The epistemology of the pre-classical Sāṃkhya and Yoga from the Upaniṣads and the Mokṣadharma presents two supplementary levels of consciousness: mahān ātman (or budhyamāna) and brahman, sometimes called the 26th, buddha or Viṣṇu/Śiva. Although the mahān ātman (and the budhyamāna) disappeared in classical teachings, in the upaniṣadic period it had functioned as very important level of yogic consciousness. It was a dyke between the empirical I (the citta or the liṅga) and the pure consciousness of the ātman. The classical Sāṃkhya has joined the 26th level and the mahān ātman in the puruṣa as 25th state, although the Patañjali’s Yoga seems to keep the pre-classical budhyamāna (the mahān ātman) in the notion and in the soteriological function of Īśvara.
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