Shastra Quiz 3

Learn more: Sakama Karma in Sastra

Learn more: Different Types of Yoga

The word yoga has two somewhat different meanings. One meaning is to unite, the other meaning is to be distinct from everything else, thus to disunite.

Patanjali, the famous author of the “Yoga Sutras”, uses the second meaning when he speaks of "yogas citta-vritti-nirodha". Here yoga means to terminate all of one’s thoughts, which means not feeling anything externally.

The word can also be used in the sense of union: Yoga is a means to unite us with our goal.

Learn more: The Meaning of the Word Yoga

There are different types of yoga, such as karma-yoga, jnana-yoga, or bhakti-yoga. When we use karma or actions for uniting or reaching our goal, it is called karma-yoga.

Karma-yoga is just a process for purification. A karma-yogi who carries on working can be either like a devotee or a jnani. If he is like a jnani he becomes renounced and takes sannyasa.

If he is like a bhakta he continues to work although he may still be known as a karma-yogi because of the process he has followed. If he becomes devoted to Krishna, he will consider bhakti as his prime process, understanding that karma-yoga is just secondary. That means he is only doing it for setting the standard for others. Then for him, karma-yoga is not a process he follows as a means anymore.

Learn more: Different Types of Yoga

Learn more: Different Types of Yoga

Learn more: Studying Śastra: Jñāna or Bhakti?

Learn more: Integration of Self into Reality

Krishna specifies that astanga-yoga is superior to jnana-yoga. He prefers astanga-yoga to jnana-yoga. The reason is that astanga-yoga is more inclined towards the personal form of the Lord because the astanga-yogi meditates on Paramatma, while the jnana-yogi meditates on the impersonal feature of the Lord.

So, from that point of view a yogi is better than a jnani. Krishna says that a yogi is better than a tapasvi, better than a karmi, better than a jnani – he is better than all of them (tapasvibhyo ‘dhiko yogi jnanibhyo ‘pi mato ‘dhikah, BG 6.46).

Learn more: Different Types of Yoga

Āropa-siddhā bhakti consists of activities that are not devotional in themselves but become part of devotion because of contact of bhakti. Primarily that includes offering your actions to Kṛṣṇa, karmārpaṇam. These actions themselves are not devotional but by offering them to Kṛṣṇa, they become part of bhakti.

In āropa-siddhā bhakti, there is no bhakti activity except for the offering of results.

Learn more: Different Kinds of Bhakti, Dharma and Karma

Learn more: What is a Kaniṣṭhādhikāri?