श्रीभगवानुवाच:लोकेऽस्मिन् द्विविधा निष्ठा पुरा प्रोक्ता मयानघ ।ज्ञानयोगेन सांख्यानां कर्मयोगेन योगिनाम् ॥
śrībhagavānuvāca:loke’smin dvividhā niṣṭhā purā proktā mayānaghajñānayogena sāṃkhyānāṃ karmayogena yoginām
The Blessed Lord said: In this world twofold is the self-application of the soul (by which it enters into the Brahmic condition), as I before said, O sinless one: that of the Sankhyas by the Yoga of knowledge, that of the Yogins by the Yoga of works.
Gītā 3·3The Teacher first makes a distinction between the two means of salvation on which in this world men can concentrate separately, the Yoga of knowledge, the Yoga of works, the one implying, it is usually supposed, renunciation of works as an obstacle to salvation.
The practical difference, as it seems to have presented itself to the religious minds of that day, lay first in this that Sankhya proceeded by knowledge and through the Yoga of the intelligence, while Yoga proceeded by works and the transformation of the active consciousness and, secondly,—a corollary of this first distinction,—that Sankhya led to entire passivity and the renunciation of works, saṁnnyāsa while Yoga held to be quite sufficient the inner renunciation of desire, the purification of the subjective principle which leads to action and the turning of works Godwards, towards the divine existence and towards liberation.
