The ancient scripture of Hindus – Srimad Bhagavad Gita is a treasure for ‘yoga' lovers. The holy scripture speaks about the detached way of life through its 700 ‘shlokas' divided in 18 chapters. Three chapters also have an elaborate description about different types of ‘yoga', which can helpful in improving one's lifestyle.
The olden religious writing, said to be written in second century, is a narrative weaved from the discussion between Arjuna and Lord Krishna. The divine lord advises him through the time of quandary when he is unable to decide whether he should fight with his treacherous relatives or not.
The three types of ‘yoga' advocated by Bhagavad Gita are – Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Jnana Yoga.
Let's understand what all them mean –
1) Karma Yoga
Karma Yoga comes from ‘Karma', which means action. Bhagavad Gita says that one should act selflessly without attaching himself or herself with the outcome.
The scripture advocates that one should not think whether the result of the action will be positive or negative, happiness-giving or full of sorrows, benefitting or utter loss, one should simply do it; leaving the result to the Supreme Soul.
This is what the scripture says –
"tasmad asaktah satatam karyam karma samacara asakto hy acaran karma param apnoti purushah"
Gita also says that one should not be attached emotionally with the task being done or what would come out of it. It simply advises that in order to live a spiritual life, one should simply do the ‘karma' and leave the rest on God.
2) Bhakti Yoga
Considered as one of the easiest forms of ‘yoga', Bhakti yoga means doing ‘bhakti' of lord selflessly. This means revering God altruistically.
It is said that this form of yoga can be practised even in regular life as one does not need to leave everything or follow a rigorous regime in order to attain salvation through this form of ‘yoga'.
This form of yoga simply advises one to get absorbed in the supreme soul. It advises to feel that supreme power into ones own soul and vice versa. It asks to always keep the mind engaged in ‘me' i.e. the supreme lord – Lord Krishna.
For this it talks about 9 different forms of ‘Bhakti' like
‘Shravana' (means listening to the scriptural stories of Krishna and his companions),
‘Kirtana' (praising Lord by singing songs in praise of Him in a group),
‘Smarana' (thinking or fixing the mind upon Him),
‘Pada-seva' (rendering service unto Him),
‘Archana' (worshipping an image of Lord),
‘Vandana' (paying homage),
‘Dasya' (servitude),
‘Sakhya' (friendship) and
‘Atma-nivedana' (surrendering oneself completely unto Him).
One can use any of these forms and all or some of these combined as well to attain salvation.
3) Jnana Yoga
This last yoga of Bhagavad Gita talks about ‘Jnana' or ‘knowledge' through which one can attain salvation. Unlike the other two forms, this one advocates to know the absolute, the Brahman.
Like the other two, it does not advise to practice a form of meditation. Rather it asks to know beyond name and form of the doer of an act and understand him as per his nature.
It elucidates that one can know the supreme by knowing the nature of two things – ‘kshetra' – the body and ‘kshetrajna' – the soul. When one gets to understand the nature of these two well and how these two are different from each other, he or she also starts understanding the Brahman and hence gets on his journey of Moksha' or ‘salvation'.
