Jnana Yoga – Yoga of Knowledge & Wisdom

Jñāna yoga is said to be the most difficult path, not because it is superior, but because we must be well-practiced in balancing life’s disciplines for this path to be duly honored, to be invited to continue. Without fully embodying the lessons of selflessness, love of the Divine, and strength of mind and body – any inquiry regarding Self-realization through this yogic path can be kindly seen as an empty curiousity: the investigation of ego and its respective identity.

An intellectual approach to spiritual evolution, jñāna yoga is the fourth of the four paths of yoga, and it is where the mind learns to tune to its essential nature.

Practice of Jñāna Yoga

1. Healthy Attitude

Yogis teach that to know Brahman as one Self is jñāna. To intuitively assimilate, ‘I am Brahman, the pure, all-pervading Consciousness, the non-enjoyer, non-doer and silent witness’  is jñāna. To behold the one Self everywhere is jñāna.

On the other side of the coin is ignorance, ajñāna. When we personally identify with the illusory vehicles of body, mind, senses and prāṇa – that is ajñāna. For us to say, ‘I am the doer, I am the enjoyer’ – that is ajñāna.

According to the great yogis like Swami Sivananda, jñāna alone can transform ajñāna, just as light alone can transform darkness.

2. Healthy Motive

Yogis share that Self-realization or direct intuitive perception of the Supreme Self is the process for experiencing Reality as it Is. This path of wisdom is, however, not (yet) accesible for those whose hearts are not being wholly given and practicing, and whose intellects are not yet activated to live forward the path of the razor’s edge. Hence, karma yoga and bhakti yoga are to be continually practiced, which will offer the heart open and make it fit for the reception of knowledge.

3. Opening to Self

According to Swami Sivananda, when the nature of Brahman is known, all names, forms and limitations are free to fall away. He teaches that the little ‘I’  is limited and can only experience life through its self-created filter (its individual fears and desires). The practice here being: continually strive to see God in all – for if we honor false egoism and rise above, we can grow beyond Maya. With the touch of Grace, ignorance dissolves.

4. Serving the Self in All

The great yogis teach us to stay in the world but to be not worldly. They teach us to practice selfless service. And then again to practice more. In order to align with the Self, we must continually strive to contribute to the greater good – both in ourselves and in others.

In jñāna yoga, viveka is the destination. It is the discrimination between the real and the unreal, between the permanent and the impermanent, between the Self and the non-Self. Viveka dawns in us through the Grace of God, or Self, or the Mantra. This Grace can come only after we have done unceasing selfless service in countless births with the feeling that we are an active, flexible instrument of the Supreme and that the work completed through our hands is an offering to the Divine.

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