The Relationship Between Patanjali's Yoga and Vedanta
Patanjali's dualistic Samkhya framework (Purusha vs. Prakriti) and Advaita Vedanta's non-dualism (all is Brahman) represent complementary rather than contradictory approaches to the same reality — different maps for the same territory.
Superficially, Patanjali's yoga system appears to rest on Samkhya's dualism (two irreducible principles: Purusha and Prakriti), while Advaita Vedanta insists on absolute non-duality (all is Brahman, there is only one reality). The apparent contradiction dissolves when understood from a practical rather than metaphysical perspective: at the level of the ordinary practitioner, the distinction between consciousness (Purusha) and the contents of consciousness (Prakriti) is pragmatically valid and forms the basis of the entire meditative project. At the level of Kaivalya, even this distinction dissolves — which is precisely what Patanjali's sutra 4.34 describes when it says that the gunas return to their source and consciousness rests in its own nature. The two systems are thus parallel approaches to liberation: Yoga provides the practical method (eight limbs, Samyama, samadhi ladder); Vedanta provides the philosophical context (non-dual reality in which all methods are ultimately dissolved).
The Seer established in its own nature — this is liberation.
Philosopher T.R.V. Murti's The Central Philosophy of Buddhism demonstrates that Indian philosophical schools that appear mutually contradictory are often better understood as different languages for the same insight, approached from different methodological vantage points — supporting the traditional understanding of Yoga and Vedanta as complementary rather than competing frameworks.
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali