Question and answer 36

Why is the path to liberation explained in so many different ways at all, when that just leaves seekers uncertain?

The Vedas set out many paths, each fitted to a different level of readiness — but since liberation is really nothing but the mind coming to an end, every one of those efforts, at bottom, comes down to the same thing: subduing the mind. The paths of meditation may look different, but they all arrive at the same place in the end; there's no need to doubt that. Take up whichever path suits how ripe your own mind is. Binding the breath — yoga — and binding the mind — jñāna — are the two chief means for ending the mind. Depending on each person's own karma, one or the other will feel like the easier road. Even so, the wise put it this way: jñāna is like taming a wild ox by showing it grass, coaxing it gently until it comes under your hand and can be tied; yoga is like taming it by force, tying it up by main strength. The most advanced seekers, through Vedāntic enquiry, come to know the one reality directly and see themselves and everything else as nothing but that; middling seekers hold the mind in the Heart through kevala-kumbhaka and meditate on that reality for a long while; and the slower seekers reach the very same state gradually, through prāṇāyāma and its kind, and so fix the mind in the Self and reach the goal. As long as the resolve called 'I' — the mind, wearing the shape of ignorance, right there in the Heart — has not been destroyed, the mind must be caught and turned back into the Heart, again and again. This alone is jñāna; this alone is dhyāna. And since scripture itself says everything beyond this is just an elaboration of words and doctrine, once you have somehow won the steadiness to hold the mind in its own place, there's nothing else left to worry about. The great ones also say the devotee outranks even the yogi, and that, of every means to liberation there is, devotion — sustained attention on your own real nature — is the finest of them all. This way of knowing Brahman is the very thing taught under many names: the dahara-upāsanā, the dahara-vidyā, the brahma-vidyā, the ātma-vidyā, and more besides. What more could be said than this? Think it through and understand it for yourself. The scriptures speak in a great many ways. The great ones have examined them all, and they state in this way the path that is short and true.

Why is the path to liberation described in so many different ways, giving room for doubt among seekers?

Although many paths are stated in the Vedas, suited to the ripeness of different aspirants, since liberation is nothing but the destruction of the mind, the purport of every effort lies in nothing but subduing the mind. Though the paths of meditation appear different, they all end, in the end, as one; there is no need to doubt this. One may follow whichever path suits one's own mental ripeness. Binding the breath, that is, yoga, and binding the mind, that is, jñāna — these two are the chief means for destroying the mind. Depending on each person's karma, one or the other will seem the more agreeable. Even so, the wise say it is like this: jñāna is like coaxing a wild ox with a show of grass, stroking it into submission and then tying it up; yoga is like tying it up by beating it into submission. The foremost aspirants, through Vedāntic enquiry, come to ascertain the one reality and see both themselves and everything else as nothing but that reality; the middling aspirants, holding the mind in the Heart by kevala-kumbhaka, meditate on that reality for a long time; and the duller aspirants, gradually reaching that same state by means such as prāṇāyāma, fix the mind in the Self and thereby attain the goal. For as long as the resolve called 'I' — the mind, in the form of ignorance, that is in the Heart — has not been destroyed, the mind must be checked, again and again, in the Heart. This itself is jñāna; this itself is dhyāna. Since the scriptures say that everything else is only an elaboration of words and of doctrine, once one has, by whatever means, gained the steadiness to hold the mind in its own place, there is no need to worry about anything else. The great ones have also said that the devotee is superior even to the yogis, and that, among the whole apparatus of means to liberation, devotion — in the form of sustained attention on one's own real nature — is itself the foremost. The path of knowing Brahman in this way is itself what is spoken of as the dahara-upāsanā, the dahara-vidyā, the brahma-vidyā, the ātma-vidyā, and in many other ways besides. What more than this could be said? It is to be understood by reflecting on it. The scriptures speak in many ways. Having examined all of them, the great ones state, in this way, the path that is brief and true.