Ashtanga Yoga - The Intermediate Series. Mythology, Anatomy, and Practice

A S H T A N G A Y O G A — T H E I N T E R M E D I A T E S E R I E S
Supreme Being is undividable, we carry the
wholeness of God in our hearts, and all of us are
children of God. True Bhakti Yogis see all beings as
their Lord and themselves as the servants of all
beings. God is not in stone houses with stone
images inside. Those houses and images may be
helpful for the purpose of meditation, but true
religion, true Bhakti, consists in worshiping the
Divine in the hearts of all those we meet.
If you misunderstand Bhakti Yoga, you can
believe that the Krishna you read about is more
sacred and true than the Krishna in the heart of the
being across from you. You may then conclude that
this being is inferior because he or she worships the
Supreme Being not in the form of Krishna but rather
as Shiva, Allah, Jehovah, Yahweh, or some other
deity. Certain devotees of the Lord Vishnu in India,
for example, profess widespread contempt for the
Lord Shiva, although the scriptures teach that
Vishnu and Shiva are one and the same. A truly
strange world this is. In cases such as this, the
interest has shifted from recognizing the Supreme
Being behind its manifold forms to taking pride in
oneself based on the particular form that one’s own
devotion takes.
Bhakti Yoga requires not only fervor but also the
self-reflectiveness of a clear intellect. Otherwise the
intensity of one’s experience of the Divine can easily
lead one to be less compassionate toward others.
Indian folklore is full of warnings of such erroneous
views. For example, the learned Narada, a full-time
attendant of the Supreme Being in the form of the
Lord Vishnu, was once jealous of the Lord’s love of
a particular peasant. Narada asked the Lord what
was so special about this peasant who was
pronouncing the Lord’s name only once per day, just
before he fell asleep. The Lord asked Narada to fill a
cup to the brim with oil and then carry it around his
throne without spilling a drop. As Narada did so, he
focused completely on the task. When he had
completed it, he called out proudly, “Done! And no
drop wasted!” The Lord then asked him, “And how
often did you think about me? That peasant has to
toil all day to extract from the soil a meager life for
his family. But however hard his day is, he never
fails to remember me just before he falls asleep in
exhaustion.” Narada realized that his devotion had
caused him to be prideful, a potent danger on the
Bhakti path.
One of the great advantages of Bhakti Yoga is
that it generally enables one to continue with most
of everyday life; it changes only one’s focus. After
choosing the Bhakti path you no longer perform
your daily duties striving for gain or advantage;
instead, you surrender or offer all your actions,
including their results, to your chosen image of the
Divine.
Generally all forms of yoga contain a Bhakti
component, emphasizing service to the Supreme
Being. Patanjali states, “samadhi siddhi ishvara
pranidhanat,” or, “The power of samadhi can be
obtained by surrendering to the Supreme Being.” 5
Karma Yoga
The term karma comes from the verb root kru, “to
do,” and Karma Yoga in the original Vedic sense
means simply “path of action.” The Karma Kanda of
the Veda, which probably goes back more than ten
thousand years, contains instructions for actions and
rituals that one can perform with a particular goal in
mind, such as obtaining wealth or the object of one’s
passion, becoming a good person, or achieving
spiritual goals.
Approximately five thousand years ago, the
Lord Krishna introduced a new form of Karma Yoga
to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. 6 He
described it as surrendering the fruit of one’s actions
to the Supreme Being. Note the difference between
this definition of Karma Yoga and the idea of karma
presented in the Karma Kanda. Krishna tells us not to
be interested in the result of our actions but instead
to “surrender the fruit of your action to me.” In the
Vedas, on the other hand, action (karma) is always
used to achieve a particular effect. Lord Krishna
actually criticizes the stance of the Vedas when he
says, “traigunya vishaya veda nistraygunyo
bhavarjuna,” which loosely translates as “The Vedas
5 Yoga Sutra I.23.
6 Bhagavad Gita III.3 ff.
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