Date of Award

Spring 2024

Project Type

Thesis

Program or Major

Liberal Studies

First Advisor

Timm Triplett

Second Advisor

Andrew D Christie

Third Advisor

Michael J Merenda

Abstract

The central aim of this thesis was to examine the ontological and epistemological foundations of two schools of Indian philosophy – the Yoga School and the Advaita Vedanta School, in order to understand their points of convergence as well as divergence. I engaged in this inquiry by studying sutras from one foundational text of each school: Patanjali’s Yogasutras and Adi Shankaracharya’s Atmabodha, and by subjecting the sutras to scrutiny, to understand each school’s ontological and epistemological foundations. To do so, I chose the Triputi Framework, which is an ontological-epistemological framework from a third school of Indian philosophy, the Mimansa School. I chose this framework in view of its independence from both the ideas of Patanjali and Shankaracharya, and their respective schools. My major finding from the thesis is that while both Patanjali and Shankara aim to provide a pathway to engage in the quest for self-realization, they recommend somewhat different approaches. Even though both their schools stay rooted to the essential aphorisms enshrined in the Vedas and the Upanishads, Patanjali advocates for a more micro-based approach toward self-realization. In contrast, Shankara seems to blend in a micro approach with a macro approach, which he suggests is the most effective path to achieve self-realization.

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