The Yoga Sutra and the Samkya System

Philip Mas says Yoga sutra and yoga Basya were probably both written by one and the same author. Patanjali followed custom by setting down his Yoga teaching in sutra form, then provided his own exegesis rather than waiting for other commentators to come along. One particular sequence reads like a summary of ideas we find at greater length in Ishvarakrishna's Samkya Karika. Both emphasize that our goal is the higher knowledge or insight that comes when we discriminate between nature and consciousness.