The Four Yogas (Paths of Jñāna, Bhakti, Karma, Rāja)
Four roads to the one summit — knowledge, love, action, and meditation.
Hindu tradition recognizes that people reach the goal by different routes, and groups the major paths as four 'yogas': the way of knowledge, the way of loving devotion, the way of selfless action, and the way of meditative discipline. The Bhagavad-gītā weaves the first three together; the fourfold scheme as a tidy set is largely a later, especially modern, framing. They are complementary, not rival, roads.
How it traveled
- Bhagavad-gītāKuru-Pañcāla region · -150explains
Key passages(17)
Arjuna said: Renunciation of action, O Krishna, thou commendest, and again, its performance. Which is the better one of these? Do thou tell me decisively.
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Thus shalt thou be freed from the bondages of actions, bearing good and evil results: with the heart steadfast in the Yoga of renunciation, and liberated, thou shalt come unto Me.
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This, the firm holding back of the senses, is what is called Yoga. He must be free from thoughtlessness then, for Yoga comes and goes.
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Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)
When, as earth, water, light, heat, and ether arise, the fivefold quality of Yoga takes place , then there is no longer illness, old age, or pain for him who has obtained a body, produced by the fire
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Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)