The Nirálambopanishad exhibits essentially the yoga stand point according to Dr. Rajendra Lala Mitra (Notices of S. Mss. II 95. Weber’s Id. p. 162). The yoga tatwa and yoga sikhá belong to yoga also, and depict the majesty of Átmá. (Ibid. p. 165).
Among the Sectarian Upanishads will be found the Náráyanopanishad, which is of special significance in relation to the Sánkhya and Yoga doctrines (Ibid. p. 166).
Sánkhya and Pátanjala Yogas. It is plain from the recurrence of the word Sánkhya in the later Upanishads of the Taittiríya and Atharva vedas and in the Nirukta and Bhagavad Gítá, that the Sánkhya Yoga was long known to the ancients, and the Pátanjala was a further development of it. (Ibid. p. 137).
Yoga Yájnavalkya. Along with or prior to Pátanjali comes the Yoga Sástra of Yogi Yájnavalkya, the leading authority of the Sátapatha Bráhmana, who is also regarded as a main originator of the yoga doctrine in his later writings. (Ibid. p. 237). Yájnavalkya speaks of his obtaining the Yoga Sástra from the sun, ज्ञेयञ्चारण्यकमहं यदादित्यादबाप्तबान । योगशास्त्रञ्च मत् प्रोक्तं ज्ञेयं योगमभीप्सता ॥
“He who wishes to attain yoga must know the Áranyaka which I have received from the sun, and the Yoga sástra which I have taught.”
X. Rise of the Heretical Yogas.
The Buddhist and Jain Yogas. Beside the Orthodox yoga systems of the Upanishads, we have the Heterodox Yoga Sastras of the Buddhists and Jains completely concordant with those of Yájnavalkya in the Brihad áranyaka and Atharvan Upanishads, (Weber’s Id. p. 285).
The concordance with the Vedantic. The points of coincidence of the vedánta yoga with those of Buddhism and Jainism, consist in as much as both of them inculcate the doctrine of the interminable metempsychosis of the human soul, as a consequence of bodily acts, previous to its state of final absorption or utter annihilation, according to the difference in their respective views. Or to explain it more clearly they say that, “The state of humanity in its present, past and future lives, is the necessary result of its own acts “Karma” in previous births.”
The weal or woe of mankind. That misery or happiness in this life is the unavoidable sequence of conduct in former states of existence, and that our present actions will determine our states to come; that is, their weal or woe depending solely on the merit or demerit of acts. It is, therefore, one’s cessation from action by confining himself to holy meditation, that secures to him his final absorption in the supreme according to the one; and by his nescience of himself that ensures his utter extinction according to the other.
The Puránic yoga. In the Puránic period we get ample accounts of yoga and yogis. The Kurma purana gives a string of names of yoga teachers. The practice of yoga is frequently alluded to in the Vana parva of Mahábhárata. The observances of yoga are detailed at considerable length and strenuously enjoined in the Udyoga parva of the said epic. Besides in modern times we have accounts of yogis in the Sakuntala of Kálidása (VII. 175) and in the Mádhava Málati of Bhava-bhúti (act V.). The Rámayana gives an account of a Súdra yogi, and the Bhágavatgítá treats also of yoga as necessary to be practiced (chap. VI. V. 13).