1 | | Bhakti, Karma and Gnyan YOGA | Apart from the eight-fold path of 'Yoga' formulated by Sage Patanjali, Hindu philosophy unfolds three principle ways of Yoga taking into consideration, the three principal mental dispositions of human beings in general. But, at the very outset it has to be clearly understood that these three qualities are NOT rigid divisions, made arbitrarily to divide human beings into "Superior" and "Inferior" classification. In fact, these three ways are complementary between them, because each human being in his/her lifetime does not remain exclusively locked up in one single temperament.
The goal of all these three ways of Yoga is one single point. That is, to dissolve the human 'Ahamkar' (Ego). Emotion, Proactive and Intellectually reflective, are the three principal traits correspond to Bhakti, Karma and Gnyan respectively. In some portion, all these three qualities are surely present in each and every human being.
Bhakti Yoga: Spiritual liberation through devotion. In this approach, human ego can identify with deep devotion with a chosen deity and surrender its sense of individuality. The identifications range from, 'Child-Mother', 'Master-Servant', 'Lover-Beloved', Supportive and protective friend etc. The whole soul of Bhakti Yoga is, the art of 'Surrender' and complete 'Let-go' of the ego.
Karma Yoga: Spiritual liberation through action. In this approach, the human ego is weaned away from its obsession of 'Expectations'. In each and every activity, we expect not only an outcome as an end result but also more so we long for appreciation and recognition from others. Not being recognized is perhaps the deepest sorrow and anguish we undergo in our life. Notwithstanding financial gain, human ego hungers for recognition. In fact, the factors of power, wealth, physical beauty, influence, knowledge, skills etc are sought after only for one single goal in mind, that is RECOGNITION! The sad reality of life's dynamic is such, all recognitions, if at all they come, are quite short-lived. Not being recognized and loosing recognition, are the most painful experience for our ego! Karma Yoga guides us to engage in each and every activity with full interest and application, but FREE of EXPECTATIONS for recognition. The sense of ego in us changes and becomes totally impotent, if one understands Karma Yoga correctly. Crude understanding of Karma Yoga is, 'Do not expect fruit of your actions'. Hence many take this to be a license for their inefficiency and irresponsibility!
The subtle clue is: In one's life, satisfaction and sense of fulfillment is only possible, when the mind is totally free from the anxiety of expectations! Karma Yoga, fully teaches this lesson to the confusedly struggling human beings.
Gnyan Yoga: Spiritual liberation through knowledge. In this approach, through the medium of reasoning and analysis the human ego is taught that "ITS" self-identity is only ILLUSIVE. It is an innate nature of human mind to perceive an irrefutable identity of individuality. The sense of "I" and "ME" in us struggles endlessly to protect itself, not realizing the least that this identity is only an erroneous assumption. Making use of human daily experience of wakeful, dream and deep-sleep states of consciousness, one is helped to arrive through reasoning, to question one's sense of permanent self-identity. The 'Waker' is not there during the dream and the' Dreamer' is not there in the waking-state. Both the 'Waker' and the 'Dreamer' are completely lost in the deep-sleep state! The knowledge (Gnyan) thus arrived is so conclusive that it eradicates all traces of doubt. The self-identity of us is clearly seen, to be totally impermanent and thus freedom from ignorance (Avidya) and illusive deception (Maya) is accomplished! Freed from the limitation of individuality, one spontaneously feels intimately one with the primal LIFE, which is beyond all naming!
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