The Samkhya System: A History of the Samkhya Philosophy c8.4

c8.4

The development of the Yoga theory is first clearly revealed in the same Upaniṣads as deal with those doctrines which later are adopted as part of the Sāṃkhya system that is, of the older Upaniṣads, the Katha and Śvetāśvatara,, and later by far the Maitrāyaṇī. In the conception of Yoga, literally yoking, there seems to be an almost necessary,† or at least normal, reference to a fixing of the mind on God. The use of Yoga is, however, as well adapted to the case of the believer in the absolute Brahman as to the devotee of an individual deity: the former stage is presented in the Katha and Maitrāyaṇī, the latter in the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad. The term in its technical sense also occurs in these Upaniṣads, and when opposed to Sāṃkhya it denotes doubtless the practical side of religious concentration as opposed to the theoretical investigation. It follows necessarily from this very contrast, and from the nature of the case, that Yoga could not primarily be a separate system of philosophy, and hence its natural dependence on other systems.