Yoga Systems

Judging Religions and Religious People

There are many misconceptions about what constitutes a religion and a religious person and how we should evaluate them. In this post, I will discuss two such criteria—(a) the method of judging three symptoms of love of God—morality, knowledge, and bliss, and (b) the method of two negations due to which a person or religion acts steadfastly despite failure or success....

Who Can Be Guru?

Much discussion occurs on the internet about “guru-tattva”. I have watched these discussions for years but refrained from participation because I find these discussions don’t understand or appreciate the true nature of hierarchy; most of these discussions think of a guru system as a linear succession of gurus. This post discusses the differences between linear progression and hierarchical expansion and then...

The Hierarchy of Yoga Systems

The Bhagavad-Gita describes various yoga systems called karma-yoga, jñāna-yoga, dhyāna-yoga, and bhakti-yoga. Each of these yoga processes is based on a scientific understanding of reality, but since this view of reality is not widely understood, there is often a misconception that there are “many paths” to the same truth, which are equally good. This post discusses the differences between the various...