YOGA SALVATION BY WORKS

YOGA SALVATION BY WORKS

Whichever way you approach it, yoga is a system of salvation by works.

The goal of the ancients was to find a solution to SAMSARA, the eternal cycle of birth-death-rebirth, which they 

believed operated as a consequence of the LAW OF KARMA (repaying the debts of one’s actions in past lives 

through successive purgative reincarnations).     

Believing that the answer to this problem could be provided by man himself, they sought MUKTI  or MOKSHA, 

liberation, and in the search for this common goal, many yogas- different forms of yoga or margas (paths) evolved.

KUNDALINI YOGA follows a tantric view, stressing the awakening of the dormant spiritual energy kundalini and its 

final reunion with Shiva.

LAYA YOGA is complete absorption in any mental concept of the divine, such as the vibration of the chant 

 ‘om’ or ‘aum’.

MANTRA YOGA consists of union with the divine origin through chanting loudly, softly or mentally the root word 

sounds.

KARMA YOGA [best stated in the Bhagavad Gita] purposes the attainment of union through good work and right 

activity completely detached from personal interests and desires which may complicate one’s karma. 

BHAKTI YOGIS stress on devotion to personal deities.

JNANA YOGA in Vedantic ideology aims to find liberation by one’s efforts to achieve a monistic view of reality 

through knowledge or enlightenment, resulting in the realization of one’s own divinity. The phenomenon of 

individuality created by maya (illusion) is overcome. 

A yogi [one who practices yogic disciplines] so enlightened has succeeded in breaking the chain of purgative 

recycling. RAJA [royal] YOGA combines all that is deemed best in the higher forms of yoga, giving attention mainly  

to the last 4 stages.