Talk:Self-Sufficiency - Bhakti Yog brings with it the Fruit of all Other Yogas
By Vishal Agarwal
The fruit of all other spiritual disciplines is obtained directly through the practice of bhakti-yoga alone. No external hand is needed to practice it. Kṛṣṇa declares that one who resorts to bhakti-yoga also attains the results of other paths like buddhi-yoga (the spiritualized mental state of a karma-yogī) and the knowledge of ātman like a jñāna-yogī:
"To those who are constantly devoted to Me and worship Me with love, I give the yoga of intellect (buddhi-yoga) by which they come unto Me.Gītā 10.10"
"Out of compassion for them, I, who dwell within their ātman, destroy the darkness born of ignorance, with the shining lamp of knowledge.Gītā 10.11"
Other scriptures too state the same:
"Whatever is acquired through karma, austerities, jñāna, dispassion, meditation or charity or through any other means of spiritual progress, My devotee easily attains to it all through devotion to Me. Indeed, even heaven, mokṣa or My abode—should he care to have it.Uddhava Gītā 15.32–33"
"The mind of man under the sway of passions and greed will not attain to real and lasting peace through the restraint of the senses and other spiritual practices as it will through the service of the Bhagavān.Bhāgavata Purāṇa 1.6.36"
"Bhakti is superior even to karma-yoga, jñāna-yoga and dhyāna-yoga, because it is the fruit of all these paths.Nārada Bhakti Sūtra 25–26"
"But those saintly persons who are of a steady mind and are devoted exclusively to Me never desire kaivalya (absolute independence from the material world), even if I were to offer it to them.Uddhava Gītā 15.34"
Therefore, in the Bhagavad Gītā, bhakti-yoga is introduced and explained after the other three yogas have been dealt with. Even while summarizing the entire teaching of the concluding chapter of the Gītā, Kṛṣṇa declares how one must resort to bhakti after perfecting other yogas to merge with the Divine:
"Having become Brahman, he whose soul is serene, he neither grieves nor does he desire. Regarding all beings as alike, he attains supreme devotion to Me.Gītā 18.54"
"By devotion to Me he comes to know My true nature and what and who I am. Then having known My true nature, he enters That immediately.Gītā 18.55"