In spite of the idea of selves transmigrating between embodiments in plants, animals, humans and divinities, constituting a cosmic ecology, being fundamental in Hindu religions, Mircea Eliade in his famous books on Yoga denied this dogma in his presentation of the Samkhya and Yoga systems of religious thought. This denial makes Samkhya and Yoga appear uncompromisingly anthropocentric and their understanding of the religious position of the human species and the relationship between the human species and the world appears more similar to the Western religious traditions than it actually is. This paper tries to answer three questions: (1) Why did Eliade choose to misrepresent the Samkhya and Yoga position; (2) How did the Samkhya and Yoga systems actually conceive of the religious position of human and non-human living beings; and (3) What was the basis and the purpose for their systems of classification of living beings?