Such a mode of interpreting the YogaSāstra is not a departure from accepted methods. Vārṣagaṇya, an early writer on Yoga, has already suggested a similar approach, when he says that the ultimate form or the substratum of all objects of the world is beyond the scope of vision, and that forms which are seen are mere illusions. This statement implies, as Vācaspati has elucidated, the falsity of the objective worId. For, when Vārṣagaṇya has conceded that the objects of the world are false, it tantamounts to accepting the Pradhāna and other principles as false, and in that case, it is clear that the purpose of the Yogaśāstra cannot be to propound such fictitious illusions. He has therefore concluded, that the Yogaśāstra, properly understood, is quite valid and it is only those that declare the ultimate motive of the Śāstra to be the postulation of the Pradhāna that have strayed away and therefore should not be relied upon.
After thus explaining the correct perspective of the Yogaśāstra, Vācaspati has demonstrated the harmony of Yoga and Vedānta by referring to two other aspects,[१] namely, the many resemblances between Yoga and Vedānta and the fact that practice of Yoga is an essential preparation for the dawn of the Upaniṣadic tattvajñāna, because the self-realisation of the Upaniṣads cannot arise without the aid of the indirect limbs of Yoga like yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma and pratyāhāra and the direct limbs like dhāraṇa, dhyāna and samādhi.
Appayya Dīkṣita, the author of the Parimala[२] has also stated in the same context that the Yogaśāstra, is but an exhaustive elucidation of the same Yoga, which is epigrammatically referred to in the Upaniṣads like the Śvetāśvetara, and consequently implies no conflict with the Vedānta. The Yogadarśana is thus not a deviation from the Vedānta, but an auxiliary science.
- ↑ बहुलं हि योगशास्त्राणां वेदेन सह संवादो दृश्यते । उपनिषदुपायस्य च तत्त्वज्ञानस्य योगापेक्षास्ति । न जातु योगशास्त्रविहितं यमनियमादि-बहिरङ्गमुपायमन्तरङ्गं च धारणादिकमन्तरेण औपानिषदात्मतत्त्वसाक्षात्कार उदेतुमर्हति । तस्मादौपानिषदेन तत्त्वज्ञानेन अपेक्षणात् संवादबाहुल्याच्च वेदेन, अष्टकादिस्मृतिवत् योगस्मृति: प्रमाणम् ॥
- ↑ योगशास्त्रे योगनिरूपणं, श्वेताश्वेतरोपनिषद्द्युद्दिष्टयोगप्रपञ्चनरूपम् ।
