Four Types of Yogis, One Yoga

 Yoga is an ancient art based on an extremely subtle science, that of the body, mind and soul.  The prolonged practice of yoga will, in time, lead the student to a sense of peace and a feeling of being at one with his or her [their] environment.

B.K. S. Iyengar

What type of yogi are you?

There are said to be four types of yoga...that path that can take us to full realization. They are: Bhakti, Jnana/Gnana, Kriya, and Karma Yoga. I believe  a yogi, someone committed to the practice of yoga, will travel through all four paths at some point in their journey. All paths are required. I know, I have been down a few of these paths and continue to travel on them. 

I, like most westerns,  started out with  one of the limbs of Astanga called Hatha...that which we do on the mat.  I was not looking for "yoga" when I began...just a way to tone and stretch my muscles.  I was missing so much of what yoga is. I actually resisted, at first, the pranayama, meditation  and mudra practice  which was probably the only "real" yoga I was doing in these early yoga sessions. It was not until I began to embrace them that I began on the first path to becoming a real yogi. Kriya yoga is a means of using breath, body position and chanting to help release and stimulate the flow of Shakti energy in the body and mind rapidly. The great Yogananda said that one kriya achieves in a half minute  what it would take other practices to achieve in one year. Am  I a proficient  Kriya yogi? Definitely not but it is a part of my practice.

I then advanced to studying everything I could about yoga and self realization, taking my truth seeking beyond yoga to other spiritual masters and texts. I was on the path to knowledge and wisdom and becoming a Jnana Yogi. This is the path I spend most of my time and energy on. This also lead me from the texts to the internal inner wisdom. Even though I still read whatever I can get my hands on and devotedly listen to wise teachers,  I started going inward to examine and explore my mind and to seek to realize directly what it is I am to know about self and Life. I find this path absolutely captivating and it is why I write to you today.  I am indeed, though  a novice, and very, very immature and underdeveloped, a Jnana Yogi. 

I have begun from here to take steps along the Bhakti path of love and devotion. Though I have always had a deep love for God, my understanding of "God" in conceptual terms has changed dramatically since I started on the yogic path. My love and devotion has grown.  My heart is now open to what is and no longer closed by narrow minded conditioning and belief. Buddhism and Taoism have helped to take my Christian understanding and the glimpses of Hindu understanding I have been exposed to on my yogic journey to a whole new level of love and devotion to Life. I am also becoming a Bhakti yogi.

Now, I find myself on the Karmic path of selfless action...even though I am far from self less at this point and have no idea what my karmic dharma is supposed to be...I am embracing the karmic path. I so want to be a Karma Yogi. 

So I don't know about you but when I ask myself , "What kind of a yogi are you?" , I find myself answering, "I am simply a yogi, seeking to be at one with my environment".

All is well.