'Aloneness' and the problem of realism in classical Smkhya and yoga

Author: Mikel Burley

Source: Asian Philosophy, Volume 14, Number 3, November 2004 , pp. 223-238(16)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

The concept of kaivalya (literally, 'aloneness') is of crucial importance to the systems of classical Indian philosophy known as S amacr

mkhya and Yoga. Indeed, kaivalya is the supreme soteriological goal to which these systems are directed. Various statements concerning this final goal appear in the classical texts--namely, the S amacr

mkhyak

rik

and Yogas

tra --and yet there is no consensus within modern scholarship about how the concept is to be interpreted. More specifically, there appears to be a great deal of confusion over the implications of kaivalya for the existence of the empirical world. In this article I discuss the principal difficulties encountered by existing interpretations of kaivalya , and propose that these difficulties result from an unwarranted assumption that S amacr

mkhya and Yoga take a realist view with regard to the empirical world. I further propose that these difficulties can, in large part, be overcome when the assumption of realism is set aside.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1080/1463136042000270588

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