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To my sisters, Ninette and Delyse, who grace everyone with their love, and to my
brother, Darryl, whose darsana immeasurably enriches my life.
158 The Bhagavad Gita and the rise of bhakti

The Bhagavad Gita's three yogas

The Bhagavad Gita's teachings markedly widen the parameters of what constitutes
legitimate Hinduism. It is difficult to say whether it actually ushered in these practices,
or effectively expressed what was already burgeoning at the time. However, it clearly
becomes the scriptural point of reference for the vision of Hindu religious belief
and practice that it promotes. No ocher scripture articulates the centrally defining
features of Hinduism as succinctly and effectively as the Bhagavad Gita. Highly
syncretic, and at times even contradictory, the Gita has become mandatory reading for
Hindu, particularly Vedanta, philosophers over the centuries. Although divided into
eighteen chapters, each of which is called a teaching on a particular yoga or discipline,
its teachings are conventionally grouped into three major approaches (marga, yoga)
to liberation. These are the paths of Jnana ([Transcendental] Knowledge), Karma
(Action), and Bhakti ([Loving] Devotion). While the paths of knowledge (jnana)
and action (karma) had been discussed in other scriptures, the Gita reconfigures
them, particularly the parh of action. Quite notably, the Gita describes the path of
loving devotion (bhakti), of which almost nothing is said in the scriptural literature
that precedes it. The Gita effectively strikes a compromise between the concerns of
orthodoxy and the needs of the masses. Its masterful accomplishment of this feat
is evident in its endurance to the present day, and its continual invocation by the
holders of hegemony and the disenfranchised alike.

Jnāna yoga
The Bhagavad Gita offers relatively conventional Upanisadic teachings on the nature
of the knowledge that leads to the realization of Brahman. Arjuna is confounded
by the apparent contradictions between the demands of his dharma and the world-
view that he has been taught. As a warrior he is supposed to fight and kill, but in
his current predicament, this would mean the destruction of teachers, his gurus,
and even his family members. War, he argues, destroys family lineages, leading to
the corruption of its women and, by leaving behind no one to venerate the lineage
ancestors, will cause them too to descend into lower realms. He grieves that kşatriya
dharma requires him to perform actions that damage all that he has been taught is
good. Krsna responded by first explaining that although it may appear that Arjuna
is killing or that he himself may be killed, the true Self endures beyond death. The
wise grieve for neither the living nor the dead, because they know of the existence
of the deathless Self beyond the body. Arjuna, Krspa, and all the warriors arrayed
before them have always existed, explains Krsna, and they always will exist. The
true Self changes bodies with each incarnation, as a person changes clothes. The
liberated person knows this truth about one's immortal nature, but the deluded do
not. Therefore, Arjuna should attend to his duty, for nothing is better for a warrior
The Bhagavad Gita and the rise of bhakti 159

than to fight in a righteous war. If killed, he would attain heaven. If victorious, he

would gain earthly glory. But fleeing from the fight would lead to sin and infamy.
Still confused, Arjuna persists in his inquiry, providing Krsna the opportunity to
expand his teachings.
Krsna explains that, unlike Arjuna, he is a realized being, knowing himself as the
supreme source of all of reality. Although unborn and deathless in his essential being,
he has taken up rebirth repeatedly through his delusive power. Krsna equates himself
with Brahman, the absolute source and substance of all reality. He teaches Arjuna
many of the conventional methods of attaining the highest knowledge (jnana), as are
more systematically expressed in the Upanisads, and the writings of Sankhya and
Raja yoga. Self-restraint, concentration of mind, and regarding a Brahmin and an
Untouchable with an equal eye, are among the qualities that characterize this path.
The Gita also discusses aspects of this approach in the language of"the field" and "the
knower of the field" (ksetra-jna). To know both the field and the knower of the field
is true knowledge (jnana). When one discerns (anupasyati) that the differentiated
identities of beings abide as The One (eka-stham), which has diversified, then one
unites with Brahman. Without a beginning and beyond qualification, this supreme
Self (atman), although it performs no actions, is all-pervading, and abides within
each body. The "knower of the field" illuminates "the field," and those knowers who,
with the eye of jnana understand the difference between the field and its knower, and
are [simultaneously] freed from the materiality of things (bhüta-prakrti-moksam),
they attain the Supreme (13.35).
Jnana yoga is held in especially high regard by followers of radical non-dualistic
Vedanta philosophy. By others, this path has also been interpreted as involving the
study of religious teachings on liberation. However, although the word jnana may
be used to mean "knowledge," in the context of Jnana yoga, it refers not merely to
mundane intellectual knowledge, but to a transcendental "knowing" of the Absolute,
which is a deeply experienced truth, and which provides meaning to the facts and
data that constitute our gathered information about the world.

Case study: Ramaņa Mahārși

The Hindu saint, Ramana Maharsi (1879-1950) is an ideal exemplar of the Jnana
yoga approach. Born in South India, Ramana's family moved to the temple city
of Madurai after the death of his father. Religiously inclined, he was inspired by
the stories of the Nayanars, South Indian saints who were devotees of Siva, and
whose stories are recounted in the Periya Purana. Then at the age of seventeen,
he underwent an experience that radically changed his life. As he later explained,
while seated alone in his room, he was overtaken by an intense fear of death. Rather
than distract himself by seeking out the company of ochers, Ramana decided to
delve more deeply into his fear. He lay on the ground, stretching out as if a corpse,
160 The Bhagavad Gita and the rise of bhakti

accepting his death, and progressively yielding to the conditions of death. Entering
into a state akin to the deepest yogic meditative states of samadbi, where all thought,
including that of the "I" had stopped, he received a vivid realization. He found himself
absorbed into the deathless Self, a condition that instantly removed his fear of death.
Thereafter, thoughts began to move again, like notes of music, but the unbroken
absorption in the Self continued for the remainder of his life, providing as it were the
fundamental vibration underlying and influencing all other notes.
Shortly thereafter, he left home, abandoned most of his possessions, and took
up abode in a small secluded shrine at Arunachala, a hill sacred to Siva, near
Tiruvannamalai. Carried like a tiny speck in a vast flood, he found himself disoriented
in the world. I is hair grew matted, and his body was sore and bleeding from infected
insect bites, but he did not norice or care about what was occurring, and fortunately
had his basic physical needs attended to by other residents of the main temple. He
began to attract devotees, and slowly began to regain his sense of orientation with
the world. He gathered disciples, and treated all with equanimity. He refused to
accept gifts, and although his fame spread widely he refused invitations to move
to more luxurious accommodation. He actually lived in still silence in a cave for
sixteen years. In a few short books, Ramana presents the essence of his religious
philosophy that may be characterized as a form of non-dualistic Vedanta. One's true
Self (atman) is Brahman.
Ramana's approach may be appropriately classified as Jaana yoga, because when
questioned by disciples on how they might attain Self-realization, he offered the
technique of vicara, or inquiry. The relentless pursuit of the question, "Who am I?"
will lead to realization. By recognizing what one is not, and observing the nature of
the responses provided by the mind, the mind will begin to cease its activities and its
mistaken identifications, leaving behind only the presence of the Self.

Karma yoga
Prior to the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, the path of karma (action) meant the
performance of deeds that maintained the cosmic order. For orthodoxy, this was the
performance of one's caste-ordained dharma, which entailed the regular performance
of public and domestic rituals. These would accumulate benefits and result in a
better rebirth, possibly even in heaven (svarga). This reward was not very appealing to
those who sought moksa, for heaven, too, was envisioned as an impermanent abode.
'The Gita's teachings prescribe that one perform one's ordained duty, but that one
should renounce attachment to fruits, that is, the success or failure of those actions.
This it calls yoga. Arjuna is instructed that Krsna himself, Supreme Divinity,
performs actions without attachment, and so persons should do the same. Krsna
also cautions against indecisiveness and inaction, which is a form of "doing" and
carries with it karmic consequences. Attachment (kama) to the outcomes of actions,
The Bhagavad Gita and the rise of bhakti 161

Krsna instructs, binds individuals to the laws of causality, while renunciation of such
attachment, can result in the highest attainment. This attitude to activity, known as
niş-kāma karma (action without attachment), reorients the performance of deeds in
the direction of moksa.
Certain lines of interpretation emphasize the Gita's support of the performance of
traditional dharmic actions, such as sacrificial rites, varna-appropriate behavior, and
so on, without attachment. However, the Gita also sets Karma yoga in relationship
with devotion, insisting that devotional acts should be performed in the spirit of
non-attachment to their results, Through such devotion one may also obtain moksa.
Furthermore, "action" need not only be the performance of prescribed sacrificial
rituals. By offering up all of one's thoughts, words, and deeds to Krsna, with devotion,
while renouncing attachment to their fruits, one engages in the supreme sacrifice
and can obtain liberation. This teaching, while not contradicting the benefits of
traditional Vedic ritual, redefined the meaning of sacrifice. The notion of an inner
sacrifice, conducted through meditative practice in the context of renunciation, was
already incipient in the teachings of the Aranyakas and Upanisads, but the Gita fused
renunciation with the householder's way oflife. One may continue to live in the world,
it teaches, performing one's regular activities. Without renouncing the everyday
activities that sustain the social order, but armed with an attitude of renunciation
of attachment to the outcomes of these actions, one may actually gain moksa. One
may thus be both a student and a renouncer, or a householder and a renouncer. True
samnyasa, by implication, is not the external abandoning of material possessions and
one's engagement with social life, but an inward spirit of detachment.
The practice of Karma yoga developed many conventional forms in the subsequent
millennia. Action without attachment is regarded as action without self-concern,
and self-less action is action for the benefit of others. Thus sweeping up in a temple,
cooking food for priests and pilgrims in a hermitage (asrama), or any kind of work
that is done on behalf of others, is often called Karma yoga. Hindu religious
organizations, such as the Ramakrishna Missions, which run clinics and hospitals,
orphanages and leprosariums, embody this ideal. 'The religious sentiment behind all
Hindu philanthropy and the work of its charitable institutions may be placed within
the rubric of Karma yoga.

Case study: Mahātma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948), was born in the north-eastern state
of Gujarat. He studied law for three years in London and then took up legal work in
South Africa, where an event of pivotal consequence took place. Although he held a
first class ticket, on a winter trip to Pretoria Gandhi was ejected from the train when
he refused to give up his seat to a white man who boarded mid-journey. I-umiliated,
as he stood on the icy platform, he was made painfully aware of the reality of social
162 The Bhagavad Gita and the rise of bhakti

injustice, and this set him on his life's struggle to bring about change. Gandhi
spent twenty-one years in South Africa, mostly engaged in efforts for equal rights
for Indians who were experiencing discrimination as inferiors under the system of
apartheid, and being victimized by unjust laws. It was here that he developed many
of the strategies of political activism that he subsequently applied in India. Gandhi
coined the term satyagraha ("holding fast to truth"), which conveys a sense of the
power inherent in just causes. Satyagraba involved active resistance to injustice and
oppression, but through non-violent civil disobedience, After some successes in
South Africa, Gandhi returned to India, where he became involved in the struggle
for Indian independence.
Gandhi and his freedom-fighters, known as satyagrahis, were frequently imprisoned
for breaking the law. To subvert an unfair tax on salt, the production of which was
turned into a government monopoly, Gandhi led a protest march to the seashore to
collect natural salt, thus breaking the law. He and his followers were arrested, but his
actions brought attention to the plight of the poor under this unjust law.
Gandhi explained that the Bhagavad Gita's teachings were very influential in his
life. Although he was a married man with four children, and came from a visya
varna, Gandhi saw that the Gita's teachings were inspirational to his life's inrerests.
Gandhi interpreted the notion of niskama karma as a call to just and selfless action.
One ought to do what is right, and not be preoccupied with the effects that such
action might incur to oneself. It took extraordinary courage to practice satyagraba,
because it required more than a moral indignation and intensity when encountering
unrighteousness; it demanded action. Moreover, that action needed to be conducted
without harming anyone, for Gandhi interprered Krsna's teachings to Arjuna as
fundamentally non-violent. It was a call to conquer the enemy within, to engage
in an internal struggle against one's fears of failure, pain, and even death, as well as
one's desires for success, pleasure, and fame. To Gandhi, the way to keep God first
and foremost in mind, and to be totally dedicated to God, was through service to
humanity. Gandhi, who was given the title Mahatma (Great Soul), embodies the
path of Karma yoga, since his life was characterized by unselfish action on behalf of
others, without attachment to the fruits of those deeds.

Bhakti yoga
Although the word bhakti appears in earlier texts such as the Svetāsvatara Upanisad,
dedicated to Siva, the Bhagavad Gita is the first scripture to elaborate upon its meaning.
Bhakti, as explained by the Gita, dramatically democratizes access to worship and to
moksa. Although it upholds the status of Brahmins and ksatriyas, the Gita states that
all those of unfortunate birth, such as women, vaisyas, and even sudras, can reach
the highest goal if devoted to Krsna (9.32). Even someone who may have committed
the most heinous act is rendered a saint through devotion (9.30). Not only does the

The Bhagavad Gita and the rise of bhakti 163

Gità open up worship to everyone, and uplift sincere devotees to the highest status, it
democratizes modes of devotion and the envisaged forms of divinity. Krsna teaches
that even those who worship other deities with sincerity actually worship him, no
matrer how unorthodox their rites may be (9.23). Thus Krsna identifies himself
with every deity that is the object of genuine devotion. This teaching is crucial in
comprehending Hinduism's characteristic tolerant polytheism. A sincere love for
and devotion to the divine, however divinity may be conceived, and in whatever
manner that worship might take, is regarded as leading the devotee to the Absolute,
as it truly is, and to liberation. Although the Gita's teachings promote Krsna as the
supreme deity, they also pave the way for any conception of divinity to be "substitutes
for" or "superimposed onto" the Absolute. For instance, in his interpretation of the
Gita, the infnential eleventh-century philosopher Abhinavagupta points out how
Krsna offers guidance for a liberation (moksa) that is "absorption in Lord Siva."
Krsna also identifies himself with the Upanisadic Brahman/Atman, with Sankhya
philosophy's Purusa, and with the traditionally imagined four-armed Visņu. He
points out how many do not recognize his divinity in the human form in which
he presents himself. He is everywhere. He is the sacrificer, the sacrifice, the sacred
fire, and the deity who receives the offering. He is in the most subtle of phenomena.
Whatever is awesome, splendid and glorious has its existence in a shard of his being
(10.41). These teachings of the Bhagavad Gita inform our understanding of the
Hindu propensity to worship both natural phenomena and images crafted by human
hands as abodes of divinity. Many strands within the Abrahamic religious traditions
(i.e. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), have strong sentiments against depictions of
God, whose transcendence ought not to be compromised through such portrayals.
Furthermore, their theological doctrines do not proclaim God to be embodied
within the creation. The Gita's teachings allow for this type of understanding,
but their syncretic character actually permits a panentheistic formulation. While
pantheism is the belief that God is identical with the creation, found in all things,
and that everything taken together is God, panentheism is the belief that God
interpenetrates the universe, encompasses it, and yet is greater than it, being both
within but nevertheless transcending the creation. Thus a river, a rock, a lump of
cow dung, a flower, or a graven image may represent the Absolute, as well as embody
it. And yet, the Absolute is beyond all such manifestations. Whoever offers a leaf,
a fower, fruit, or water, with purity of spitit, will have that offering accepted, says
the Gita (9.26), thus providing a rationale for the traditional forms that pūja, Hindu
devotional worship, takes.
Although it presents a variety of acceptable paths to both God and liberation,
which it essentially equates, the Bhagavad Gita makes its most compelling case for
Bhakti yoga. The Raja yoga path of ascetic disciplinary control of body -- mind is
endorsed, but the most accomplished yogis are those who, with their minds absorbed
in the divine, worship God in full faith (6.47). Similarly, while Jñana yoga is effective,
164 The Bhagavad Gita and the rise of bhakti
the highest jnana is knowledge of God, most effectively attained through loving
devotion. And Karma yoga's detached and selfless action is best applied to devotion
to God, without attachment to the desired fruits of worship. By fixing one's mind on
God, being lovingly devoted, sacrificing, rendering homage, and making God one's
cardinal interest, one's Self, so thoroughly absorbed in God, will surely come to God
(9.34).

Case study: Srī Caitanya

An excellent exemplar of the Bhakti yoga approach is Śri Caitanya (1486-1533),
who revitalized the worship of Krsna and Visnu in Bengal. Our knowledge of
Caitanya's life is derived from hagiographies, embellished biographies, often of
saints, written to promote their divine and extraordinary nature. Caitanya was
born in Navadip, Bengal, and the hagiographies portray him as Krsna-like in his
youthful beauty and playfulness. Educated, married, and working as a school-
teacher, he appears to have been initially content with his householder's life.
However, at the age of twenty-two a visit to the city of Gaya, where he had gone to
perform sraddha rites for his father, led to an encounter with a Krsna worshipper
named Isvara Puri who changed his life.
Having heard about Krsna, Caitanya soon grew more absorbed in Krsna devotion
and gave up his teaching career. He soon began to lead the city's Vaisnava (Vişpu-
dedicated) community and thus shape the character of Krsna worship in Bengal. In
particular, he introduced the tradition of public kirtana, namely, singing, dancing,
and chanting out the name of Krsna, to the clash of cymbals and drums, while
parading the city streets. The intention was to proclaim that devotion should not
always be a private affair, but could be playful and ecstatic, mirroring the dalliance
of the milkmaids with Krsna in the mythic tales of his boyhood in Vendavana.
Caitanya took up samnyasa, official renunciation, in 1510, and although he longed to
go to Vrndavana left his home for the holy city of Puri, and later journeyed through
South India. There, he debated renouncers from various schools, converted many to
Krsna bhakti, and returned to Puri as a living saint.
Caitanya began to emphasize that the attitude of devotion should be akin to
that displayed by Krsna's mythic lover Radha. Radha can think of nothing other
than Krsna when separated from him, and enjoys the greatest joy when united with
him. The devotee should be like Radha, continuously engaged in an ecstatic loving
devotion to Krsna. Eventually, Caitanya left for Vrndavana in a state of progressively
intensifying God-intoxication. Everything he saw in Vrndavana reminded him of
Krsna and Radha, and plunged him into states of rapture.
Caitanya clearly embodies the Bhakti yoga path centered on Krsna devotion, the
character of which he actually shaped for Bengali Vaisnavas. Krsna increasingly
became the center of Caitanya's life, and Caitanya's ardent love induced him to see signs
The Bhagavad Gita and the rise of bhakti 165

of Krsna and Radha everywhere. In appearance and lifestyle he was a renouncer, but
unlike the unemotional states that seem to characterize sanmyasa, Caitanya's inner
world was a passionate love affair with God. His devotees now regard Caitanya as an
incarnation of Krsna himself, who in his divine playfulness, took up embodiment as
a human being in order to experience the ecstasy of his own devotees' all-consuming
love for their Beloved.

South Indian Hinduism and the rise of devotionalism

The emotionally charged bhakti that we associate with Sri Caitanya is only vaguely
prefigured in the Bhagavad Gita. The earliest evidence of bhakti's association with a
sort of mystical love appears in South India, within the poetry of the "Tamil saints."
The major early kingdoms of South India, from where we derive the core of our
historical understanding of the region, were the Cola, Pandya, and Cera. The people
of these kingdoms spoke Dravidian languages, such as Tamil, and prior to he
fourth century BCE had been negligibly influenced by the North Indian, Sanskritic
tradition. They had even resisted annexation into Asoka's vast empire. From about
the second century BCE to the third century CE, the South Indians composed literary
works that reflect distinct cultural styles and values, which have endured even after
almost two thousand years of Sankritic influence. The literary works of this period
are collectively known as the Sangham literature, which lays mythic claims to having
been composed during cultural expositions (sangham), stretching back for thousands
of years.
Vedic traditions entered into South India through the patronage of rulers who
promoted orthodoxy, which through Brahminic consecration rites, conferred upon
them special status and powers. Some rulers claimed lineage association with the
heroes of the Epics, or even claimed participation in the Mahabharata war. The
Tolkappiyam, an early grammar text of literary Tamil named after its author, was
composed in about the first century CE, and shows evidence of Sanskritic (i.e. Aryan,
Brahmin) linguistic and cultural influences. Other Sangham literature consists of
eight anthologies of poetry, which primarily deal with secular themes such as love,
classified as an interior (akam) sentiment, and heroism, classified as an exterior
(param) one. The Tolkappiyam describes a compelling series of associations between
landscapes and the cadences of romantic love as evidenced in this poetry. The
verdant hills are associated with attraction and union, the desert's arid land with
separation, the forests with expectation and waiting, the seashore with sorrow and
despair, and cultivated landscape with sulking anger. The vibrant Tamil tradition of
poetic composition, with its propensity towards themes of love, foreshadows the rise
of devotional bhakti poetry that would develop in subsequent centurics.
As the Sangham period ended, Buddhism and Jainism, which had spread from
North India, became established in the south. Their ascetic ideals of renunciation