Yoga Ladder

(a) KARMA-KANDA

• No spiritual objective – Encourages regulated sense gratification – Meant to bring general mass of people to the platform of religiosity – Purifies the practitioner in many ways: – Regulation brings detachment which fosters knowledge – Gradual exposure to Vedas leads to yajna and faith in Sastras – Gradually the practitioner finds the ‘futility of material life’ and makes ‘transcendence as his goal

(b) Karma Yoga – Here one is frustrated with living for sense gratification and wants to advance spiritually, but is still too attached to completely stop working for himself.

SAKAMA-KARMA-YOGA

– Understands transcendence as the goal, spiritual objective with material desires – Frustration in material life / Desires purification – Attempts to renounce fruits of labor – But attachment to material desires (fruits) still linger on

(c) NISKAMA-KARMA-YOGA

– Gives up the attachment to the fruits of work, but still attached to the work itself (d) JNANA-YOGA – Platform of philosophical enquiry -Detached from both, ‘action’ and the ‘fruit of action’. – Equated to giving up all social obligations in pursuit of spiritual advancement This is not recommended by Krishna because one must be highly qualified to fully give up work

(e) ASTANGA-YOGA – Achieved when jnana-yoga elevates to the point of meditation – There are two stages in astanga-yoga: Yogaruruksu (the beginning stage) and Yogarudha (the advanced stage) – 8 limbs of yoga are, yama (abstinences), niyama (observances), asana (yoga postures), pranayama (breath control), pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (absorption)

(f) BHAKTI-YOGA – Can permeate any of the stages mentioned above other than Karma Kanda , but generally does not fully manifest before the deep realisation evolved at the Jnana stage (Ref. Bg. 7.19 “Bahunam janmanam….”)