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The Fifth Lesson: Patanjali’s Yoga System.1201
The Fifth Lesson: Patanjali’s Yoga System.
T
he third great system of Hindu Philosophy is that known as Patanjali’s
Yoga System, or more commonly as simply “The Yoga System.” (This
System must not be confounded with our own “Yogi Philosophy,” which
is Eclectic in nature and derivation, and which differs in many respects
from Patanjali’s Yoga System, inclining far more toward the Vedantic idea
than the teachings of Patanjali.) This Yoga System is reputed to have been
founded by Patanjali (whose name is usually used in connection with it)
about 300 b.c. Many of the best authorities regard it as a natural growth
from, and an offshoot from, Kapila’s Sankhya System, many of the tenets
of the latter school being held in their original shape by Patanjali. In fact,
with the addition of a Personal God, or World Purusha, Patanjali seems to
have taken over the Sankhya System as a basis for his own, the points of
agreement being too constant and numerous to admit of their being mere
coincidences, and as Kapila undoubtedly preceded Patanjali there can be
no counter-charge of “borrowing doctrines.” In fact, the majority of the
followers of Patanjali freely admit that their system is an outgrowth of the
Sankhya, and “an improvement” thereupon. The “Mahabharata” says: “He is
wise who sees the Sankhya and the Yoga as but one.” The prime distinctions
between the two systems are the “improvements” of Patanjali, which are in