Class by Vijayji

Recap of Sutra 24: 

That form of pure love which is inherent (natural), there is no expectation. Pure love is the highest love and is called devotion (Bhakti). True devotee seeks not his own happiness but the happiness of the Lord. In the worldy love/lust there is only the desire of one’s own pleasure. Rishi Narada says that Bhakti is the supreme love for God. The characteristic of this Bhagavan is Sat-Chit-Ananda. Ananda is our nature. So loving Bhagavan means loving ourselves. Love for God means love for all creatures (because Bhagavan is in all creatures). Bhakta is one who does not separate religious and secular activities, everything is done as a service to God. Such a person will not act out of selfishness and will not harm others in any way. 

This class:

Sutra 25: sā tu karma-jnāna-yogebhyo’pyadhikatarā

Supreme devotion (Para bhakti) is indeed superior or greater than Karma (path of action), Jnana (path of knowledge) and Yoga (path of yoga, Ashtanga yoga is disciplined contemplation). 

Karma means dedicated karma (not Nishkama karma), there is expectation of some result. Jnana is philosophical speculation (Karya-Karna bhava, cause and effect). Bhakti is superior to the path of action, knowledge and discipline. 

The word yoga comes from the Sanskrit word ‘yuj’ meaning to invoke, yoke,to join, to unite. The goal of yoga is to unite oneself with God. Practice of yoga is the path we take to accomplish this. This path can be classified broadly into four categories – Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga and Bhakti Yoga. We practice a mixture of all. 

Karma Yoga: Karma yoga is the path of dedicated work, with renouncing the result of our action as a spiritual offering. What we experience today is the result of our previous karma (both good and bad). This chain of cause and effect can be snapped by Karma Yoga. We can rise up to Nishkama karma (selfless action) where we feel ‘i am not the doer’. Only when we reach the point of Nishkama karma, karma yoga is beneficial.  This engaging the ego by doing an action and offering the result to a higher power (whether personal God or Self), will stop the cause and effect process. 

In Bhagavad Gita,  Bhagavan Krishna says to Arjuna, in Chapter 8 verse 27 – whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer , whatever you bestow as a gift and whatever austerity you perform , do it as an offering to me. Then the result of action is nullified. 

In Chapter 3 verse 9, Bhagavan says: Work must be done as a yajna to supreme Lord. Yajna means whatever we do, we do for the benefit of the group/community, we should have very little trace of selfishness. Otherwise work causes bondage in this material world. So perform the prescribed duty without being attached. Vairagya is the practice of detachment. 

Jnana Yoga: Path of knowledge is twofold. One is knowledge about Bhagavan/spirituality. (There is duality here).  The other is Self-knowledge. Jnana yoga is the knowledge of Brahman and Atman and the realization of their unity. Jnani uses the power of intellect to discriminate between the real and unreal. We are ourselves divine and there is no need to look outside for divinity. What prevents us from knowing our real nature is the veil of Maya. Jnana yoga is the process of removing the veil systematically, by understanding how Maya plays and go beyond the Maya. We use two approaches. One is negating (neti, neti – not this, not this). The second is – whatever is understood to be permanent, unchanging , eternal then that is the Highest. The wrong impressions created by ignorance must be reversed by cultivating the right thoughts. Jnana yoga uses our mental power to end wrong thinking. We should know that we are free and have always been free, perfect, infinite, immortal, not confined to the limitation of ‘i’ and ‘my’. 

Many people practice Ashtanga yoga (path of disciplined contemplation). ‘Ashta’ means eight, and ‘anga’ means limb, this refers to the eight steps of yoga. The philosophy is to integrate all the eight steps of yoga – yama (moral course), niyama (self-discipline), asana (one should be able to sit for three hours without moving, this is asana siddhi), pranayama , pratyahara (prati means individual, ahara is taking – this refers to sense withdrawal), dharana (concentration/ single pointedness), dhyana (meditation), samadhi (realization). 

For those who are more emotional, bhakti yoga is recommended. It is the path of devotion or method of attaining God through love. There are not too many rules and regulations. Bhakti is accessible to everyone. The ego loosens its grips as we think of our beloved’s welfare. The irresistible emotion takes us to the goal very easily. Vedanta says ‘don’t squander the power of love’. This powerful force should be used for God-realization. 

Sutra 26: phala-rūpatvāt

Bhakti is superior because it is the nature of the fruit of all other spiritual paths. It is the culmination of the effort made for God-realization. In the path of Bhakti, the fruit comes easily and we can see it. When we are emotionally charged, we forget ourselves. When we forget ourselves, we forget the ego. 

Sutra 27: Ishwarasyāpi-abhimāna-dvesitvāt dainya-priyatvācca

Bhagavan dislikes ego, and He likes humility and devotion. When there is humility, ego is suppressed. Bhakti eventually becomes para bhakti, where there is no trace of ego. Lord Krishna once pretended to have a severe headache and called many doctors to cure Him, but his headache was not cured. Finally He said, no physicians can cure Him, but if a true devotee can give Him some dust from their feet so that it can be rubbed on His head, then it would cure the headache. Many devotees were approached by Krishna’s messengers for their foot dust, but they all refused to give, thinking it will be sinful to do so and they will go to hell. Finally when the messengers went to Vrindavan and asked the Gopis, they immediately and willingly gave all the dust from Vrindavan ! This was their love, because the Gopis did not care about going to hell, their only concern was that Krishna’s headache be cured and He be happy. We can cultivate this type of Bhakti too.