Samkhya is one of the earliest schools of Indian philosophy and most systems, including yoga, have been drawn from or influenced by it. Samkhya is a dualisitic philosphy and postulates two eternal realities: Purusha,the witnessing consciousness and Prakriti, the root cause of creation, composed of three gunas. This text highlights the unique contribution of Samkhya philosophy in man's quest to understand his true nature. It discusses the pratical theories of causation, manifestation, bondage and liberation. For the spiritual aspirant, Samkhya is the metaphysics of self-realization and yoga is the sadhana or means to achieve it. Samkhya Darshan contains the full Sanskrit text of Ishvara Krishna's "Samkhya Karika" as well as tranasliteration and translation.

About the Author

Swami Niranjanananda was born in Madhya Pradesh in 1960 and was initiated into Dashnami Sannyasa at the age of ten. In 1983 he was appointed President of the Bihar School of Yoga. Since then he has guided the development of Ganga Darshan, Sivananda Math, Yoga Publications Trust and the Yoga Research Foundation. In 1990 he was initiated as a Paramahansa and in 1993 anointed preceptor in succession to to Swami Satyananda. Bihar Yoga Bharati was founded under his direction in 1994. He has authored over 20 books, travels and lectures widely and guides national and international programmes.