In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna talks of karma yoga, jnana yoga and bhakti yoga. None of the paths is as easy to practise, as we might imagine them to be. Each of them requires discipline and commitment.
But of the three, jnana yoga is the most difficult. Jnana yoga is not easy to practise, because to keep our minds clear of all thoughts and to focus on the Supreme One does not come easily to everyone. Bhakti yoga, however, is superior to jnana yoga, said M.K. Srinivasan, in a discourse.
Swami Vivekananda said, “If there is a conflict between the mind and the heart, follow the heart.” In other words, he is pointing to the greatness of bhakti, which comes from the heart, as opposed to jnana yoga, which stems from the mind.
If jnana yoga is so difficult, then we may ask why one should practise it at all. The answer to that is that the benefits of jnana yoga are never lost. Even if one stops jnana yoga after sometime, all is not lost. In the next birth, one gets a chance to continue from where one left off.
One who had resorted to jnana yoga, but had given it up after sometime, will get the advantage of being born into a family, which values such traditions, so that he will now have a conducive atmosphere to continue what he had discontinued in his previous birth. So the benefits of even partial jnana yoga remain intact.
Jnana yoga is more difficult than karma yoga, and yet bhakti yoga as a means for seeking liberation is superior. Lord Krishna talks of four kinds of people who seek Him—the one who has lost wealth and wants to get it back; the one who seeks wealth; the one who wants to know about the atma and the one who wants the Lord Himself.
Those who seek Him are jnanis, according to the Lord. This portion of the Gita is a preamble to the bhakti yoga that the Lord is going to elaborate on.
