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The Four Yogas (Paths of Jñāna, Bhakti, Karma, Rāja)

Four roads to the one summit — knowledge, love, action, and meditation.

Hindu tradition recognizes that people reach the goal by different routes, and groups the major paths as four 'yogas': the way of knowledge, the way of loving devotion, the way of selfless action, and the way of meditative discipline. The Bhagavad-gītā weaves the first three together; the fourfold scheme as a tidy set is largely a later, especially modern, framing. They are complementary, not rival, roads.

How it traveled

  1. Bhagavad-gītā
    Kuru-Pañcāla region · -150
    explains

Key passages(17)

Bhagavad-gītā · Vyāsa (Yoga-bhāṣya commentator)

Very high

Haṭhayoga-pradīpikā · Svātmārāma

High

Bhagavad-gītā · Vyāsa (Yoga-bhāṣya commentator)

High

Haṭhayoga-pradīpikā · Svātmārāma

High

Kaṭha Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)

High

Upadeśasāhasrī · Ādi Śaṅkara

High

Aṣṭāvakra-gītā · Aṣṭāvakra

High

Gītārtha-saṃgraha · Yāmunācārya (Ālavandār)

High

Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)

High

Gheraṇḍa-saṃhitā · (attributed to Gheraṇḍa)

High

Gītārtha-saṃgraha · Yāmunācārya (Ālavandār)

High

Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)

High

Paramārthasāra · Abhinavagupta

High

Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)

High

Śiva-stotrāvalī · Utpaladeva

High

Aṣṭāvakra-gītā · Aṣṭāvakra

Moderate

Gheraṇḍa-saṃhitā · (attributed to Gheraṇḍa)

Moderate