22 Dec 2025

Datta Vedaantah - Yoga Parva: Chapter-10: Yoga Saadhana Jnaanam

(Knowledge of Means of Yoga)

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

The top most problem for any soul is suffering with miseries in this world as well as in the hell after death. Even if enjoyment of pleasures is absent, it does not make any big difference. For this main problem only, souls catch God since the first prayer of any soul to God is to protect it from worldly miseries and from future hell. If the soul is immersed in devotion, it may not experience the suffering like a patient not experiencing the pains of the body after taking anaesthesia. But, after coming out from anaesthesia the soul experiences pains again. Such knowledge-less devotion is not a permanent solution.
With the help of knowledge-devotion, the soul can escape the punishments of sins and there by escape the suffering of miseries forever. The knowledge in devotion is that the devotee loves God to the climax so that the devotee never likes to do any sin because God does not like sins. The knowledge even without devotion is more effective and permanent solution in the sense that the soul can escape the punishments of sins by realization, repentance and non-repetition of sin. Even the atheists without devotion, with the help of this knowledge alone, can get the advantage of non-repetition of sins by which all the pending punishments can be cancelled. Since the atheist does not believe in God, such divine facility is also not accepted by the atheists and hence, the atheist can never get this adavantage. Knowledge always involves logic, which is that if the soul is reformed by the final step of non-repetition of sin, there will be no second victim to suffer due to the sinner. The punishment is given only to stop at least temporarily the repetition of sin. By reformation, the sin is not repeated permanently and hence, punishment of a reformed soul is meaningless. The knowledge based devotion also gives the same effective result, but, the moment the devoted scholar forgets God or forgets the knowledge, there is a possibility of doing the sin. The knowledge digested can never slip at any moment. However, the devotee may also not forget God and the person with knowledge may also forget knowledge for a moment. Hence, Shankara told that knowledge and devotion are one and the same (paramārtha jñānalakṣaṇa sampannāṃ bhaktim...). The reason for this is that in the Gita, God gave highest position to both devotion and knowledge (priyo hi jñāninotyartham..., Bhaktāstetīva me priyāḥ...). Only one can be highest and hence, both are one and the same.
In the path of knowledge, the logic clarifies every doubt and hence, firm standing on the concept is possible. In knowledge-devotion, the same stand can be achieved by knowledge as well as devotion (knowledge gives this concept whereas devotion also gives the fruit of this concept since devotee does not do the sin since sin is disliked by God) and hence, both paths give the same result. In blind devotion without knowledge also the same effect can be achieved, but, there is no guarantee that the stand will be firm due to lack of even trace of knowledge. In such knowledge-less devotion, even misleading by wrong concepts is possible. Such a devotee without knowledge may believe that God pleased by blind devotion cancels the punishments of sins, which means that a judge is cancelling his own given judgement due to soaping done by a party through service and sacrifice of bribe. This may be possible in a human judge or a king, but, is not true in the case of omniscient God.
What is the reason for God to dislike the sins in this world? The sin disturbs good people causing lot of suffering and this is a black spot in the divine administration. If the sins are not done, there will be no disturbance in the world due to suffering of good people resulting in smooth and peaceful running of the society. God created and established this world and He always likes that this world shall run on peaceful lines just like the establisher of a factory.
What is sin and who is a good person? Sin is the application of any quality in wrong direction. Any quality by itself is not sinful or meritorious. Every quality used in right direction is meritorious and any quality used in wrong direction is sinful. The person using any quality in right direction is a good person and the person using any quality in wrong direction is a bad person. Anger and peace are neither good nor bad qualities by themselves and both become good or bad by their directions used.
If you show anger to a good person, such anger is bad quality. If you show the same anger to a bad person, such anger is good quality. If you show peace to a bad person, such peace is bad quality. If you show same peace to a good person, such peace is good quality. Peace is Sattvam and anger is Rajas. Ignorance is Tamas. Ignorance of correct knowledge is bad quality. Ignorance of wrong knowledge is good quality. You shall try to remove ignorance by reading divine books and hearing divine preachers. You shall try to possess ignorance by avoiding reading bad books and not listening wrong preachers.
Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas are neither good nor bad by themselves. If these three are used in right direction, all the three are good and holy and such three qualities used in right direction represent the three holy divine forms of Gods called Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva respectively. If you say that Sattvam alone is good quality and the other two are bad qualities, does it mean that Vishnu alone is good and Brahma and Shiva are bad? Sattvam means using these three qualities in right direction and Rajas and Tamas mean using these three qualities in wrong direction. Hence, God created the Muulaprakruti or Pradhaanam with equilibrium state of these three qualities in the beginning with the aim of their use in right direction only. Therefore, God never created any bad quality since His intensions are always good. The souls created the wrong directions of all these three qualities. Ignorant people scold God as a sadist arguing that God is responsible to create bad qualities for the sake of self-enjoyment because His own created bad qualities attract the souls leading the souls in miseries. They claim that souls got attracted towards the bad qualities and the responsibility of such attraction is not only for the soul but also for the bad qualities created by God is wrong. Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas are always associated together in the sense that all the three can be used in any direction.
God Rama is always a good person, who is God in human form. If anger and violence are bad qualities, Rama shall never become angry and shall never use violence to anybody at any time. But, Rama became angry towards sage Jaabaali, who tried to give wrong advice to Rama (As soon as Rama went to forest, Jaabaali told Rama that Rama shall return to Ayodhya since Dasharatha to whom Rama promised is dead!). Rama killed Vaali, Ravana and several demons, who were always bad, even though killing is the highest violence! Hence, Rama was praised by sage Vaalmiiki in the Ramayana that Rama shows anger and does violence in right direction (Sthānakrodhaḥ prahartā ca...).
God Rama is praised as the embodiment of justice (Rāmo vigrahavān dharmaḥ...). This means that if one uses these three qualities in right direction, the person is doing justice. If one uses these three qualities in wrong direction, the person is doing injustice. Justice is merit and injustice is sin. The Gita says that one shall protect good people and destroy bad people (Paritrāṇāya...). Protection and destruction are neither good nor bad by themselves. Protection is Sattvam and destruction is Rajas and Tamas. Protecting a good person is merit and protecting a bad person is sin. Destroying a good person is sin and destroying a bad person is merit.
Deciding the direction of any quality is very very important and such decision can be taken only when the direction is perfectly analyzed and decided carefully. Such analysis must be impartial and if the analysis is wrong due to selfishness, one will decide a good person as bad person and vice-versa. This means that if your selfishness is hurt, you will decide the other person as bad and show anger and violence to him. If your selfishness is fulfilled, you will decide the other person as good and show peace and non-violence to him.
We will clarify this concept with an example. Rama killed Vaali. Vaali thought that Rama killed him since Sugriiva, his enemy, promised Rama to help Him in getting back Sita. Vaali thought that he could have helped Rama in better way (since Vaali is stronger than Ravana) to fulfil Rama’s selfishness. An ordinary human being will certainly do like this only since the analysis and decision are always done based on selfish benefit only in deciding whether a person is good or bad. But, the omniscient and omnipotent God Rama is not in need of any external help and hence, He killed Vaali not based on such selfishness, but, based on true analysis only. Really, Vaali is bad and Sugriiva is good. Wife of Vaali became wife of Sugriiva without any force since Vaali was thought to be dead (ethics in that time was that the wife of dead brother becomes the wife of other brother). But, Vaali forced the wife of Sugriva to become his wife while Sugriiva was clearly alive. Hence, Rama killed Vaali based on impartial analysis only and not based on wrong decision arrived by selfishness. All this was given in the reply of Rama to Vaali.
Hence, one should develop the capability of doing true analysis rising above the partiality due to selfishness. This is not possible for any ordinary human being. Hence, a third neutral scholar-judge shall decide whether a soul is good or bad especially in personal cases. One of the two parties shall not become the judge since any party becoming judge will exploit the situation based on selfishness. The Veda gives stress on third party-judge (Atha yadi te...). Fearing about such exploitation by ordinary human beings, Rama underwent the punishment for killing Vaali in the next birth as Krishna (Krishna was killed by hunter in similar way.). Krishna also killed Kauravas in the same way (as Rama killed Vaali by hiding Himself) but, did not undergo punishment since Krishna killed them not for any selfishness, but, for the sake of Pandavas only. Rama also did not kill Vaali for selfishness, but, in His case, the two issues were mixed since Sugriiva helped Rama. Hence, in the case of God, the party (Himself) can become judge whereas in the case of human being, the party (himself) can’t become the judge. Therefore, ends justify means in the case of God and in the case of ordinary human beings means justify ends.
Therefore, the Veda says that an ordinary human being, which is always influenced by partiality due to selfishness and due to fascination towards own family, shall always do analysis (especially in personal cases) with the help of Sadguru only (Ācāryavān puruṣo Veda– Veda). Even in spiritual knowledge, the soul shall take the help of the advice from Sadguru only since it is always under the influence of selfishness and fascination to its own family. Spiritual knowledge always starts with the self of an ordinary human being only and hence, advice from Sadguru is must (Sa Gurumevābhigacchet...—Veda). The importance of Sadguru is in climax in spiritual knowledge since it always deals with the welfare of self only, which means that it is always a personal case.
Therefore, the root cause of any misery here or in hell is only the sin done by the soul. Misery is nothing but the punishment for the sin done by the soul. The only way to avoid the misery is to stop doing the sin and the only way to escape the punishments of the past sins is reformation through realization (recognizing the past deed as sin), repentance and non-repetition of the sin in future. Except this way, there is no other way to escape the misery and to attain the grace of God, which alone is called Yoga. All other ways advised by wrong preachers are totally false misleading you from the truth for their benefits! If you follow this path, God will be pleased with you and after this, if you are doing merits (good deeds) God is more pleased with you. Now, you have successfully crossed Pravrutti and become eligible for Nivrutti. Nivrutti means to develop a personal bond with God, which is like father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, wife, darling, servant etc. God can’t become wife or servant in your view because God is always grater than you! God may become the servant of His devotee, which is His view. The soul can’t treat God as wife since in the tradition wife serves the husband. (If husband serves wife as per the present tradition, God can be treated as wife!). Hence, God is said to be Purusha (masculine gender) and soul is said to be Prakruti (feminine gender) since soul is said to be Paraaprakruti.
This concept can be again clarified with a good example. A girl employed in the office of a owner can impress the owner by not doing sins (like not doing corruption etc.,) and by doing merits (promoting the welfare of the office). By creating such good impression the employed girl is given full promotions (worldly and heavenly pleasures) and there is no need of mentioning demotions (worldly miseries and miseries in hell) in the case of such meritorious candidate. If the girl wishes to develop a personal bond with the owner (such wish is only from the side of employee and not from the side of employer at all), she is eligible to such personal bond. In the beginning itself Krishna refused to dance with Gopikas and Gopikas threatened Krishna to commit suicide if He rejects them. By this tested and genuine personal bond, God is most pleased.
By this personal bond of Nivrutti, not only the grace of God is highest, but also, God takes the entire responsibility of such a soul in Nivrutti. If the wife or son or daughter or brother or sister or father or mother does a mistake and gets fined, you will pay the penalty from your pocket itself and will not ask them to pay it! Similarly, if mistakes are committed by the devotee, who developed personal bond with God in Nivrutti, God will undergo the punishments of such mistakes and such soul is not touched by any misery at any time and will be in endless bliss. Such a Nivrutti-devotee will never do big sins because he/she passed the Prvrutti already. Such mistakes are only slips due to some misunderstanding of injustice concluded as justice through sudden wrong analysis. When sage Narada praised Sudarshana (powerful wheel of Vishnu killing demons), Sudarshana agreed to such praise. God Vishnu immediately cursed him to take birth as Kaartaviirya and He as Parashurama killed him and lifted him. Here, lifting the soul is present even though self-suffering is absent. For self-suffering Krishna is best example since He suffered due to curse of Gandhaari given to Him for the sake of His devoted Pandavas (Pandavas killed Kauravas directly and not Krishna but Gandhari cursed Krishna!). In the case of Sudarshana, ego entered whereas in the case of Pandavas never ego entered since they always tried for a peaceful compromise even with five villages instead of half kingdom.
Due to these reasons, Nivrutti is treated as the highest fruit than Pravrutti (Nivṛttistu mahāphalā). The pleasure of God with the soul is highest in Nivrutti whereas the pleasure of God is higher in Pravrutti if the soul is doing good deeds and not doing any bad deed. The pleasure of God is high in Pravrutti if the soul is not doing sins even though it is not doing good deeds. If the Nivrutti-devotee is doing sins, such a devotee is not in Nivrutti (highest level), but, is only below Pravrutti (Pravrutti is higher level), which is Dushpravritti (lowest level) only. Raavana was feeling that he is in the highest Nivrutti level by cutting his heads for God thinking that he sacrificed even highest bond with life (Praaneshanaa). But, he is in the lowest level due to sins done by him. It is perfectly concluded decision that a soul can’t enter Nivrutti without passing Pravutti. It is not a direct examination for bachelor-degree, but, gradual entrance to bachelor degree after passing school and intermediate examination. Simile is always limited in scope. Without Pravrutti, one can directly enter Nivrutti (bachelor degree) like Shankara since He is God. Even after some Pravrutti, Buddha entered Nivrutti since He is also God. Hence, an ordinary human being must be very very careful about sins while staying in Nivrutti.
The greatness of Nivrutti over Pravrutti is based on presence of responsibility with God in Nivrutti, which is absent in Pravrutti. The employer has no responsibility with the employee in Pravrutti and here the responsibility lies with the employee (soul) only. In Nivrutti, the entire responsibility lies with the employer only since the employee has developed a personal bond with employer (God). Nivrutti is said to be Maarjaala Kishora Nyaaya, in which the mother-cat (God) catches its child (devotee) with its mouth in the journey and the child has no effort or responsibility for its safety. Pravrutti is said to be Markata Kishora Nyaaya, in which the child (devotee) catches the stomach of the mother monkey (God) and the child has full effort and responsibility in its safety.
The word Yoga is always to be fixed in the attainment of the grace of God only and not to be fixed in attainment of anything other than the grace of God. The reason is that anything other than God also can be attained by the grace of God only. Even an atheist, who does not believe in the existence of God, attains something other than God like health, wealth etc., by the grace of God only since nothing can be attained by anybody if God becomes against such attainment. God remains as neutral spectator of such wrong attainments also in order not to disturb the freedom given to souls. Even the highest attainment of God by a soul to become incarnation happens when God likes it to happen. If you fix the word yoga in attainment of something other than God, even then, the attainment of grace of God stands as a pre-requisite whether you like it or not.
These days, the word yoga is used for the attainment of perfect physical and mental health only, which is required in the worldly enjoyment also. Of course, such physical and mental health is also essential in the spiritual effort needed to attain the grace of God and this is the main aim of sage Patanjali to stress on the ways to attain mental and physical health. Attainment of health for worldly enjoyment is not at all the aim of Patanjali, in which God is not referred at all. Some people use the word Yoga in attainment of miraculous powers, but, such people recognize God in this line since God alone can grant miraculous powers. But, there are some people, who believe in the attainment of miraculous powers through certain imaginary efforts (like imaginary kundalini rising up to head) without believing in God as the very source of miraculous powers. Such people do not attain miraculous powers, but, attain headache due to such meaningless concentration of mind. Even demons attained miraculous powers due to devotion to God only and not through such meaningless imaginary exercises.
People have become mad of money and fame. They try to earn money by exploiting innocent souls and some also try to earn fame and respect from such innocent souls. They create attraction towards certain attracting items in the minds of the ignorant souls and pretend as if they only know the ways to attain such items. If God is mentioned as a source of such items, their importance gets reduced. Due to such foolish background, people give different meanings to the word yoga and suggest different new ways to attain such different meanings. All such preachers will fall in hell as long as their procedure of exploitation remains in this world. Any preacher, who concentrates mainly on God in preaching will attain the grace of God, which alone is the meaning of the word yoga.
The meaning of the word Yoga is more important in the attainment of God’s grace rather than God in person. Attainment of God’s grace can bring the attainment of God also. But, attainment (like seeing) of God need not bring God’s grace. Ravana attained and saw God Shiva in person, but, could not get His grace and got destroyed finally in spite that God Shiva is the deity of destruction! Rama did not see God Shiva in person, but, attained His grace and ruled kingdom for 11,000 years. Hence, it is always better to understand yoga as the attainment of God’s grace than to understand it as the attainment of God. To get favour from king is more important than seeing him while going on the road!
The spiritual preacher is entirely responsible for the spiritual progress of any soul in this world. The innocent soul approaches the preacher with full surrender for its spiritual progress like a patient approaching doctor to cure his/her disease by good medicine and not to die with poisonous injection! If the preacher has wrong intension of earning money and fame from the surrendered soul, he will speak some lies to attract the mind of the soul and tries to establish himself as unique guide knowing some special secrets to achieve the materialistic benefits and to solve worldly problems so that the soul has no other way than to approach him! Such hidden background of the preacher brings serious sin to him resulting in punishments here as well as there after death. Money and fame earned by such crooked way are lost in due course of time. Money and fame come as Tsunami waves from God if the preacher avoids such wrong way and simply concentrates on the soul for its development of devotion to God.
The preacher shall preach the souls with the firm view that he is doing the service to God without aspiring any fruit in return. In such state, the preacher will never tell any lie keeping full confidence in God and God also takes care of everything about the preacher spontaneously here as well as there. The preacher is not having full confidence on God and hence, tells lies to attract souls for money and fame. As long as his false preaching exists in this world misleading souls, so long the preacher lies in the horrible hell here as well as there. If the preacher tells wrong concept due to ignorance, God will excuse him with minor punishment. Hence, one should not enter into preaching work unless he digests the complete spiritual knowledge and unless he gets permission from God as Paramahamsa says. It is true that the preacher has to tell some lies for the initial attraction of the soul depending on the level of absorption of the soul, but, as early as possible, the complete truth must be revealed to the soul and must discourage the soul from the twist in the preaching. Shankara told that soul is God, but, immediately told that soul must worship God to become God!
The preacher shall always speak about God only as the real source of materialistic benefits including solutions for worldly problems as well as for the final salvation based on service and sacrifice to God without any aspiration in return. The preacher discovers new techniques (tantrams), new prayers (mantrams) and new flow sheet diagrams drawn on metallic plates (yantrams representing some spiritual concepts) for achieving worldly benefits neglecting God with hidden selfish background! The preacher shall always stress that God alone is the source for granting worldly benefits as well as spiritual benefits. In the beginning, the poison of aspiration for fruit is inevitable, which can be gradually removed by the preacher in course of time. This is not wrong since the Veda also follows the same procedure. But, introducing new items other than God with miraculous powers to achieve fruits is the horrible sin. Even astrologers shall realise this truth since planets are nothing but the executive powers of God only. Nothing other than God has even a trace of miraculous power. The ultimate aim of any preacher shall be always fixing the mind of the soul on the ultimate God only for anything to achieve and slowly prone the mind towards service and sacrifice to God for His work without aspiration for any fruit in return.

Iti Datta Vedānte Yogaparvaṇi

Yoga Sādhana Jñānaṃ nāma Daśamādhyāyaḥ।।
The Tenth Chapter of Yogaparva of Datta Vedanta, which is the Knowledge of Means of Yoga, is completed.

Datta Vedaantah

Part-1: Brahmaparva: Chapter-1: Anuyogajnanam

Part-1: Brahmaparva: Chapter-2: Anuhya Parabrahma Jnanam

Part-1: Brahmaparva: Chapter-3: Ishvaraavataara Jnanam

Part-1: Brahmaparva: Chapter-4: Datta Vaishishtya Jnanam

Part-2: Jiiva Parva: Chapter-5: Jagattattva Jnaanam

Part-2: Jiiva Parva: Chapter-6: Jiivaatma Tattva Jnaanam

Part-2: Jiiva Parva: Chapter-7: Avidyaa Guna Karma Tattva Jnaanam

Part-3: Yoga Parva: Chapter-8: Yoga Vicaara Jnaanam

Part-3: Yoga Parva: Chapter-9: Nishkaama Yoga Jnaanam

Part-3: Yoga Parva: Chapter-10: Yoga Saadhana Jnaanam

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