Different aspects of Yoga and Yogis.

Sankhya Yoga

Chapter 2, Verse 53

 

śruti vipratipannā te 

yadā sthāsyasi niścalā 

samādhāv-acalā buddhis 

tadā yogam avāpsyasi

 

When your intellect, well-enlightened by listening to Me and firmly placed, remains unshaken in a concentrated mind, then you will attain the vision of  

the Self and attain yoga.

 

 In this state of yoga, the intellect has crossed the mirror of delusion and fully recoiled from the enjoyments of this world and the next. You are not bothered about this life, or the next. You have wholly freed yourself from the fault of distraction, you are fully concentrated, and you take to the practice of meditation on God. 

 

Krishna says, “When your mind is calm, when your mind is not attached to the outside, let your mind be focused on God.” He doesn’t say, “When your mind is controlled, just leave it like that.” He says that the mind must be focused on the Divine form of God, the Divine form of Narayana Himself. So practice meditation on God and be unshakably and firmly concentrated on God alone.

  

When your mind has changed its state and its way of viewing life, it must be focused on something new. Otherwise the mind will jump back into the past activities. Bhagavan Krishna says, “Focus your mind on God.” It’s like a child: when a child is naughty, you have to give the child a toy to play with so he can entertain himself. This mind is like a child who is naughty. You have to make the child be very good; you talk nicely with the child, but you also have to give the child a certain instrument. And the instrument is this deep concentration, this meditation on God alone. This is where the mind must rest, steady and undistracted: the mind “firmly placed, remains unshaken in a concentrated mind, then you will attain the vision of the Self, and attain yoga, tadā yogam avāpsyasi.”

 

It is through that yoga that you will attain this perpetual and complete union with God. This union will only happen when the mind is free from the three gunas, which are impurity, distraction, and obscurity. When you are endowed with the power, and energy of discrimination and dispassion, then you are fully concentrating on God.

 

These are the seven types of yoga related to the yoga of the mind: yoga of action, yoga of meditation, yoga of even-mindedness, yoga of the Divine glory, yoga of devotion, Ashtanga Yoga consisting of the eight limbs, and Sankhya Yoga.  

The first yoga is the yoga of action, Karma Yoga. Here the action is performed by one who seeks to climb to the highest level of yoga. It is the action of making the effort to attain the union between the Atma and the Paramatma and realising the oneness in this equal-mindedness. 

 

The second yoga is the yoga of meditation, Dhyaana Yoga. The mind of the yogi is as steady as the flame of a lamp kept in a windless place (Ch. 6, v. 19). When the mind enters this state of steadiness and is not flickering, not jumping left and right, one has attained the goal of Dhyaana yoga. 

 

The third yoga is the yoga of even-mindedness, Samatva Yoga. Practicing this form of yoga, one performs his duty while established in yoga (v. 48). Do your duty, but be centred! Establish yourself in yoga, renouncing attachment and viewing  

success and failure alike. 

 

The fourth yoga is the yoga of the Divine glory. In this verse, Bhagavan Sri Krishna asks Arjuna to behold His wonderful power. He says, “Behold, see God’s glory in everything.”

The fifth yoga is the yoga of devotion, Bhakti Yoga. In this verse, Krishna says that the yoga of bhakti is when one worships God constantly and exclusively. In this form of yoga, one places God first and does everything for the sake of God’s Love. 

 

The sixth yoga is of the eight limbs, Ashtanga Yoga. This yoga is mentioned as a sacrifice. It is a mixture of Sankhya Yoga and Karma Yoga. This is the yoga of physical expression. Lord Krishna says that one should not be attached to doing physical yoga.

One should do it in a state of non-attachment. This will keep you in a healthy state. It will develop a certain energy and vibration that will help you advance in your sadhana. 

 

The seventh yoga is Sankhya Yoga, which is explained by Krishna throughout this Chapter.

 

Later on, Arjuna asks, “What is a yogi?” We have been talking about the yogi here. To become a yogi, you have to be centred in all the forms of yoga. When one has mastered these seven steps of yoga, one automatically becomes a yogi. The first kind of yogi is called a Maha Yogi: a Maha Yogi is God Himself. The second kind of yogi is a knower of the Self. When Krishna speaks about this yogi, He is talking about the one who knows one’s Self. The third kind of yogi is one who has surrendered the body, mind, and intellect to God: this is a bhakta. A bhakta, who has surrendered the body, mind and intellect to God, is a true yogi. The fourth kind of yogi is a Karma yogi. A Karma yogi is one who performs all actions without attachment, only for the sake of self-purification. A Sankhya yogi is a yogi who realises and identifies with Brahman. A Bhakti yogi is completely and constantly in meditation on God, with an undivided mind. He practices in depth the forms of Bhakti, devotion and action, without any personal interest or any personal aim. A Dhyaana yogi is a hermit who retires to caves to seclude himself. Hermits are in constant meditation. Focusing on the Divine is the most important thing to them. 

 

So you can see that yogis have different qualities. Later on Krishna explains more to Arjuna about the different aspects of yoga and yogis.

Bhagavad Gita