dent and other authorities in whom the powers of government
are vested, can we argue that it is not unmonarchical because it does
not expressly say there is no king? In the Sankhya there is no more
place for a deity than for a king in a republican constitution.
Moreover, the Sutras endeavour to prove that the idea of God is
inconceivable and self-contradictory and some commentaries speak
plainly on this subject.[754] Thus the Sankhya-tattva-kaumudi
commenting on Karika 57 argues that the world cannot have been created
by God, whether we suppose him to have been impelled by selfishness or
kindness. For if God is perfect he can have no need to create a world.
And if his motive is kindness, is it reasonable to call into existence
beings who while non-existent had no suffering, simply in order to
show kindness in relieving them from suffering? A benevolent deity
ought to create only happy creatures, not a mixed world like the one
we see.[755]

Arguments like this were not condemned by the Brahmans so strongly as
we should expect, but they did not like them and though they did not
excommunicate the Sankhya in the same way as Buddhism, they greatly
preferred a theistic variety of it called Yoga.

The Yoga and Sankhya are mentioned together in the Svetasvatara
Upanishad,[756] and the Bhagavad-gita[757] says that he sees truly who
sees them as one. The difference lies in treatment rather than in
substance. Whereas the Sankhya is mainly theoretical, the principal
topic of the Yoga is the cultivation of that frame of mind which leads
to emancipation and the methods and exercises proper to this end.
Further, the Yoga recognizes a deity. This distinction may seem of
capital importance but the god of the Yoga (called Isvara or the
Lord) is not its foundation and essence as Brahman is of the
Vedanta.[758] Devotion to God is recognized as one among other methods
for attaining emancipation and if this particular procedure, which is
mentioned in relatively few passages, were omitted, the rest of the
system would be unaffected. It is therefore probable that the theistic
portions of the Yoga are an addition made under Brahmanic influence.
But taking the existing Sutras of the two philosophies, together with
their commentaries, it may be said that the Yoga implies most of the
Sankhya theory and the Sankhya most of the Yoga practice, for though
it does not go into details it prescribes meditation which is to be
perfected by regulating the