Page 92 - Hinduism

given up. The chief value of this yoga is that it teaches us the way to self-knowledge and self- sovereignty.
Jñāna yoga is the philosophic method of enquiry into the nature of the Ātman and its relation to Brahman. It is not merely an intellectual but also a spiritual enquiry based on viveka, vairāgya and abhyāsa. By means of viveka, the yogin or philosopher distinguishes between the ātman that is eternal and the bodily self that is fleeting. By vairāgya he renounces the false feeling that he is the body and tries to give up egoity or ahankāra. Abhyāsa consists in practice of contemplation on the ātman, he attains ātma jñāna or self-realisation; attains santi. But such Jñāna is only a start and not a stopping place. It should lead to Brahma jñāna or God-realisation. Advaita has a different meaning to jñāna 'yoga and gives the highest place among the yogas. It says the jīva and Īśvara are identical and the consciousness of this identity is jñāna. But in religious path, bhakti is higher than jñāna.
Bhaktiyoga is the practice of devotion of God or Bhagavan. God is super-personal and impersonal or nirguna or arupa. As Ramanuja says in the beginning of his Bhasya to Brahma Sūtras, Brahman is the creator, sustainer and destroyer of the universe and He is the ruler. The Brahm of the Upaniṣads is Lord Śrinivasa who is divine as daya. The practice of bhakti according to him consists of seven stages, namely, viveka vimoka, abhyasa, 92