Three Paths to Liberation
Typical of the diverse nature of Hinduism, there are a variety of approaches to the goal of liberation. Traditionally, they have been categorized as three paths, or margas (also called yogas), each one featuring its own set of practices and being suited to certain personality traits and life situations.
Karma marga, for those engaged in the activities of family and career, emphasizes ritual and ethical works. Bhakti marga, for the vast majority of Hindus who regularly worship in temples and in their homes, is devotion to a deity. Jnana marga, for those privileged to devote time and energy on study and contemplation, focuses on spiritual insight. The paths are by no means exclusive of one another: Hindus commonly engage in more than one. Almost all Hindus, for example, practice some form of bhakti marga, and karma marga is a natural way to approach life’s everyday tasks. All three margas function to diminish the ignorance, attachment, and false identification of the self with the physical body that characterizes life in the samsaric realm.The Bhagavad Gita, which was composed in about the first century of the Common Era, sets forth all three margas, explaining characteristics common to all three and making dear their mutual compatibility. Of fundamental concern is the need to eradicate the ignorance and attachment born of an egoistic sense of selfhood. One passage puts it this way: “He who abandons all desires and acts free from longing, without any sense of mineness or egotism—he attains to peace.”5
Karma Marga
As noted previously, all Hindus are required to act in conformity with dharma, the duty to live in a manner that upholds the cosmic and social order. Karma marga combines focus on dharma with an attitude of detachment with regard to acting and to the results, or “fruit,” of action. In the words of the Bhagavad Gita (5.11-12):
Relinquishing attachment, men of discipline perform action with body, mind, understanding, and senses for the purification of the self.
Relinquishing the fruit of action the disciplined man attains perfect peace; the undisciplined man is in bondage, attached to the fruit of desire.-
When the self, or atman, is devoid of attachment to the results of action, the problems of egotism and the suffering brought about by birth, disease, old age, and death are resolved.
Bhakti Marga
The path of devotion, bhakti marga, is the most widely practiced of the three paths to liberation. This chapter’s survey of the history of Hinduism includes a section detailing the rise of the bhakti tradition. In an important manner, the tradition is grounded in the Bhagavad Gita, which, along with prescribing the other two margas, gives pride of place to bhakti. In the Bhagavad Gita, the featured deity is Krishna. Bhakti, however, can be directed toward whatever deity one chooses. The deity is perceived as the supreme divine reality, as is clearly shown with regard to Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita. Hindus typically worship more than one deity, depending on personal preference and on the occasion. For instance, during the festival in honor of Saraswati, goddess of education, Hindu schoolchildren offer devotion to her. There are numerous such festivals of the gods in the Hindu year.
In the Bhagavad Gita (12.6-8), Krishna makes clear to his devotee Arjuna the great benefits of bhakti:
But men intent on me renounce all actions to me and worship me, meditating with singular discipline. When they entrust reason to me, Arjuna, I soon arise to rescue them from the ocean of death and rebirth.
Focus your mind on me,
let your understanding enter me;
then you will dwell in me without doubt.2
Like karma marga and jnana marga, bhakti marga functions to eradicate egotism, ignorance, and attachment to the objects of desire. By devoting one’s time and energy to a deity rather than to one’s individualistic yearnings and concerns, ultimately the true nature of reality can be realized, the effects of karma neutralized, and liberation from samsara achieved.
Jnana Marga
Generally agreed to be the steepest ascent to liberation, jnana (“knowledge”) marga requires disciplined study of sacred texts and intensive contemplation, typically through the practice of meditation. In the words of the Bhagavad Gita (4.38-39),
No purifier equals knowledge,
and in time
the man of perfect discipline discovers this in his own spirit. Faithful, intent, his senses subdued, he gains knowledge; gaining knowledge, he soon finds perfect peace.-
The knowledge gained through jnana marga is wisdom or insight of a special kind. To attain this wisdom is to become aware of the true nature of atman. For monistic Hindus, this is to become aware that the atman is none other than Brahman, the ultimate, unitary reality.
We now turn our attention to the two most prominent forms of jnana marga and of Hinduism’s six philosophical schools: Vedanta and Yoga. The Yoga school, which teaches specific physical and mental exercises designed to promote jnana, is so distinctive and historically significant that some Hindus classify it as a fourth marga. With its meditative practices often performed in the lotus position, Yoga is commonly envisioned by non-Hindus when pondering the spiritual life of India. The Vedanta school has been even more influential in the history of Hindu thought.