Journey through the 4 paths of Yoga

My journey with Yoga started before I even knew what Yoga is, way back in my childhood when my maternal-uncle did Gayatri Yajña rituals at his home every week. I used to love to participate in the Yajña, and chant Gayatri Mantra that I recently learned during my brother's thread ceremony. Another uncle lived close to a Gayatri temple and I loved visiting their home and listen/pray to the tunes of Gayatri Chalisha and Gayatri Aarti. After coming to US, I missed hearing these until recently when they made these available on YouTube.

My first interaction with Yoga was during late 2006, when I met a gentleman on the flight from Kolkata to SFO. He is the one who exposed me to the world of books published by Swami Vivekananda. This was the first time I learned what Yoga is and that there are 4 paths of Yoga. He is my Guru in the path of Jñāna Yoga (Can be pronounced as Ngyaana Yoga) - the path of self-knowledge and understanding. Jñāna yoga focuses on gaining knowledge of your true nature as pure consciousness. This path can help develop wisdom, discernment, and liberation from the limitations of the ego. My journey started somewhat half-hazardly with doing gentle forms of Yoga practices by watching a DVD he shared with me and indulging in the books from Vedanta Society. This went on for a couple of years before it got buried in my consciousness.

Fast forward, the next time I got exposed to Yoga was in 2015 when I was preparing to take a break from my work to do some self-exploration. My loan-agent exposed me to Vipasana meditation and I jumped right into it without any second thoughts. I spent 10 days in silence in a Vipasana retreat center while learning to meditate. Ānāpānā is the way to meditate while watching the sensations of your breath during a complete body scan. This was my 1:1 with Rāja Yoga – The path of mental discipline and meditation. Rāja yoga emphasizes the importance of controlling the mind through meditation and pranayama (breathwork). This path helps develop focus, clarity, and inner peace. I felt lighter, and had a sense of weight being shifted away from my shoulders after this experience. However, I wasn't able to continue the practice for long.

The next few interactions with Yoga have been the epitome of my experience and I have not looked back since. With COVID raging in the world, I created my own cocoon inside our home, a cocoon of Ayurveda and Yoga. My exposure to Karma Yoga and Bhakti Yoga started as I started to unveil the learnings from these ancient forms of knowledge.

Karma Yoga is the path of selfless service and action, and emphasizes the importance of acting without attachment to the fruits of your actions. This means doing things without expecting any particular result, simply because it is the right thing to do. Karma yoga helps develop compassion, humility and a sense of connection to others. As I learned Ayurveda from Dr Vasant Lad at Ayurvedic Institute and witnessed his selfless action and sacrifice towards providing Ayurvedic Education, my heart softened. When I continued my advanced Yoga classes at Mt Madonna Institute, we studied Yoga Sutras of Patanjali in-depth and learned about Śiva Saṃhita, Śiva Sutras and several other Indian Classical texts that I had never heard of before. My goals for life changed here; I learned to let go and allow the Universe to show me the path to progress without reservations and not having a rigid opinion or goal about where I want to go. It's been a wonderful journey since then

Bhakti Yoga is the path of love and devotion, it focuses on cultivating love and devotion for a higher power, whether it be another person, a deity, a spiritual principle, or simply the universe itself. This path can help develop faith, surrender, and a sense of unity with all things. This is where I have the biggest challenge and so I followed the path of Kriya Yoga to overcome all challenges. As I make progress in this path and practice every day, I know when am ready, my guru will help open the path and the Universe will reveal itself.

As you can see, all the paths in Yoga complement each other and opens a door to liberation. The path to liberation crosses through all the four doors. Though the real path maybe different for every individual, everyone must cross through all the doors to reach the final destination. May you find your path in Yoga to liberation !!