| Title |
Karma, Jnana, and Bhakti Yoga - Krishna.com |
| Description |
Early along the path of Vedic knowledge, one comes to understand that he’s a spark of pure consciousness, above the body, above even the mind. He sees that he uses the body and mind - when he tells his finger to scratch his head it does so; when he directs his thoughts, they go from one subject or another - yet the body and mind are distinct from his inner identity, his inner being. This understanding is called self-realization.
Yet self-realization is not the end of it. By further introspection - unless one gets stuck - one comes to understand that his own consciousness, his own spiritual existence, is not ultimate. Even in his own essential identity, he himself is not the be-all and end-all of everything. There are other living beings too, and they’re not just projections of himself. And there’s a material cosmos out there, hard and tangible and unlikely to be something he has merely imagined up. And even if he thinks that in reality such distinctions at last no longer exist, that in truth there is only absolute oneness, and that all else is but an illusion, a dream, he still has to ask himself, 'Where does this illusion come from?'
In this way his thoughts bring him to realize that there is an Absolute Truth, a source of all energies, all realities, and he sees himself to be a part of that Supreme Absolute. By considering his own identity as a conscious individual - a conscious person - he ultimately realizes the individual personal nature of that Supreme Absolute. He recognizes the eternal relationship between himself and the Absolute. And in this way he enters the realm of bhakti, the realm of personal spiritual dealings between himself and the Absolute. In bhakti, the individual person joyfully devotes himself to serving the absolute Personality of Godhead, who joyfully and unlimitedly reciprocates. This is the postgraduate stage of self-realization. |
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