All roads lead to...

There are many paths to the infinite (in reality there is only the infinite, no ignorance & no need for any of this. But the ignorant have a different perspective). Most well known among them are the bhakti, jnana and yoga margas. Bhakti is well suited for highly emotional people. Jnana follows the art of discrimination & constantly watching the mind. Yoga deals with controlling the mind through various psycho-physical exercises. It is not merely a matter of choice in choosing these paths, but rather, every individual depending on his tendencies at different points of time falls in line predominantly with one of these. It is hard to argue or compare benefits of each of these paths. But the result & goal of all are the same, to get beyond the mind & the physical and thereby realize that all is one. In yoga, one focuses on raising the kundalini to the sahasrara chakra. In bhakti one completely surrenders ones ego to a higher power. In jnana, one constantly discriminates between the real and the unreal. So here too, for instance on self enquiry, the kundalini would rise up, the ego gets destroyed, but the focus is not on these means! Some of the well known spiritual leaders who followed & advocated the bhakti path are Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Chaitanya & the followers of the various dieties like Krishna. Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj are the proponents of the self enquiry mode. The Yoga masters are numerous, such as Paramhansa Yogananda, Swami Vivekananda, AOL founder Sri Sri Ravishankar. What I've found is that Jnana or discrimination alone becomes too dry & unemotional while Yoga & Bhakti add a lot of spice or adventure to the process. This is in the form of visions, siddhis & such accompaniments. At the same time, both yoga & bhakti pre-suppose or force you to acknowledge & live in duality. There is then a constant anticipation that something has to be done to attain liberation! This sort of dichotomy alone accounts for ignorance. Also, yoga or meditation & prayer are usually time bound activities requiring one to dedicate a certain period for this. Discrimination on the other hand can continue during all sorts of normal routines. One may argue that only a clear & purified mind is capable of self enquiry or discrimination, which is quite true. Perhaps that is one of the main reasons bhakti & yoga are advocated for the corrupt kali-yuga! There is no debate or conclusion here, but personally, I prefer to stick to all the paths in some form or at certain periods. Once a deeper understanding is gained, it is seen that these are all complementary & not really competitive paths!