Sankhya (sāṃkhya)

Sankhya is the analytical system that divides reality into conscious spirit and unconscious nature, and explains bondage as the mistake of identifying one with the other. The Mahabharata gives it enormous space in the Shanti Parva, where it is repeatedly paired with yoga as theory to practice, and the Bhagavad Gita opens its teaching with a chapter that carries its name. Kapila, its traditional founder, appears in the epic as a sage who teaches liberation to his own mother.