There are as many ways to reach God as there are people. Everyone has to find his/her own way to attain God. We have to make the best use of our own physical and mental abilities. We can pick and choose any of these ways, or a combination of any of these major ways. They are called the four yogas or margas or paths.
Bhakti Yoga: Bhakti means intense love for God. This path is suited to people who feel emotionally drawn towards God. The devotee spends his time in prayers, devotional music and worship and constant remembrance of the deity of his choice. His daily routine consists mainly of these activities. He may read scriptures, sing devotional songs, tell beads and socialize only with people of similar temperament. He performs worship with great love and care. He develops a special relationship with the deity of his choice in order to get closer to Him. Some like to think of God as their real father or their real mother. Some think of God as their child.
Some even think of God as their sweetheart. Some may take the attitude that they are just the servants of God. Others like to think of God as their best friend. All these attitudes help them feel closer to God. The greatest advantage of this path to God is that the end product ‘Intense love of God’ - is also the very instrument used to achieve that goal. Hence many people consider this path to be the easiest way to God. The difficulty is that only few people feel such intense love of God!
Raja Yoga: Essentially Raja Yoga teaches the path to God through meditation. Many mistake the word yoga to mean postures and physical exercises. The term for these activities is - Hatha yoga.
Hindus realize the importance of a healthy body for spiritual progress; hence these exercises were introduced. Sage Patanjali developed the system of Raja Yoga. It consists of eight steps. The first two are called Yama and Niyama.
These prescribe ten disciplines to be observed in daily life before we are ready to practice meditation. They require the practice of truthfulness, celibacy, cleanliness, non-violence, austerities, etc. in daily life. Next comes Asana - suitable sitting posture for meditation. The main requirement is to sit upright with the backbone kept straight.
The aim of Raja Yoga is to develop intense concentration whereby we are able to become more ‘awake’ than we are now. It requires a dramatic change in the level of awareness we experience. Hindus claim that it is in this higher state of
awareness that all prophets come face to face with God. Spirituality then becomes firsthand experience and transforms the individual into a God-man. The goal of Raja Yoga is to develop one pointed concentration (dhyana) and thus achieve union with the ultimate reality - God. This is called Samadhi.
Karma Yoga: Karma Yoga is often called the path of action. Krishna teaches in the Bhagavad Gita, “Action is better than inaction”. This forms the basis of this particular path. It says that we cannot really avoid action. Even if we sit in the remotest place, our mind will still continue to conjure up images and be active.
The best thing is not to stop acting but to act in a manner that helps to cleanse the mind. The simplest method recommended is to continue to act but to offer the fruits of our action to God. Thus we begin to develop a sense of detachment in the midst of all activities. The ultimate reality as our true self is best described as the witness looking out through the body.
Gnana Yoga: This is often described as the way to God through intellectual ability. This path states that to find God we need to clear our vision of reality.
We all know that as we develop sharper intellect the same world begins to appear in a different light. With the advance of science we now view the world in a completely different way than the ancient man.
Gnana yoga says that this process should be sharpened even further. We require greater mental evolution in order to see what is really out there and what we are all about. This can be achieved by using the tools of discrimination and dispassion. First we need dispassion towards the world in order to become less distracted. Then we need to focus on what is real and what is unreal that is called discrimination. The best example of a Gnana Yogi is perhaps ‘Shankaracharya’.
Contemporary Yogis: We can look at a few contemporary saints and try to identify which particular paths they seem to have adopted. Sri Ramana Maharshi - used sharp intellect to see through the apparent world, and realize the ultimate Reality. Bhakta Ramadas - used constant repetition of the name of Lord Sri Rama. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa - used both Bhakti and Gnana. Swami Vivekananda - master of Raja Yoga and yet involved in unceasing activity.
This article are the ‘Ashirvachana’ given by His Holiness Sri Balagangadaranatha Mahaswamiji, 71st Pontiff of Sri Adichunchanagiri Mahas stana Math on different occasions.
