- There are three kinds of yogas: the yoga of knowledge, the yoga of action and the yoga of love and devotion.
Bhakti Yoga
- In the Kaliyuga one should practice Bhakti Yoga, chanting the Lord’s name and His glories, and prayer. Indeed, Bhakti Yoga is the law of this age.
- In the Kaliyuga life depends on food. With the conviction that I am the body, ‘I-ness,’ does not disappear. So the path of devotion is enjoined for the Kaliyuga. It is an easy path. If you sing His names and glories and pray to Him longingly from the core of your heart, you will attain God.
- You may cut down an ashwattha tree and think its roots are dead, but the very next morning you will see that a new sprout has appeared. The feeling of the body does not go away. Thus the path of devotion is a good and easy path in this age.
- I don’t want to become sugar, I want to taste it. I never feel like saying, ‘I am Brahman.’ I say, ‘You are my Lord and I am Your servant.’ It is good to play between the fifth and sixth planes. After crossing the sixth plane, I have no desire to stay on the seventh plane for long.
- For the Kaliyuga, Bhakti Yoga is best suited – the path of love and devotion enjoined by Narada: chanting the name and glories of God and praying with a longing heart, ‘O Lord, grant me knowledge and devotion, reveal Yourself to me.’ Karma Yoga is very difficult.
- Bhakti Yoga is the path of devotion, Bhakti Yoga, is in fixing the mind on God by repeating His name and singing His glories. Bhakti Yoga is the easy path for the Kaliyuga. It is indeed the path for the present age.
- The path of love and devotion is best. One can approach God more easily through it than by any other path.
- Bhakti Yoga is the religion for this age. This does not mean that a lover of God reaches one goal and the followers of the path of knowledge and action reach another.
- You can attain Him by the path of devotion too. If you once develop love for the lotus feet of God, if you begin to enjoy chanting His name and glories, you don’t have to try to control your passions any more. They are subjugated automatically.
Jnana Yoga
- The path of knowledge is very difficult. Knowledge can’t be attained without ridding yourself of the conviction that you are the body.
- Jnana Yoga is the path of knowledge, the jnani wants to know Brahman, the Absolute. He says to himself, ‘Not this, not this.’ He reasons, ‘Only Brahman is real and the world unreal.’
- The path of knowledge is also very difficult in this age. In the first place, human life is dependent on food. Second, life is short. Third, it is not possible to rid oneself of body consciousness.
Karma Yoga
- Karma yoga is very hard indeed. The rituals laid down in the sacred books are very hard to practice in the Kaliyuga. Life is dependent on food.
- Working unattached in this way is called Karma Yoga. But it is very difficult. Thus, it is only possible for those who have seen God to be completely unattached.
- If householders attend to their duties in life in an unattached manner with devotion for Him and surrender the result of their work to Him, it, too, is Karma Yoga.
- To perform worship, repetition of God’s name, and other such actions, surrendering the result to God, is also the path of action. The goal of this path is also God-realization.