Page:A History of Indian Philosophy Vol 1.djvu/243

 VII] A lltiquity o.f Yoga 227 In the Bhagavadglta, we find that the word yoga has been used not only in conformity with the root "yu.i-sa11ltidlz.all" but also with "yu.iir yoge." This has been the source of some confu- sion to the readers of the Bhagavadglta. "Yogin" in the sense of a person who has lost himself in meditation is there regarded with extreme veneration. One of the main features of the use of this word lies in this that the Bhagavadgita tried to mark out a middle path between the austere discipline of meditative abstrac- tion on the one hand and the course of duties of sacrificial action of a Vedic worshipper in the life of a new type of Y ogin (evidently from yu.iir yoge) on the other, who should combine in himself the best parts of the two paths, devote himself to his duties, and yet abstract himself from all selfish motives associated with desires. Kautilya in his Artlzasiistra when enumerating the philosophic sciences of study names Sarpkhya, Yoga, and Lokayata. The oldest Buddhist sutras {e.g. the Satipa{{hiina slltta) are fully familiar with the stages of Yoga concentration. We may thus infer that self-concentration and Yoga had developed as a tech- nical method of mystic absorption some time before the Buddha. As regards the connection of Yoga with SaITlkhya, as we find it in the Yoga szltras of Patanjali, it is indeed difficult to come to any definite conclusion. The science of breath had attracted notice in many of the earlier U paniads, though there had not probably developed any systematic form of praI)ayama (a system of breath control) of the Yoga system. It is only when we come to MaitrayaI)l that we find that the Yoga method had at- tained a systematic development. The other two U paniads in which the Yoga ideas can be traced are the Svetasvatara and the Katha. I t is indeed curious to notice that these three U paniads of KrDa Yajurveda, where we find reference to Yoga methods, are the only ones where we find clear references also to the Sarp.khya tenets, though the SaITlkhya and Yoga ideas do not appear there as related to each other or associated as parts of the same system. But there is a remarkable passage in the IVlaitrayaI!l in the conversation between Sakyayana and Br had ratha where we find that the SaITlkhya metaphysics was offered different kinds of asceticism and rigour which passed by the name of brahmacarya were prevalent in the country at the time (Pal.1ini as GoldstUcker has proved is pre- buddhistic), but associated with these had grown up a definite system of mental discipline which passed by the name of Yoga.