Years: April 2014 - July 2006 - June 2007 - July 2007 - June 2009
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Satyanarayana Dasa
Bhagavad Gītā has eighteen chapters, and each is designated as a type of yoga. The word yoga has many different meanings. In the Gītā it is used principally in the sense of the means undertaken to accomplish or to be united with one’s goal. Therefore, the word yoga can also be translated as “path,” as has been done here especially in the chapter titles. There are primarily three different types of yoga, namely, karma-yoga, jñāna-yoga, and bhakti-yoga. When we employ karma, or selfless action, for uniting with or reaching our goal, it is called karma-yoga. Similarly, when we cultivate jñāna, or the intuitive insight of our conscious identity with the Absolute, it is called jñāna-yoga. When bhakti, or devotion, is adopted as the means of attaining unity in love, it is called bhakti-yoga. In the case of the latter, bhakti is not only the means but also the goal.
God wants to give us His mercy, but our mind is not free. It is filled with lust, attachments, and greed. Our mind is like a pot in which lust and greed need to be removed so God can fill the pot with his mercy. Either we can have Krishna or we can have maya. We may think that God is doing an injustice by taking away our wealth, but He is actually making space so He can give us something that we can’t even imagine.
