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Two thinkers, side by side

Life

Portrait of Kapila
Kapila

c. 6th century BCE

Indian

The sage credited with Samkhya, the oldest of India's systems, which split reality into spirit and matter.

Portrait of Patanjali
Patanjali

c. 2nd century BCE

IndianYoga

Yoga is the stilling of the mind. He codified a practice that had existed for centuries into a system of eight limbs.

Connection

Kapila metaphysical foundation Patanjali — Patanjali's Yoga took its metaphysics of witnessing spirit and active matter directly from Kapila's Samkhya.

Ideas

BeingNature
Meditation & Yoga

Words

“From the entanglement of spirit with matter the world arises; from seeing them apart, the soul is freed.”

— Kapila

“Yoga is the stilling of the changing states of the mind.”

— Patanjali

Key Moments

c. 6th century BCE

The Sage of Samkhya

c. 6th century BCE

The Founding of Samkhya

c. 590 BCE

Spirit and Matter

c. 580 BCE

Liberation Through Discrimination

c. 2nd century BCE

Born in Classical India

c. 2nd century BCE

Composes the Yoga Sutras

c. 2nd century BCE

Systematizes the Eight-limbed Path

c. 195 BCE

Yoga Is the Stilling of the Mind

Works

The Samkhya Sutras

Yoga Sutras

Atlas of Thinkers

A story-first philosophy atlas. Explore history's greatest thinkers through place, time, movement, and ideas.

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Volume I · Ancient Greece · 624-262 BCE