The University of Nalanda c7.83

c7.83

The Yoga philosophy supplied what the Sāmkhya lacked. Its author Pātañjali¹ lived somewhere about the 2nd century B.C. The Sāmkhya believed in no god, "the Yoga advocated faith in a Supreme Deity, as well as some mystic practices and meditation by which beatitude could be obtained."² Here was something for those who were not satisfied with the Sāmkhya, to pin their faith to, believing all the while in the Sāmkhya dialectics also. Moreover, the very reasons which drew students to the Sāmkhya system, also drew students to this new system. This Yoga system caused some wonderful changes. The atheistic Sāmkhya-system it almost converted into theistic;³ it made itself acceptable on account of some of its practices even to the Vēdāntins,⁴ while its influence on Buddhism was so great that one of its schools was called Yogācāra.