“For each different type of person, Hinduism prescribes a different path (yoga). Here I will simply refer to four of the principal ones:
(1) Jnana yoga tries to achieve holiness through knowledge, by which is meant not factual information but understanding or vision.
(2) For bhakti yogis, feelings are more real than thoughts, so they approach the divine through love and devotion.
(3) In karma yoga, salvation comes through work, but work done not for gain but for its own (or God’s) sake. And finally there is
(4) royal or raja yoga, comprising meditation and inward exploration.
Can the four yogas ever meet, be fully combined? Probably not in the same person. Imagine Socrates and Saint Francis and Gandhi and Siddhartha Gautama meeting at some ethereal pub: they might agree on some common goal, but to reach it they would head off in different directions."
Even members of the same family can have “such fundamentally different perspectives, the words sail past each other. The intimate conversation between husband and wife or brother and sister can be as mutually incomprehensible as different foreign languages. We need the different and complementary perspectives of the various yogas – and, ideally, of all religions – not only to reach God but to reach each other.”
Smith H, Paine J. “Tales of Wonder - Adventures Chasing the Divine. An autobiography.” HarperOne, NY, 2009.
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