| In the ancient India, philosophy has been traditionally | | | | the universe was originally created by the uniting or |
| divided into two main groups. These groups are called | | | | samyoga of two eternal realities called purusha and |
| as the orthodox group and heretic group. The | | | | prakriti. Purusha forms the basis of all the spiritual |
| orthodox group believes in the authority of Vedas in | | | | objects while prakriti deals with the material objects. |
| all the philosophical matters. These orthodox systems | | | | Prakriti and everything that comes from it has three |
| are six in all. One of the most popular systems of | | | | gunas viz.: sattva, rajo and tamas in various |
| philosophy is yoga. | | | | proportions and combinations. |
| It shares the following common beliefs with the other | | | | Sattvaguna deals with all that is pure and holy while |
| orthodox systems:o Belief in the permanent soul, | | | | rajasguna deals with all the rich and royal qualities and |
| which forms the basis of life.o Soul is supposed to | | | | tamasguna deals with all the baser qualities like greed, |
| discard one body at the time of death and enter a | | | | lust, anger, fear etc. The samyoga of the purusha |
| new one at the time of new birth.o A strong belief in | | | | and the prakriti is virtual. It does not exist but only |
| the karma, which states that the events happening in | | | | the ignorant mind thinks it is real. This is due to the |
| a person's life are a direct results of the events in his | | | | illusion called avidya and binds the purusha and causes |
| previous life or lives (if the person has been born | | | | him to transmigrate from one body to another in the |
| many times).o A belief that the life of an individual is | | | | various births. Once the avidya is dispelled completely, |
| primarily of misery and sorrow.o A belief in the state | | | | one can break free from the cycle of bith and death |
| of complete freedom from misery and sorrow called | | | | and can achieve moksha. This is easily achieved by |
| mukti or moksha. | | | | following the eightfold path given by Patanjali in his |
| Yoga adopts the dualistic doctrine of explaining the | | | | Yogasutras. |
| universe of objects and living beings. It assumes that | | | | |