Take Meera, who works in a bank. In one month three people give her three pieces of advice. A colleague says, "Just do your duty well, that is all the Gita wants." A video tells her to sit in silence for half an hour every morning. Her aunt says that nothing counts except devotion. Meera wants to follow the right one, so she tries to work out who is correct. At the end of the month she is doing none of them.
Arjuna stood in the same place. He told the Lord that His words seemed to mix up his mind (Gita 3.2), and later he asked whether giving up action or the yoga of action was the better way (Gita 5.1). Here we look at how the Gita answers a person who is trying to choose.
The Gita names four ways and says they reach one place
The Gita gives the list itself. Some people see the Self within through meditation, some through knowledge, and some through selfless action (Gita 13.25).
अन्ये साङ्ख्येन योगेन कर्मयोगेन चापरे ॥ १३.२५ ॥
Some perceive the Supreme Self within themselves through meditation, with the purified mind; others through the path of knowledge, and still others through the path of selfless action.
The fourth way, devotion, is the subject of chapter 12, where those who fix the mind on the Lord with faith are called the most perfect in yoga (Gita 12.2). The Lord does not ask Arjuna to pick one and drop the others. He says that only the immature treat them as separate (Gita 5.4), and that the place reached through knowledge is reached through action too (Gita 5.5).
एकं सांख्यं च योगं च यः पश्यति स पश्यति ॥ ५.५ ॥
The supreme state attained through Jñāna Yoga is also reached through Karma Yoga. One who understands that these two paths ultimately lead to the same destination is the one who truly sees reality as it is.
Here is each way in plain words.
| Way | What it asks of you | What it works on | A sign it suits you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Action | Do the work in front of you without clinging to the result | The hands, and the habit of grabbing results | You feel steadier when you are useful |
| Knowledge | Ask what lasts and what passes, and see yourself apart from body and role | The understanding | You keep asking "why?" and "who am I?" |
| Meditation | Sit, and bring the mind back to one point | The mind | Your mind is noisy and you long for quiet |
| Devotion | Turn the heart to the Lord and offer Him what you do | The heart | Prayer, song or remembrance moves you |
These are not four religions or four jobs. They are four doors into one house.
Why does the Gita praise each way as the best?
Meera's confusion has a reason. In chapter 5 the Lord says that giving up action and the yoga of action both lead to the highest good, and that the yoga of action is the better of the two (Gita 5.2). In chapter 6 He says the yogi is higher than the ascetic, the scholar and the ritualist (Gita 6.46), and that among all yogis the one who worships Him with faith, the mind fixed on Him, is the most united (Gita 6.47). In chapter 12, asked who is better established, He names those who fix the mind on Him with supreme faith (Gita 12.2).
These sound like rival claims. They are answers to different questions. The first compares two ways for a person who is still at work. The second compares a yogi with people who practise only a part. The third compares two kinds of seekers, and the next verse adds that those who worship the unmanifest reach Him too (Gita 12.3).
So when you meet the praise of a path, ask who is being compared and by what measure. A short note on this is in Does the Gita Contradict Itself by Praising Several Paths?, and the full table of comparisons is in Who Is "Best" in the Gita? Reading the Basis of Each Comparison.
The Lord's own steps for beginning where you are
Arjuna asked which of two kinds of seekers is better established (Gita 12.1). After the answer, the Lord gives something even more useful, a set of steps for people who stand at different points.
| If this is where you are | Take this step | Verse |
|---|---|---|
| Your mind can rest on the Lord | Rest the mind and the understanding there | Gita 12.8 |
| Your mind keeps wandering | Practise: bring it back, again and again | Gita 12.9 |
| You cannot practise steadily | Do your work as an offering to Him | Gita 12.10 |
| Even that feels too much | Do the work and let go of its result | Gita 12.11 |
अभ्यासयोगेन ततो मामिच्छाप्तुं धनञ्जय ॥ १२.९ ॥
O Arjuna, if you are unable to fix your mind steadily on Me, then seek to reach Me through the discipline of repeated practice. Krishna is realistic about the restless mind. If immediate, steady absorption is not possible, then the way forward is to practise again and again, patiently drawing the mind back to the Lord.
This is for the restless mind, which most of us have. The Lord does not scold anyone for being on the lower step. The last step is the one within reach of every person, and it is the door of the yoga of action, explained in Action Without Claiming the Fruit. The steps are taken up one by one in The Ladder of Devotion.
So the Gita's answer to "which way is right for me?" is "the one you can walk today."
In an ordinary day the four work together
Meera begins with the step she can manage. In the morning she turns her mind to the Lord for one minute, which is devotion. At work she does each file well, offers it, and lets go of whether her manager praises it (Gita 12.10, Gita 12.11), which is action. She sits for five quiet minutes and brings the mind back each time it wanders, which is meditation. In the evening she asks what in the day will last and what has already passed, which is knowledge.
She did not choose one. Her day needed all four. The Lord puts the order of depth in a single verse: knowledge is better than mere mechanical practice, meditation is better than knowledge, giving up the fruit of action is better than meditation, and peace follows at once from that giving up (Gita 12.12). When everything else has been tried, the thing that brings peace soonest is letting go of the result.
How do you know the path is working?
Whatever way you take, the sign is the kind of person you become. The Lord describes the person dear to Him as free from hatred, friendly and compassionate (Gita 12.13), and ever content and self-controlled (Gita 12.14). The qualities are described further in The Devotee Dear to the Lord. A way that makes you prouder or harder is not working, whatever it is called.
None of the four asks you to leave your life. The true renunciate and yogi is the one who does the duty without leaning on its fruit, not the one who simply stops working (Gita 6.1).
A practice for one week
Choose the step from the table that is within reach today, and do only that for seven days. If your mind is steady, begin with the morning minute. If it is restless, begin with five minutes of bringing it back. If you have no time or no feeling for either, begin with doing your work as an offering and letting go of its result. Each night write one line: did this make me gentler or steadier? In the second week add one small act from another way. After a month, keep what stays.
Questions readers ask
Can I follow more than one way at the same time?
Yes. The Gita lists the ways side by side and says the wise see them as one (Gita 5.4, Gita 5.5). The Lord's own steps move from devotion to practice, to work and to giving up the result (Gita 12.8–11), so the four are meant to be used together. Most people use all four in a single day.
Which way is the highest?
The Gita praises each one for a reason, and the praise depends on who is compared (Gita 6.46, Gita 6.47, Gita 12.2). Read as a single ranking, the verses seem to clash. Read as answers to different questions, they agree. The short note in Does the Gita Contradict Itself by Praising Several Paths? explains this.
I feel no devotion at all. Can I still begin?
Yes. The steps in Gita 12.9 and Gita 12.10 are for exactly this. Practising returning the mind, and offering the work, are steps in themselves. The feeling comes later.
Must I give up work and home to follow these ways?
No. Freedom is not reached merely by staying away from action (Gita 3.4), and the Lord had already named action as one of the two ways He taught (Gita 3.3). Doing the duty without leaning on the result is itself the highest renunciation (Gita 6.1).
Going deeper
For the comparisons set side by side and the cautions the Gita gives each way, see the detailed reading. This is the seventh stop on Begin the Gita, after Action Without Claiming the Fruit. The next stop, The Final Counsel, shows where the ways meet in refuge. The two ways most readers start from have paths of their own: The Path of Karma Yoga and The Path of Devotion.