साङ्ख्ययोगौ पृथग्बालाः प्रवदन्ति न पण्डिताः ।
एकमप्यास्थितः सम्यगुभयोर्विन्दते फलम् ।। ५.४ ।।

sāṅkhya-yogau pṛthag-bālāḥ pravadanti na paṇḍitāḥ |
ekam apy-āsthitaḥ samyag-ubhayor-vindate phalam || 5.4 ||

Spiritual competence through yoga

Only children, those of immature minds, hold sankhya (the exclusive pursuit of wisdom) and yoga as different; not the enlightened ones. The benefit of both will be had if the seeker pursues any one of them resolutely.

A great assertion indeed! The Upanishads uphold and declare at the top of their voice, how sublime and rewarding is a life of renunciation, however hard and challenging it be. The ascetics revel in the exclusive pursuit of wisdom, where scriptural reading and introspection alone engulf the mind and intelligence, making them greatly luminous and joyful.

But, do they not live and move, however selective such movements be? Does not the world surrounding them present similar scenes, as encircle all else? No renunciation can ever invalidate any of the five senses and their perceptions. Where lies the difference then? Krishna wants Arjuna to think well and arrive at his finding. He will only help in this inner pilgrimage.

In ascetics, introspection may have its special dominant role. And it is helped, no doubt, by renouncing the usual secular activities. But can anybody rule out the scope for similar introspection in the case of others – non-ascetics?

Yoga, the way Krishna defines it, is a subtle and sovereign pursuit of the mind and intelligence. The one given to yoga-sadhana never loses sight of his basic spiritual nature. Equally so, he is ever aware of the supremacy of mind over the body and senses; and also, of the superiority of the intelligence over the mind. The inner personality is his constant focus. Its potentials and possibilities are supreme to him. The expansion, depth and loftiness he sets for himself are thus unbounded.

Is not the human capable of such elevated perception and pursuit? Or else what is the meaning of human life, in which knowledge and rationality count first and last? When constant introspection (manana) graces one’s active pursuits, the whole life is bound to change. Then one overcomes ignorance and delusion. The new insight and vision, the spiritual enlightenment, begins to guide and rule everything of the body, senses and the mind. Will not then the yogic pursuer derive the full benefit of the life of ascetic introspection? Where then is any difference between sankhya and yoga?

If one means is to be regarded as truly different from another, then the two must have distinctly divergent aims or results. Is not the means merely a process to attain a set objective? With the same aim in view, two means cannot be said to differ, in reality, from each other.

Thus, whether the seeker is given to the pursuit of total exclusive wisdom (sankhya), or instead to the yoga of action in which regular activities are not shunned but blended with spiritual introspection, what difference does it make? The difference, if at all, can only be in the seeker’s natural qualities, tendencies and maturity – in which practice, he finds his natural harmony and attunement.

Has not Krishna already said: “In this world there is only one nishta, though it is two-fold in application”? Dvividha nishtha are the words he used (3.3). For those who pursue sankhya, it is jnana (wisdom-pursuit), he said, and for the yogi, it is karma (action pursuit). The ripeness, maturity or competence of the seeker to fit into either the first phase (karma) or the second (jnana) - both of the same nishtha - can alone be the relevant consideration. Will the psychological as well as the physical constitution of the seeker permit him to remain exclusively introspective, or it calls for supplementing his introspection with a measure of bodily and sensory activity too? It is a question of adhikara-bhedah – difference in the degree of spiritual competence.

“If the seeker is resolutely given to either of the disciplines, sankhya or yoga, the result and fruition of both will be gained”. For, in both the pursuits, what is to be purified and refined is the inner being – the mind, intelligence and their offshoots. Actions are performed with the senses, but the motivation for them lies within the domain of the mind. Do the results that follow change the perception of the senses? They doubtlessly delight and enrich the inner part alone. This truth holds whether the seeker is given to wisdom-pursuit or action-pursuit. Once this fact is recognized, the two paths do not pose any contradiction at all.