Yoga Vichar

Chapter 9 – Conclusion

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To paraphrase the Bhagavata, the conclusion is that the ultimate object of yogic knowledge is Sri Krishna, Reality the Beautiful. The purpose of performing rituals and offerings is to please Krishna. Yoga is for realising Him. All activities are ultimately rewarded by Him only. He is supreme knowledge and all austerities are performed to know Him. Dharmais rendering loving service unto Him. He is the supreme goal of life. The dharma for all humanity is bhakti unto Krishna. Such bhakti must be unmotivated and uninterrupted to completely satisfy the self. By rendering devotional service unto Sri Krishna, one immediately acquires devotional knowledge and detachment from the world. All occupational engagements are certainly meant for ultimate liberation – they should never be performed for material gain. Furthermore, according to great sages, one who is engaged in this ultimate occupation should never use material gain to cultivate sense gratification.

Life should never be directed toward sense gratification. One should desire only a healthy life, or self-preservation, since a human being is meant for inquiry about the Absolute Truth (athato brahma jijnasa). Nothing else should be the goal of one’s activities. The seriously inquisitive student of yoga, well equipped with knowledge and detachment, realises the Absolute Truth by rendering bhakti as taught by the guru and the Vedic literature. Therefore, with one-pointed attention, one should constantly hear about, glorify, meditate upon and remember Sri Krishna, Yogeshvara (the Master of yoga) who is the protector of all surrendered beings. Sri Krishna cleanses desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the yogi who has developed the urge to hear His messages, which is in itself virtuous when properly heard and chanted.

As soon as irrevocable bhakti is established in the heart, the effects of passion and ignorance, such as lust, desire and hankering, disappear. Then the yogi is situated in goodness and he becomes completely happy. Thus established in the mode of pure goodness, the yogi who has given up all material association, and whose mind has been enlivened by contact with bhakti, gains self-realised knowledge of the Absolute Truth. Certainly, since time immemorial, all transcendentalists have rendered service to Sri Krishna, with great delight, because such bhakti is enlivening to the self. This is the conclusion of the practice of yoga culminating in the system of bhakti-yoga.