The Yoga system will be found, what Monier Williams says of Hinduism at large, “to present its spiritual and material aspects, its esoteric and exoteric, its subjective and objective, its pure and impure sides to the observer.” “It is,” he says, “at once vulgarly pantheistic, severely monotheistic, grossly polytheistic and coldly atheistic. It has a side for the practical and another for the devotional and another for the speculative.” Again says he; “Those, who rest in ceremonial observances, find it all satisfying; those, who deny the efficacy of works and make faith the one thing needful, need not wander from its pale; those, who delight in meditating on the nature of God and man, the relation of matter and spirit, the mystery of separate existence and the origin of evil, may here indulge their love of speculation.” (Introduction to Indian Wisdom p. xxvii.) We shall treat of these _seriatim_, by way of notes to or interpretation of the above, as applying to the different modes of yoga practised by these several orders of sectarians. [Sidenote: 1. Spiritual yoga. अध्यात्म योगः । ] That the earliest form of _yoga_ was purely spiritual, is evident from the Upanishads, the Vedánta doctrines of Vyása and all works on the knowledge of the _soul_ (adhyátma Vidyá). “All the early Upanishads”, says Weber, “teach the doctrine of _atmá_-spirit, and the later ones deal with yoga meditation to attain complete union with _átmá_ or the Supreme Spirit.” Web. Ind. Lit. p. 156. “The _átmá_ soul or self and the supreme spirit (paramátmá) of which all other souls partake, is the spiritual object of meditation (yoga).” Max Müller’s A. S. Lit. p. 20. Yajnavalkya says; आत्माबारे द्रष्टब्य ओतब्य मन्तब्य निदिध्यासितब्यः । “The Divine Spirit is to be seen, heard, perceived and meditated upon &c.” If we see, hear, perceive and know Him, then this whole universe is known to us. A. S. Lit. p. 23. Again, “Whosoever looks for Brahmahood elsewhere than in the Divine Spirit, should be abandoned. Whosoever looks for _Kshatra_ power elsewhere than in the Divine Spirit, should be abandoned. This Brahmahood, this Kshatra power, this world, these gods, these beings, this universe, all is Divine Spirit.” Ibid. The meaning of the last passage is evidently that, the spirit of God pervades the whole, and not that these are God; for that would be pantheism and materialism; whereas the Sruti says that, “God is to be worshipped in spirit and not in any material object.” आत्मा आत्मन्येबोपासितव्यः । [Sidenote: 2. The Materialistic yoga. सांख्य बा प्राकृतिक योगः ।] The materialistic side of the yoga, or what is called the _Prákritika_ yoga, was propounded at first in the _Sánkhya yoga_ system, and thence taken up in the Puránas and _Tantras_, which set up a primeval matter as the basis of the universe, and the _purusha_ or animal soul as evolved out of it, and subsisting in matter. Weber’s Ind. Lit. p. 235. [Sidenote: Of Matter—Prakriti.]