(“isolation”) Kaivalya is the stage of ultimate emancipation in both Samkhya and Yoga, two of the six schools of Hindu philosophy.
The contrast between the aware but inert purusha, which is
identified as the Self, and the active but unconscious prakrti is completely
understood by a person who has acquired kaivalya.
According to Samkhya metaphysics, the growth of subjective
awareness and the outside universe is triggered by misunderstanding between
these two eternally separate principles, in which the eternal Self becomes the
witness to successive rebirths.
The theoretical reason for bondage and soul release is
provided by Samkhya, whilst the path to freedom is provided by Yoga.
The goal of yoga is to assist people discern between these
two principles by reducing barriers to insight, especially karmic inclinations
based in egoism.
Those who can distinguish between these two principles and
discover the soul's oneness with the purusha achieve independence from all
external causes, mastery over all states of being, and omniscience, according
to the Yoga Sutras, the founding literature for the Yoga system.
Samkhya: A Dualist Tradition in Indian Philosophy, edited by
Gerald Larson and Ram Shankar Bhattacharya, was published in 1987, and A
Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy, edited by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Charles
A. Moore, was published in 1957.
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