Tattva

Jnana Yoga means turning the negative part of your mind inward to achieve identification with formlessness; Bhakti Yoga means turning the positive part of your mind outward to achieve identification with formlessness.

Key terms: Jnana, Bhakti, Advaita, Nirguna Brahman, Ishta Devata, Samprajnata Samadhi, Nirvikalpa Samadhi

The intent of this essay is to communicate clearly the fundamental concepts that form the disciplines of Jnana Yoga and Bhakti Yoga.

Ramana Maharshi

Jnana Yoga is the path of intelligent inquiry. Let us examine the sum and substance of this path. Ramana Maharshi’s self-inquiry technique illustrates this beautifully. “Self-inquiry is not the mind’s inspection of its own contents; it is tracing the mind’s first mode, the ‘I’ thought to its source which is the Self.” (From the recorded teachings of Ramana Maharshi as told to Gambhiram Seshayya)

This method, as all methods under the rubric of Jnana Yoga, involve using the discriminating part of the mind (the portion of the mind that is used for critical thinking or analysis; the probing part of the mind) to probe one’s own identity or what one refers to as ‘I’. In this essay we are going to call this the negative part of the mind - not negative in a bad light, but negative in that it breaks down. So, in a nutshell, Jnana Yoga involves turning the negative (probing, discriminating, critical, or analytical) part of your mind inward. As you progress along this path, you start seeing all the thoughts, feelings, and other objects that your true identity is masked by falling away. When you come face to face with the true ‘I’, you experience the attribute-free, formless reality referred to as Nirguna Brahman in Advaitic thought. Once you fully recognize this reality, and establish yourself in it, you start seeing the same reality in every other aspect of phenomenal existence (everything and everybody). The point where you connect to what was hitherto ‘other’ in your experience, now is the appreciation of this formless reality in them also, and the more time you spend appreciating this common ground between you and other, the closer you come to establishing yourself in a state of consciousness where there is no other. It is all you or it is all the ‘I’.

Let us contrast this with Bhakti Yoga or the path of devotion. The path of devotion usually

involves surrendering your ego to either a Guru or an Ishta Devata (a Deity who appeals to your deepest level, toward whom you feel an automatic devotion; a Deity that was essentially programmed for you). In Bhakti, you try to equate your sense of identity or merge your sense of ‘I’ with this Deity or with your Guru. When this merging has been established, i.e. when you have established yourself in a state of Samprajnata Samadhi with the Deity, you find that the next step is to merge your identity with a greater reality than the Deity. Your Deity is a form, and your subjective identity has been established in this form; make no mistake that the Deity is a very cosmic form, and a much vaster form than the narrow confines of one’s ego. However it is a form, and the next step in Bhakti Yoga is exactly what Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was made to undergo by Totapuri. In Sri Ramakrishna’s case he was completely identified with Mother Kali. Totapuri, a great wandering monk who was established in Nirvikalpa Samadhi, asked him to expand this identification beyond her form, whereupon he sought her permission.

Totapuri

Mother Kali gave him the permission, and as he progressed, he finally had to visualize his Viveka, or discrimination, as a sword that rent her form asunder. This is the next step in Bhakti Yoga, albeit a very painful one for the unprepared devotee, and I can only  conjecture, also very painful for someone who is ready for this kind of growth. When your identification is expanded beyond form, you find that your only remaining identification is with all that remains, and that has to be attribute-free, formless (Nirguna Brahman). The sum and the substance of Bhakti Yoga, then, is to turn the unifying part of your mind (that part of your mind that causes you to merge your identity with something other than yourself, be it a Deity or a Guru or a less sacred object or being) outward, toward that which you want to merge your identity with. Let us call this the positive part of the mind (positive in that it causes unification; as opposed to negative in that it causes breaking down or discrimination). Hence in a nutshell, turn the positive part of your mind outward and achieve formlessness.

To reiterate, Jnana Yoga means turning the negative part of your mind inward to achieve
identification with formlessness; Bhakti Yoga means turning the positive part of your mind outward to achieve identification with formlessness. In both cases you end up with the ultimate realization that what is the true nature of your most interior expands to fill up the whole universe (as in Jnana); or your expanding your identity to fill the whole universe leads to the realization that you have the same true nature (as in Bhakti).

It must be understood that this essay is based on an Advaitic world-view; replacing the transcendental reality (Nirguna Brahman) with all-immanent reality (Saguna Brahman) may help us translate the same thesis into Dvaitic and Vishishta-Advaitic thought (while recognizing that the terminology is decidedly Advaitic); however this exploration is for another essay.

References:

1. Vichara-Sangraham (A compendium of self-enquiry)- Bhagwan Sri Ramana Maharshi, Sri Ramanasramam, India, 1930 (Dating varies).

2. Various references on Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa including materials from Ramakrishna Mission and the complete works of Swami Vivekananda.

3. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, 2nd century BCE OR between 100 BCE and 500 CE (Dating under debate).

Jayant Avva is a PhD student working in the Case Complex Systems Biology Center at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

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