The Four Paths of Yoga
Jnana, Raja, Karma & Bhakti
 
From ancient times, people of the Indian subcontinent have practiced spiritual disciplines designed to clear the mind and support a state of serene, detached awareness. This desired state of balance, purity, wisdom, and peacefulness of mind is described as sattvic....The practices for increasing sattvic qualities are known collectively as yoga. It means “yoke” or “union”—referring to union with the true Self, the goal described in the Upanishads.
The sages distinguished four basic types of people and developed yogic practices that are particularly suitable for each type, in order that each man can attain the desired union with the Self. For meditative people, there is raja yoga, the path of mental concentration. For rational people, there is jnana yoga, the path of rational inquiry. For naturally active people, there is karma yoga, the path of right action. For emotional people, there is bhakti yoga, the path of devotion. [LR, 80-1]
 
An attempt to realize the Brahman-Atman identity through the study of the Vedas (i.e. the sacred texts of the Hindu tradition) and direct contemplation of the self:
 
After negating [one’s identity with the body, the senses, the body and the mind] as “not this,” “not this,” that Awareness which alone remains—that I am….The thought “Who am I?” will destroy all other thoughts, and, like the stick used for stirring the burning pyre, it will itself in the end get destroyed. Then, there will arise Self-realization. [LR, 83]
 

II. Raja Yoga
The “Royal” Discipline
Various systems (such as those described in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras or the later system known as Kundalini) that focus on the use of techniques (including the adoption of physical postures, breath control, mantras and visualization) to bring the mind to a state of one-pointed concentration, known as samadhi, in which union with the absolute is attained.
 
Words and language are imperfect to describe this exalted state….Mind, intellect and the senses cease functioning….It is a state of eternal Bliss and eternal Wisdom. All dualities vanish in toto….All visible merge in the invisible or the Unseen. The individual soul becomes that which he contemplates. [LR, 83]
 
Karma Yoga originally focused on varnasrama-dharma--the performance of actions in accordance with the duties (dharma) associated with one’s caste (varna) and stage of life (asrama). By acting in accordance with the principles of varnasrama-dharma, one gradually worked through the four stages of life (student, householder, forest-dweller, renunciate) towards ultimate release from the cycle of rebirth (moksha)—though the process might take many lifetimes to complete.

In the Bhagavad-Gita, however, Krishna redefined Karma Yoga by combining it with the fundamental insight of Jnana Yoga—namely the ultimate identity of the individual self (atman) and the Universal Self (Brahman)—leading to the conclusion that “it is the Absolute who performs all actions.” Through this realization, one is able to perform action “without any interest in its fruits and without any personal sense of giving.” By relinquishing one’s own attachment to the fruits of one’s actions, one attains “liberation from the self in the very midst of work”:
 
I pervade the entire universe in my unmanifested form. All creatures find their existence in me, but I am not limited by them. Behold my divine mystery!
....The foolish do not look beyond physical appearances to see my true nature as the Lord of all creation. The knowledge of such deluded people is empty; their lives are fraught with disaster and evil and their work and hopes are all in vain.
       But truly great souls seek my divine nature. They worship me with a one-pointed mind, having realized that I am the eternal source of all. Constantly striving, they make firm their resolve and woship me without wavering. Full of devotion, they sing of my divine glory....
       Whatever I am offered in devotion with a pure heart—a leaf, a flower, fruit, or water—I partake of that love offering. Whatever you do, make it an offering to me—the food you eat, the sacrifices you make, the help you give, even your suffering. In this way you will be freed from the bondage of karma, and from its results both pleasant and painful. Then, firm in renunciation and yoga, with your heart free, you will come to me.
       I look upon all creatures equally; none are less dear to me and none more dear. But those who worship me with love live in me, and I come to life in them.....All those who take refuge in me, whatever their birth, race, sex, or caste, will attain the supreme goal; this realization can be attained even by those whom society scorns....Therefore, having been born in this transient and forlorn world, give all your love to me. Fill your mind with me; love me; serve me; worship me always. Seeking me in your heart, you will at last be united with me. [Bhagavad Gita; ALR, 66-8]
Bhakti Yoga is closely related to the notion of Karma Yoga as presented in the Bhagavad-Gita, since it is precisely by performing action in a spirit of “devotion” to Krishna (rather than as a means of generating “good” karma that will benefit one either in this or some future life) that one attains release from the cycle of rebirth. This “devotion” is manifest as an intense feeling of love for God that is frequently expressed through poetry and song, such as the following offering from Mirabai:
 
Without Krishna I cannot sleep.
Tortured by longing, I cannot sleep,
And the fire of love
Drives me to wander hither and thither.
Without the light of the Beloved
My house is dark,
And lamps do not please me.
Without the Beloved my bed is uninviting,
And I pass the nights awake.
When will my Beloved return home?
...What shall I do? Where shall I go?
Who can quench my pain?
My body has been bitten
By the snake of “absence,”
And my life is ebbing away
With every beat of the heart.
...My Lord when will you come
To meet your Mira?
...When, my Lord,
Will you come to laugh and talk with me? [ALR, 79]
 
Since Bhakti Yoga is more easily pursued than either Raja or Jnana Yoga, it is by far the most common form of Hindu practice. Its appeal is nicely expressed in the following quote from Ramakrishna:
 
As long as the I-sense lasts, so long are true knowledge and Liberation impossible….[But] how very few can obtain this Union [Samadhi] and free themselves from this “I”? It is very rarely possible. Talk as much as you want, isolate yourself continuously, still this “I” will always return to you. Cut down the poplar tree today, and you will find tomorrow it forms new shoots. When you ultimately find that this “I” cannot be destroyed, let it remain as “I” the servant. [LR, 85]
 

What is the connection between
these four paths of Hinduism?