The path of devotion
"Those whose understanding is small attain only transient satisfaction: those who worship the gods go to the gods. But my devotees come to me." (Bhagavad Gita 7:23)I was stunned when I got to this line, because it is spoken by Krishna, who is a god born into human form. Here he seems to be saying that worshiping the gods is one path but not the one that "his devotees" follow. I knew that one interpretation of the Gita is that it symbolizes the higher self (Krishna) talking to the everyday, conscious self (the student Arjuna), but I did not expect such direct evidence for this interpretation right in the text.
Krishna appears to be contrasting his devotees with those who worship the gods, and he seems to say that worshiping gods is a sign of less understanding. By contrast, devotees looking inward to seek the higher self symbolized by Krishna are the ones that attain more than "transient satisfaction." A similar thought is expressed again at 9:25.
Chapter 12 of the Gita is about the path of love, which is presented as an alternative to the path of knowledge and meditation. The path of love is personal devotion to God. Although Krishna earlier sounded a bit negative about the idea of worshiping gods, he is now offering the path of personal devotion to a deity as an easier road, compared to meditation which eventually allows you to perceive the true self. A personal relationship is something that humans can more easily wrap our brains around. The Hindu "pantheon" is really one God that shows different faces so that we limited humans can choose the face that is easiest to love. It is seemingly harder to learn to use meditation and the other techniques of yoga directly see the Divine inside yourself.
The path of devotion may be different from the worship that Krishna is talking about in 7:23; complete devotion to God is a particularly strong and focused kind of worship. It is supposed to be an intense, loving personal relationship. Worshiping the gods doesn't necessarily mean you reach the goal of yoga (your reward may only be transient), but you can reach the goal through this personal dedication.
The same comparison appears in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Sutras 23-26 in Book 1. The path of devotion to God is "the emotional path which is easier than the other methods mentioned before." (page 41) Satchidananda says that an understanding of this path helps you understand the scriptures of every religion.
Many religions do seem to emphasize devotion and submission to God's will. It is interesting that yoga treats this as an alternative path to the same destination. You can learn to understand the Divine in different ways, either by finding it inside yourself or by conceptualizing it outside yourself and loving it where you find it.
Upcoming: This weekend I will be at workshop #2, on the Yamas and Niyamas, which are the moral "do's and don't's" of yoga (the first and second limbs).
posted by Jaime_sama @ 3:39 PM
4 Comments:
Thanks for blogging your yoga studies. It's fascinating reading.
I appreciate the comment, strange. I was wondering if anyone out there was reading these posts. Maybe everyone was just too polite to comment "TL DR."
I'm reading them, and they're interesting. Just don't have a lot to say.
But I also think our blogs are just read by each other, so maybe 12 people. If you want to get your thoughts out there wider also post to Facebook or post a link to each of these Yoga articles to Facebook.
You can learn to understand the Divine in different ways, either by finding it inside yourself or by conceptualizing it outside yourself and loving it where you find it.
Or both. They kind of meet and overlap if you're serious about them.
It's like the Charge of the Goddess:
"And thou who thinkest to seek Her, know thy seeking and yearning shall avail thee not unless thou knowest the mystery; that if that which thou seekest thou findest not within thee, then thou wilt never find it without thee. For behold, She has been with thee from the beginning; and She is that which is attained at the end of desire."
(Bearing in mind that Gardner spent years in India and Malaysia, and that all things Hindu were massively popular in the UK throughout the Raj period).
Also, like the words attributed to Jesus:
"I am the true and living way: no one comes to the Father but by me."
(Which is often interpreted as "You only reach God if you do what the Church tells you", and which I interpret as "I am the living embodiment of this path, and not embodying the path is a sure-fire way to mucking up")
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