The Three Paths of G!d in the Bhagavad-Gita

The Bhagavad-Gita delineates three paths of G!d: jnana yoga (knowledge), bhakti yoga (devotion), and karma yoga (action). Explain these three paths and their relationship with one another, if any.

What we know today as the Bhagavad Gita is extracted from the great Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata. Written as a dramatic historical study of a kingdom, it is also an allegory of human morality, psychology, and transformative theology. Bhagavad Gita translates to “The Song” (gita) of “the Lord” (bhagavan). Most the 2,800 lines of the Bhagavad Gita are a conversation between the protagonist, Arjuna, a warrior prince, and G!d in his avataric form as Krishna, cast as friend   and charioteer of Arjuna. The name Krishna is derived from the Sanskrit verb root krsh, a word that means “to draw or pull in, to draw to one’s self.” The Mahabharata drama leads up to an apocalyptic climax, a moment in time stated in the Bhagavad Gita as the battle of Kurukshetra.

While the details of life 1,500–5,000 years ago (there are various opinions on exactly when the Gita story takes place) have changed, the rajasic warrior culture of the Gita is easily overlaid metaphorically onto our own contemporary day. The term rajas describes desire-centric frenetic doing, being caught up in the drama of daily activity. Arjuna comes from a culture of doers, attached to the melodrama of the predicament of being embedded in the world and duties demanded by daily life. Krishna teaches and advises his troubled disciple, Arjuna, patiently, to release layers of habit and outward form through a myriad of lessons about three paths. Each, he says, is a kind of yoga—a way to live in the world and at the same time maintain inner peace. They are the paths of selfless action, devotion, and self-transcending knowledge. These three major paths are for the liberation of the human spirit. Although each path is different, the destination is ultimately the same, and one path is not higher than the others. Each path contains its own unique perspective, wisdom, lessons, and challenges.

The Gita opens as Krishna champions the path of karma yoga, of action. Karma yoga, Krishna says, is the ability to conscientiously evaluate one’s motivation, to act with skill and determination, and yet not be attached to the outcome of the action.  There’s symbolism in Arjuna being an archer, with the single pointedness of his arrow aimed with the clarity of his intention, and the outcome literally and figuratively out of his hands once the arrow is released and the battle begun. I am struck by the symbolism of the archer-warrior, and the meaning of the word from which we derive torah. As previously noted, the word torah comes from yarah, meaning “to teach, instruct”, and “to shoot as an arrow.”

Karma Yoga is essentially action, performing one’s duties in life without attachment to the results; it is acting selflessly, without thought of gain or reward. Like the archer’s arrow, we take aim and let go. By detaching from the results of our actions and offering them up to G!d, we learns to sublimate the ego. Carlos Castaneda’s Don Juan character describes the warrior as the perfect karma yogi: “A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That’s control. But once his calculations are over, he acts, he lets go, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions. The mood of a warrior calls for control over himself, and at the same time it calls for abandoning himself.” It reminds us, how can we expect to complete the task at hand with our full attention if we’re stuck in anticipating and visualizing the outcome? Things don’t always go the way we think they will, nor should they. A sudden wind blows, and takes the arrow on another course.

This is the difference between simply performing actions for personal gains, and performing actions without attachment, as a spiritual practice, where all results are given to G!d. It is the path to G!d through selfless action and service to others. Rather than remaining enslaved to the dramas we self-author, karma yoga teaches the path of selfless service without ego, gain, or reward. Gandhi considered himself and is a good example of a karma-yogi.

In chapters 7–12 of the Gita, Krishna continues his teachings, and focuses on the path of devotion and love, the path of bhakti yoga. This path is  a life of service, prayer, and meditation,  devoted to G!d.  Ultimately, this path is about uplifting human hearts. “Give me your mind and give me your heart, give me your offerings and your adoration; and thus with your soul in harmony, and making me your goal supreme, you will in truth come to me.” (9:34) But how does one do this? Krishna answers, “He who offers to me with devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit, or even a little water, that offering of devotion I accept from him whose self is pure. Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer, whatever you give, whatever austerities you perform, Arjuna, do that as an offering to me. Thus you will certainly be free from the bonds of karma, from the bondage of good and evil fruits; and with your soul one in the yoga of renunciation you will be liberated and come to me.” (9:26–28)

This is the core of the bhakti path: with hands and minds we pursue life, but with our hearts we pursue G!d. Bhakti is a path of goodwill. With love in our heart it is possible to see beyond the faults and judgments which often color our relationships with others and within. Bhakti Yoga is summed up as a mode of spiritual practice which consists of unceasing and loving remembrance of G!d. Similar to Sufism, the Deity is the beloved and the devotee is the lover. This path appeals particularly to those of an emotional nature. Through prayer, worship, chanting and ritual, one surrenders to G!d, channeling and transmuting one’s emotions into unconditional love and devotion, and this continuous meditation of G!d gradually decreases the ego. Suppressed emotions get released and the purification of the inner self takes place. Slowly the practitioner loses the self identity and becomes one with G!d.

Krishna continues his teaching, and speaks of the path of Jnana Yoga, which is a process of learning to discriminate between what is real and what is not, what is eternal and what is not. This is essentially a path of knowledge, and the ability to discern the difference between the immortal soul (atman) and the body.

At this point, we might ask, which path is the best for me to take? There is more than one path to help reach liberation because each person has different talents and strengths. A person of action, ideas, drives and ambitions might naturally follow Karma yoga.  A person of strong intellect and philosophical ponderings might lean more naturally to the Jnana path. One more motivated by feelings and emotions is more likely to follow a Bhakti path. Obviously, no one is a pure Karmi, Jnani or Bhakti. These all intermingle. The tendency is to develop spiritually along the path of least resistance, like flowing water. The most developed component is usually the one that comes most naturally, and the least is more challenging.

The different paths by which to become liberated spiritually reminds us that Bhakti-yogi without knowledge will wander and get lost in the maze of emotions, feelings and moods, and without Karma-action, cannot integrate spiritual progress into day-to-day life; Jnana without Divine love is dry and abstract, and without Karma is likely to get trapped by hypocrisy or ego; a karmi or bhakti without Jnana might get lost in the mire and confusion; Bhakti merges with Jnana, and one begins to see human delusion and the nature of bondage, not only in oneself but in all of humankind, leading again to the active path of Karma yoga. On it goes. This is how the three paths, Jnana, Karma and Bhakti, merge and re-emerge, relate and interrelate.

I am again struck with the parallel of these three paths and the wisdom of the Twelve Steps of A.A.,  a western perspective as a way to find a daily reprieve from alcoholism. Similar to Krishna’s teachings, the Twelve Steps contain suggestions for the karma path of selfless service and action, and letting go of the results; the jnana path of knowledge of self and others, discerning between eternal and finite, and seeing the nature of bondage and delusion in self and others; and the bhakti path of devotion to G!d as one understands G!d, seeking through prayer and meditation to increase one’s daily conscious contact with G!d, praying only for knowledge of G!d’s will and the power to carry that out. Indeed, in these Twelve Steps we find a summation in a western framework of these three paths to liberation from the bondage of self.

I am also struck with the parallel I see between these three paths to G!d and Judaism. The Pirkei Avot sums up the three paths in many of its pithy aphorisms. Karma yoga can be heard in “If I am only for myself, who am I? (1:14)” and “Say little and do much (1:15).” The sayings, “Don't judge your fellowman until you are in his place . . . don’t say I will study when I have time, lest you never find the time” (2:4), and “Who is wise? He who learns from every man....” (4:1), reflect the wisdom of the path of Jnana yoga, while Bhakti yoga is expressed in “Any love that is dependent on something–when the thing ceases, the love also ceases. But a love that is not dependent on anything never ceases.” (Avot 5:16). And perhaps all three paths are summarily presented in one of the most memorable sayings of Pirkei Avot: “The world stands on three things: Torah, service, and acts of loving kindness (1:2)”. Torah is study and learning, similar to the path of jnana, service is similar to the path of karma-action, and acts of loving kindness must first come from a place of bhakti devotion. Is this not also a way to see the three paths of G!d presented in the Bhagavad-Gita in our own Judaism?