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Home >Paths of Yoga >Bhakti Yoga >Practice of Bhakti Yoga >Science of Worship >Bhakti and Jnana

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(1) Jnana Yoga is like crossing a river by swimming. Bhakti Yoga is like crossing a river by a boat. (2)
The Jnani gets knowledge by selfreliance and assertion. The Bhakta gets Darshan of God by self
surrender. (3) The Jnani asserts and expands. The Bhakta dedicates and consecrates himself to the
Lord and contracts himself. Suppose there is one rupee in the body of a small circle. This rupee
contracts and merges itself into the circumference. This is Bhakti. Imagine there is a twoanna piece
in the centre of a circle. This coin so expands that it occupies the whole body of the circle and the
circumference also. This is Jnana. (4) A Bhakta wants to eat sugarcandy. A Jnani wants to become
sugarcandy itself. (5) A Bhakta is like a kitten that cries for help. A Jnani is like a babymonkey that
clings itself boldly to the mother. (6) A Bhakta gets Krama Mukti. A Jnani gets SadyoMukti. (7) A
Jnana Yogi exhibits Siddhis through will or SatSankalpa. A Bhakta gets all the divine Aisvaryas
through selfsurrender and the consequent descent of Divine Grace.
In the Gita (IV39) Lord Krishna clearly points out that Bhakti and Jnana are not incompatibles like oil
and water. He says: "Sraddhavan labhate jnanamThe man who is full of faith obtaineth wisdom. "
"Tesham satatayuktanam bhajatam preetipurvakam; Dadami buddhiyogam tam yena mamupayanti te
To these ever harmonious, worshipping in love, I give the Yoga of discrimination by which they come
unto Me. " (X10. )
"Bhaktya maamabhijanati yavanyaschasmi tattvatah; Tato mam tattvato jnatva visate tadanantaram
By devotion he knoweth Me in essence, who and what I am; having thus known Me in essence, he
forthwith entereth into the Supreme. " (XVIII55. )
To deny Jnana altogether, to say that there is nothing beyond Goloka as some sectarian Bhaktas do,
is the height of one's folly. To deny Bhakti and Isvara as some dry Vedantins do is also foolishness. A
happy combination of head and heart is perfection.

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