Yoga as Union With God...

We have heard many times of the yoga system. The yoga system is approved by Bhagavad-gita, but the yoga system in Bhagavad-gita is especially meant for purification.

The aim is threefold...

...to control the senses, to purify activities and to link oneself to Krishna in a reciprocal relationship.

The Absolute Truth is realized in three stages: impersonal Brahman, localized paramatma (Supersoul) and ultimately Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

In the final analysis, the Supreme Absolute Truth is a person. Simultaneously He is the all-pervading Supersoul within the hearts of all living entities and within the core of all atoms, and He is the brahmajyoti, or the effulgence of spiritual light, as well.

Bhagavan Sri Krishna is full of all opulence as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but at the same time He is full of all renunciation. In the material world we find that one who has much opulence is not very much inclined to give it up, but Krishna is not like this. He can renounce everything and remain complete in Himself.

When we read or study Bhagavad-gita under a bona fide spiritual master we should not think that the spiritual master is presenting his own opinions. It is not he who is speaking. He is just an instrument. The real speaker is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is both within and without.

At the beginning of His discourse on the yoga system in the Sixth Chapter of Bhagavad-gita, Sri Krishna says,

"One who is unattached to the fruits of his work and who works as he is obligated is in the renounced order of life, and he is the true mystic; not he who lights no fire and performs no work." (Bg. 6.1)

Everyone is working and expecting some result. One may ask, What is the purpose of working if no result is expected? A remuneration or salary is always demanded by the worker. But here Krishna indicates that one can work out of a sense of duty alone, not expecting the results of his activities. If one works in this way, then he is actually a sannyasi; he is in the renounced order of life.

According to Vedic culture, there are four stages of life: brahmacari, grhastha, vanaprastha and sannyasa.

Brahmacari is student life devoted to training in spiritual understanding. Grhastha life is married householder life. Then upon reaching the approximate age of fifty, one may take the vanaprastha order - that is, he leaves his home and children and travels with his wife to holy places of pilgrimage. finally he gives up both wife and children and remains alone to cultivate Krishna consciousness, and that stage is called sannyasa, or the renounced order of life.

Yet Krishna indicates that for a sannyasi, renunciation is not all. In addition, there must be some duty. What then is the duty for a sannyasi, for one who has renounced family life and no longer has material obligations?

His duty is a most responsible one; it is to work for Krishna. Moreover, this is the real duty for everyone in all stages of life.