Bhakta Sunil, 26 February 2021
Please accept my humble obeisances
All Glories to Srila Prabhupada
Does Buddhi-Yoga mean utilizing one’s intelligence to serve the Lord?
If yes , is Buddhi Yoga the same as Gyaan-Yoga-Mishrit-Bhakti?
What is the difference between Buddhi-Yoga and Gyaan-Yoga-Mishrit-Bhakti?
your servant,
sunil
Bhakta Sunil, 12 March 2015
Hare Krishna
To rephrase / add to the query : Can a person do Buddhi-Yoga if his bhakti is tinged with mental speculation?
your servant,
sunil
Shridhar Das, 13 March 2015
Hare Krishna Sunil Prabhu,
Please accept my humble obeisances!
All Glories to his Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada!
Your question is clearly answered in BG 10.10:
teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ
bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam
dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ
yena mām upayānti te
“Buddhi-yoga itself is action in Kṛṣṇa consciousness; that is the highest intelligence.”
“When one tries to go back home, back to Godhead, and takes fully to Kṛṣṇa consciousness in devotional service, his action is called buddhi-yoga. In other words, buddhi-yoga is the process by which one gets out of the entanglement of this material world.”(From the Purport)
This can be confirmed from BG 10.8 also:
ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo
mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate
iti matvā bhajante māṁ
budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ
“I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise” [budha] “who perfectly know this engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts.” (BG 10.8)
As per His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada:
Intelligence means to know how to go back to home, back to Godhead.
Buddhi means intelligence and buddhi yoga is apt for bhakti yoga only because in various other yogas, the spiritualists are taking so much pain by changing their positions, locations, shelters, what not, but failing to realize – Krishna is complete, Krishna is everything and the only shelter.
For the same reason Krishna states – I will give you the “intelligence” by which you can come to me, hence this is real intelligence, real buddhi and hence buddhi yoga is bhakti yoga.
A broader understanding of buddhi yoga – To be able to discriminate whether our acts are on the platform of pure consciousness (pleasing Guru and Krishna) or on the platform of body? This technique of being able to rectify our own act is also buddhi yoga as per His Divine Grace.
Interestingly, this also connects with BG 2.49 and confirms buddhi yoga:
dūreṇa hy avaraṁ karma
buddhi-yogād dhanañ-jaya
buddhau śaranam anviccha
kṛpaṇāḥ phala-hetavaḥ
“O Dhanañjaya, keep all abominable activities far distant by devotional service, and in that consciousness surrender unto the Lord. Those who want to enjoy the fruits of their work are misers.” (BG 2.49)
I personally also relate this with vyavasaya-atmika buddhir (BG 2.41) – resoluteness in Krishna consciousness.
Finally, Srila Prabhupada again specifies Buddhi yoga from BG 10.10:
So what is that buddhi-yoga? Krsna says, tesam satata-yuktanam: “Persons who are twenty-four hours engaged,” satata… Satata means always. Engaged. What kind of engagement? Bhajatam priti-purvakam. This engagement means always trying to render some service to the Lord. How? Priti-purvakam: “with love and faith.” Not that “Oh, I have to do it? All right, let me do.” No. “Oh, I have to do it? Let me do it nicely.”(September 12, 1973, London)
I hope this helps us conclude clearly what Buddhi yoga ultimately means.
Regarding difference between the 2 yogas, Srila Prabhupada states:
All other yoga system, there is little tinge of vasudeva-bhakti, but not cent percent pure. It is mixed. Misra-bhakti. Misra-bhakti will not be immediately fruitful. It will take long, long time. Bahunam janmanam ante jnanavan mam prapadyate [Bg. 7.19]. Everything, there is some bhakti-yoga, but if it is not pure.then it will take very, very, very, very long time, bahunam janmanam. One janma means hundreds of years.
Jnana-misra-bhakti means affinity for scriptural knowledge or tendency towards monistic liberation among sadhakas. Instead of trying to serve, to know and to experience, we are more in the mood of trying to be a pandita without following. We already know pure devotional service is anyabhilasita sunyam jnana-karma-adi anavrtam – free of all desires except the desire to please Krishna.
I also had read Uddhava was among jnana-misra-bhakta, being a disciple of Brihaspati. For the same reason Lord Krishna chose him for Vrindavan so that he may take to pure devotional service while associating with the Vrajavasis, especially the gopis. However, position of Uddhava having Lord’s personal association is not to be considered as a subject of comparison.
Personally sharing, when I was researching the strict differences and understandings between jnana and jnana-misra-bhakti yoga an year ago, which has scholarly been distinguished by Srila Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakur and Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, I ultimately concluded – Let me take shelter of that which will help with my current struggle against the dirt in my heart and mind. If Krishna wants, He shall drag me to all these studies in future.
your servant,
Shridhar Das
Bhakta Sunil, 16 March 2015
Hare Krishna Shridhar Prabhu
Please accept my humble obeisances
All Glories to Srila Prabhupada
Prabhu amazing knowledge you shared
my , any doubts on this topic have been dispelled
All Glories to your enthusiastic endeavor
in humble mood,
sunil
Mahabhagavat Das, 17 March 2015
Dear Devotees,
Hare Krishna!
As I was reflecting to find a concise way to describe the difference between Buddhi Yoga (Yoga of Intelligence) and Jnana-Mishra-Bhakti (Devotional Service tinged with the desire to become One with the Supreme), and very much inspired by Shridhar Prabhu’s’ answer, I also came across this wonderful purport by Srila Prabhupada in my regular study, it was very profound, and this is from the purport to SB 7.2.47:
“The living entity is bound by the subtle body, consisting of the mind, intelligence and false ego. At the time of death, therefore, the position of the mind becomes the cause for the next body. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (8.6), yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram: at the time of death the mind sets the criteria for the spirit soul’s being carried to another type of body. If a living being resists the dictation of the mind and engages the mind in the loving service of the Lord, the mind cannot degrade him. The duty of all human beings, therefore, is to keep the mind always engaged at the lotus feet of the Lord (sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayoḥ). When the mind is engaged at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, the intelligence is purified, and then the intelligence gets inspiration from the Supersoul (dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ tam). Thus the living entity makes progress toward liberation from material bondage.”
What jumped out at me was “If a living being resists the dictation of the mind and engages the mind in the loving service of the Lord, the mind cannot degrade him.”, and then ” When the mind is engaged at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, the intelligence is purified, and then the intelligence gets inspiration from the Supersoul (dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ tam). Thus the living entity makes progress toward liberation from material bondage.”
In other words, as stated by Srila Prabhupada in the purport to BG 10.10, as referred by Shridhar Prabhu:
“In this verse the word buddhi-yogam is very significant. We may remember that in the Second Chapter the Lord, instructing Arjuna, said that He had spoken to him of many things and that He would instruct him in the way of buddhi-yoga. Now buddhi-yoga is explained. Buddhi-yoga itself is action in Kṛṣṇa consciousness; that is the highest intelligence. Buddhi means intelligence, and yoga means mystic activities or mystic elevation. When one tries to go back home, back to Godhead, and takes fully to Kṛṣṇa consciousness in devotional service, his action is called buddhi-yoga. In other words, buddhi-yoga is the process by which one gets out of the entanglement of this material world. The ultimate goal of progress is Kṛṣṇa. People do not know this; therefore the association of devotees and a bona fide spiritual master are important. One should know that the goal is Kṛṣṇa, and when the goal is assigned, then the path is slowly but progressively traversed, and the ultimate goal is achieved.”
So therefore, I would summarize that Buddhi Yoga means Bhakti Yoga, or pure devotional service, and every other mixup is an unfortunate distraction.
Sincerely,
Mahabhagavat Das
Sudarshan Das, 20 March 2015
Hare Krishna,
I also had been thinking on the question and the following translations by His Divine Grace caught my attention which further supports Mahabhagavat Prabhuji’s mail.
BG 2.44:
bhogaiśvarya-prasaktānāṁ
tayāpahṛta-cetasām
vyavasāyātmikā buddhiḥ
samādhau na vidhīyate
“In the minds of those who are too attached to sense enjoyment and material opulence, and who are bewildered by such things, the resolute determination for devotional service to the Supreme Lord does not take place.”
Here: buddhiḥ — devotional service to the Lord
And then BG 2.50:
buddhi-yukto jahātīha
ubhe sukṛta-duṣkṛte
tasmād yogāya yujyasva
yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam
“A man engaged in devotional service rids himself of both good and bad reactions even in this life. Therefore strive for yoga, which is the art of all work.”
Here: buddhi-yuktaḥ — one who is engaged in devotional service
your servant,
Sudarshan Das
Bhakta Sunil, 21 March 2015
Amazing finds Sudarshan Prabhu
Jaya
All Glories to your sincere endeavour
your insignificant servant,
Bhakta Sunil
Shridhar Das, 21 March 2015
Hare Krishna!
All Glories to Srila Gurudeva and Srimati Gurumataji!
One time I had a good fortune to be near Srila Gurudeva while Srila Gurudeva was singing “Jaya Radhe Jaya Krishna Jaya Vrindavan” while departing from Gokula Vrindavan. Then when “Mahavan” was sung in the bhajan (kalindi jamuna jaya jaya mahavan”), Srila Gurudeva searched for Mahavan in Vedabase and further shared of the 12 forests, 5 situated in East and 7 in the West, separated by Yamuna, Mahavan maybe situated in the East. Then Srila Gurudeva shared few pastimes of Lord Krishna which connected with Mahavan. Then Srila Gurudeva asked me all that I remembered from the first part(which I typed above).
Srila Gurudeva inspired me to refer to Vedabase and research on topics although I had Vedabase 2014 lying on laptop desktop unused for a long time. Now these questions, an amazing one such as yours, are helping me to use Vedabase nicely and conclude as per acharyas. Therefore All Glories to Srila Gurudeva and your (Sunil Prabhu) question which are allowing me to follow my heart, at least begin with it in some way.
Mahabhagavat prabhuji, you have shared the dividing line and the science that takes from mishrit to shuddha bhakti from such a sublime purport from His Divine Grace that would have not sparked a bulb in my mind. Glad to have your association. Additions from Sudarshan Prabhu makes us seem that we had an essence conclusion of what buddhi-yoga is.
your servant,
Shridhar Das
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