YOGA AS PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGIONS BY SURENDRANATH DASGUPTA M.A., PH.D.(CAL.), PH.D.(CANTAB.) AUTHOR OF “A HISTORY OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY”, ETC. _Professor of Philosophy, Presidency College, Calcutta_ _Late Professor of Sanskrit, Chittagong College_ _Late Lecturer in the University of Cambridge_ LONDON: KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO. 1924 YOGA AS PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION Printed in Great Britain at _The Mayflower Press, Plymouth_, William Brendon & Son, Ltd. AS A HUMBLE TOKEN OF DEEPEST REGARD AND GRATEFULNESS TO THE MAHARAJA SIR MANINDRACHANDRA NUNDY K.C.I.E WHOSE NOBLE CHARACTER AND SELF-DENYING CHARITIES HAVE ENDEARED HIM TO THE PEOPLE OF BENGAL AND WHO SO KINDLY OFFERED ME HIS WHOLE-HEARTED PATRONAGE IN ENCOURAGING MY ZEAL FOR LEARNING AT A TIME WHEN I WAS IN SO GREAT A NEED OF IT PREFACE This little volume is an attempt at a brief exposition of the philosophical and religious doctrines found in Patañjali’s _Yoga-sūtra_ as explained by its successive commentaries of Vyāsa, Vācaspati, Vijñāna Bhikshu, and others. The exact date of Patañjali cannot be definitely ascertained, but if his identity with the other Patañjali, the author of the Great Commentary (_Mahābhāshya_) on Pāṇini’s grammar, could be conclusively established, there would be some evidence in our hands that he lived in 150 B.C. I have already discussed this subject in the first volume of my _A History of Indian Philosophy_, where the conclusion to which I arrived was that, while there was some evidence in favour of their identity, there was nothing which could be considered as being conclusively against it. The term Yoga, according to Patañjali’s definition, means the final annihilation (_nirodha_) of all the mental states (_cittavṛtti_) involving the preparatory stages in which the mind has to be habituated to being steadied into particular types of graduated mental states. This was actually practised in India for a long time before Patañjali lived; and it is very probable that certain philosophical, psychological, and practical doctrines associated with it were also current long before Patañjali. Patañjali’s work is, however, the earliest systematic compilation on the subject that is known to us. It is impossible, at this distance of time, to determine the extent to which Patañjali may claim originality.