What is Jnana Yoga?

The word jnana means "knowledge", "insight", or "wisdom," and in spiritual contexts has the specific sense of what the ancient Greeks called gnosis, a special kind of liberating knowledge or intuition.  In fact, the terms jnana and gnosis are etymologically related through the Indo-European root gno, meaning "to know."  Jnaa-Yoga is virtually identical with the spiritual path of Vedanta, the Hindu tradition of nondualism.  Jnana-Yoga is the path of Self-realization through the exercise of gnostic understanding. or, to be more precise the wisdom associated with discering the Real from the unreal or illusory. 

The path of Jnana-Yoga, which has been described as a "straight but steep course,"  is outlined with elegant cociseness by Sadananda in his Vedanta-Sara, a fifteenth-century text.  Sadananda lists four principal means for attaining emancipation.

1. Discernment between the permanent and the transient: that is, the constant practice of seeing the world for what it is, a finite and changeable realm that, even at its most enoyable, must never be confused with the transcendental Bliss.
2. Renunciation of the enjoyment of the fruit of one's actions; this is the high ideal of karma-Yoga, which asks students to engage in appropriate actions without expecting any reward.
3. The "six accomplishments," which are detailed below.
4. The urge toward liberation; that is, the cultivation of the spiritual impulse.

The six accomplishments are:

1. Tranquilty, or the art of remaining calm even in the face of adversity.
2. Sense restraint, or the curving of one's sense, which are habitually hankering after stimulation.
3. "Cessation", or abstention from actions that are not relevant either to the maintenance of the body or to the pursuit of enlightenment.
4. Endurance, which is specifically understood as the stoic ability to be unruffled by the play of opposites in Nature, such as heat and cold, pleasure and pain, or praise and censure.
5. Mental collectedness, or conentration, the discipline of single-mindedness in all situations but specifically during periods of formal education.
6. Faith, a deeply inspired, heartfelt acceptance of the sacred and transcendental Reality.  Fath, whcih is fundamental to all forms of spiritality, must  not be confused with mere belief, which operates only on the level of the mind.

Reprinted with Permission
Georg Feuerstein
Yoga Research and Education Center
http://www.yrec.org
All rights reserved

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