The Samkya doctrine, also known as Sankya, Sankhya or Samkhya, is the oldest philosophical Hindu system. It is attributed to the legendary seer Kapila, the oldest written source being the Sankyakarika of Ishvrakrishna. The Samkya system is regarded as the ontological basis for the system of yoga. Samkya is a teaching of duality. The two basic principles are purusha (the individual soul, the self – the unchanging core of the human being) and prakriti (the material world of appearance, which also includes psychological functions such as the mind). The form of prakriti is decided according to the three gunas (qualities), sattva (balanced), rajas (active), tamas (heavy). Samkya is atheistic, there is no creator god or act of creation, the world is not created. It is the development of something that has always existed.

The epic Bhagavadgita is the most famous testimony to India’s epic literature. The Gita essentially comprises three main paths of yoga:

• Karma yoga – the path of unintentional, selfless action
• Bhakti yoga – the path of worshipful devotion to God
• Jnana yoga – the path of knowledge through study and meditation

The Bhagavadgita is part of the Mahabharata (“the great epic of the struggle of the descendants of the royal house of Bharata”), which is the longest poem in world literature. The mythical poet Vyasa is considered to be the author.