu describes the self as the essential link of all things, like the fragrance in flowers or the thread in a . garland or the oil in sesamum. It describes a sad-anga yoga with asana, prana-samrodha, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadht. It also describes the four cakras or nerve plexuses, and speaks of the awakening of the serpent power (kundalini) and the practice of the mudras. It speaks further of the balancing or unifying of prana and apdna as leading to yoga. The object of this yoga is the attainment of the transcendent state of liberation or the realization of the paramaiman. It is useless to refer to other Upanisads; for what has already been said will be enough to show clearly that the idea of Yoga in the Gita is entirely different from that in the Yoga Upanisads, most of which are of comparatively late date and are presumably linked up with traditions different from that of the Gita. Samkhya and Yoga in the Gita. In the Gita Samkhya and Yoga are sometimes distinguished from each other as two. different paths, and sometimes they are identified. But though the Gita is generally based on the doctrines of the gunas, prakrti and its derivatives, yet the word ° samkhya is used here in the sense of the path of knowledge or of philosophic wisdom. Thus in the Gita, 11. 39,/ the path of knowledge is distinguished from that of performance of duties. ‘Lord Krsna says there that he has just described the wisdom of Samkhya and he is going to describe the wisdom of Yoga. This 1 Tada pranapanayor aikyam krtva; see Dhyana-bindu, 93-5 (Adyar Library edition, 1920). This seems to be similar to pradndpanau samau krtva of the Gita. o-oo 456 The Philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita [cH. seems to give us a clue to what is meant by Samkhya wisdom. This wisdom, however, seems to be nothing more than elabora- tion of the doctrine of the immortality of soul and the associated doctrine of rebirth, and also the doctrine that, howsoever the body might be affected and suffer changes of birth, growth and destruc- tion, the self is absolutely unaffected by all these changes; the self cannot be cut or burned; it is eternal, all-pervasive, unchangeable, indescribable and unthinkable. In another passage of the Gita, “XIII. 25, it is said that there are others who perceive the self in accordance with samkhya-yoga; and Sankara explains this passage /to mean that samkhya-yoga means the realization of the self as ‘) being absolutely different from the three gunas, sativa, rajas and { tamas. If this is Samkhya, the meaning of the word yoga in this "passage (anye samkhyena yogena) is not explained. Sankara does not expound the meaning of the word yoga, but explains the word samkhya and says that this saémkhya is yoga, which seems to be an evasion. Sridhara follows Sankara’s interpretation of samkhya, but finds it difficult to swallow his identification of samkhya with yoga,and he interprets yoga here as the yoga (of Patafijali) with eight accessories, but does not explain how this astanga-yoga can be identified with samkhya. It is, no doubt, true that in the imme- diately preceding verse it is said that, howsoever a man may behave, if he knows the proper nature of purusa and of the prakriz and the gunas, he is never born again; but there is no reason to suppose that the phrase samkhyena yogena refers to the wisdom recommended in the preceding verse; for this verse summarizes different paths of self-realization and says that there are some who perceive the self in the self through the self, by meditation, others by sémkhya-yoga and others by karma-yoga. In another passage it is said that the Samkhyas follow the path of knowledge (jfiana-yoga), while the Yogins follow the path of duties (Gita, 111. 3). If the word yoga means “‘association,” as it does in various contexts, then samkhya and saémkhya-yoga would mean more or less the same thing; for samkhya-yoga would only mean asso- ciation with samkhya, and the phrase samkhyena yogena might mean either association with samkhya or the union of samkhya. It has already been said that, following the indications of the Gita, II. 39, samkhya should mean the realization of the true nature of the self as immortal, all-pervasive, unchangeable and infinite. It has also been pointed out that it is such a true realization of the XIV] Sdmkhya and Yoga in the Gita 457 self, with its corresponding moral elevation, that leads to the true communion of the self with the higher self or God. Thus this meaning of samkhya on the one hand distinguishes the path of samkhya from the path of yoga as a path of performance of duties, and at the same time identifies the path of samkhya with the path of yoga as communion with God. Thus we find that the Giéa, Vv. 4, 5, says that ‘‘fools only think Samkhya and Yoga to be dif- ferent, not sowise men,” since, accepting either of them, one attains the fruit of them both. The goal reached by the followers of Samkhya is also reached by the Yogins; he who perceives Samkhya and Yoga to be the same perceives them in the right perspective. In these passages samkhya and yoga seem from the context to refer respectively to karma-sannydsa and karma-yoga. Samkhya here can only in a secondary way mean the renunciation of the fruits of one’s actions (karma-sannyasa). The person who realizes the true nature of his self, and knows that the self is unchangeable and _ infinite, cannot feel himself attached to the fruits of his actions and cannot be affected by ordinary mundane desires and cravings. | As in the case of the different uses of the word yoga, so here also the word samkhya, which primarily means “‘true knowledge,” is also used to mean “‘renunciation”’; and since karma-yoga means | the performance of one’s duties in a spirit of renunciation, samkhya and yoga mean practically the same thing and are therefore | identified here; and they are both regarded as leading to the same “yésults. This would be so, even if yoga were used to denote *‘communion”’; for the idea of performance of one’s duties has almost always communion with God as‘its indispensable correlate. Thus in the two passages immediately following the identification of samkhya and yoga we find the Gita (v. 6, 7) saying that without karma-yoga it is hard to renounce karma; and the person who takes the path of karma-yoga speedily attains Brahman. The person who thus through karma-yoga comes into union (with Brahman) is pure in spirit and self-controlled, and, having identified himself with the universal spirit in all beings, he is not affected by his deeds. fo ~ One thing that emerges from the above discussion is that there | is no proof that the word samkhya in the Gita means the discern- | ment of the difference of prakrti and the gunas from purusa, as , Sankara in one place suggests (Gita, x1II. 25), or that it refers ~ to the cosmology and ontology of prakrti, the gunas and their ss | \ | | 458 The Philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita [cH. evolutes of the traditional Kapila-Samkhya. The philosophy of the gunas and the doctrine of purusa were, no doubt, known to the Gita; but nowhere is this philosophy called samkhya. Samkhya in the Gita means true knowledge (tattva-jnana) or self-knowledge “(atma-bodha). Sankara, commenting on the Gita, xvi. 13, interprets samkhya to mean vedanta, though in verse XIII. 25 he interprets the word as meaning the discernment of the difference between the gunas and the purusa, which would decidedly identify the samkhya of the Gita with the Kapila- Nes Samkhya. The Maha-bharata also refers to samkhya and yoga in several places. But in almost all places s@mkhya means either the traditional school of Kapila-Samkhya or some other school of Samkhya, more or less similar to it: yoga also most often refers either to the yoga of Patafijali or some earlier forms of it. In one place are found passages identifying samkhya and yoga, which agree almost word for word with similar passages of the Gita’. But it does not seem that the sémkhya or the yoga referred to in the Maha-bharata has anything to do with the idea of Samkhya or yoga in the Gita. As has already been pointed out, the yoga in the Gita means the dedication to God and renunciation of the fruits of one’s karma and being in communion with Him as the supreme Lord pervading the universe. The chapter of the Maha- bharata just referred to speaks of turning back the senses into the manas and of turning the manas into ahamkara and ahamkara into buddht and buddhi into prakrti, thus finishing with prakrti and its evolutes and meditating upon pure purusa. It is clear that this system of yoga is definitely associated with the Kapila school of Samkhya. In the Maha-bharata, x11. 306, the predominant feature of yoga is said to be dhyana, and the latter is said to consist of concentration of mind (ekagrata ca manasah) and breath-control (pranayama). It is said that the yogin should stop the functions of his senses by his mind, and the movement of his mind by his reason (buddhz), and in this stage he is said to be linked up (yukta) and is like a motionless flame in a still place?. This passage naturally reminds one of the description of dhydna-yoga in the Gita, v1. 11-13, 16-19 and 25,26; but the fundamental idea of yoga, 1 yad eva yogah pasyanti tat samkhyair api dréyate ekam samkhyan ca yogan ca yah pasyati sa tattva-vit. Mahd-bharata, vi1. 316. 4. Compare the Gitd, v. 5.