Holding his body steady with the three [upper parts: head, neck
and chest] erect,
And causing the senses with the mind to enter the heart,
A wise man with the Brahma-boat should cross over
All the fear-bringing streams.
Having repressed his breathings here in the body,
And having his movements checked,
One should breathe through his nostrils with diminished breath.
Like the chariot yoked with vicious horses,
His mind the wise man should restrain undistractedly.
Ívet. Up. 2:8–9Although liberation is the highest aim of UpaniÓsadicyoga, the UpaniÓsads
note the health benefits of yoga: sickness, old age, and death are avoided
by one “who has obtained a body made out of the fire of yoga” [Ívet. Up.
2:12 ̄a]. Health is named as one of the signs of progress in yoga [Ívet. Up.
2.13]. The Ívetasvatararefers to yoga in connection with S ̄amkhya. InÓ
the later systematizations of the classical dar ́sanas, S ̄amkhya and YogaÓ
are separate but closely related. In the Ívetasvatara,S ̄amkhya and YogaÓ
designate two means of attaining knowledge of the absolute: by discrimi-
native knowing and meditative abstraction, respectively [Ívet. Up. 6:13].
In the Bhagavadg ̄ıt ̄a, the major yoga-text preceding Patañjali’s systemati-
zation of yoga in the Yoga-s ̄utras, Lord KÓrÓsÓna teaches Arjuna of a two-
fold path: “the knowledge-yoga of the S ̄amkhyas” (Ó jñ ̄anayogena
sa ̄ÓmkhyanamÓ ), and the “action-yoga” of the Yogins (karmayogena yogi-
nam) [BhG 3:3].
Yoga in the Bhagavadg ̄ıt ̄a
K. N. Upadhyaya writes that the Bhagavadg ̄ıta ̄ subordinates S ̄amkya’sÓ
dualism and atheism, along with the methods of yoga, under the theistic
and non-dualistic philosophy of Vedanta.^8 In the G ̄ıt ̄a’sKarma Yoga, the
yoga of non-detached action, the body is the very instrument of the
aspirant’s carrying out responsibilities in the world, but with an attitude
of non-attachment. While action is necessary in human life, salvation re-
quires ni ́skama karma ̄ , performance of action without attachment to its
result, whether pleasant or unpleasant. KÓrÓsÓna exhorts the warrior Ar-
juna: “Fixed in yoga... do thy work... Yoga is skill in action” [BhG
2:48,50]. KÓrÓsÓna’s instructing Arjuna to act, to carry his duty as a warrior
regardless of the consequences—the killing of his kinsmen—exemplifies
Karma Yoga’s yoking of physical action with emotionally detached
understanding. Action is to be performed in a fully aware and disci-
plined manner, with the matter of significance not being the external
one line longclassical yoga as a religious therapeutic 89