Ethnicity and Religious Heritage

Author(s): T U Mehta
Publisher: T U Mehta

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Indian Ethnicity and Religious Heritage
to its working mechanism in life. Gita also refers to sage Kapila who was the principal propounder of this philosophy, as "Siddhanam Kapilo Munihi" metaning "Among the Siddhas the foremost is Muni Kapila." "Siddha" means a liberated soul. Even Swetashwara Upanishad makes reference to him. So, the belief of some scholars that when Gita refers to Sankhya, it is not the Sankhya propounded by Kapila, does not seem to be correct as there was no other philosopher in India who explained the mechanism of cosmos with reference to the duet of Purush and Prakriti and the working of three Gunas.
Subsequently in the second century B.C. Shri Patanjali, another great philosopher belonging to the theistic school, introduced the concept of God and accepting the theoretical basis of Kapila's system he introduced its practical working through his theory of Ashtanga Yoga.
Prof. Zimmer, the well known German theologist notes about Sankhya and Yoga as under:- "These two ideologies are of different origins. Sankhya and Yoga being related to the mechanical system of Jainas which can be traced back in a partly historical