PURNA YOGA
Man's aim is freedom. Knowingly or unknowingly, he has been fighting for that since his appearance on earth. In a sense everything he has done and thought has been towards this goal. This is because his essential nature is freedom.
Man feels his imperfection. He thinks he has fallen from his potential Divinity. He accredits it to some unknown causes or karma. He wants to regain this lost kingdom of heaven. He reads the open book of nature and receives certain messages. He attempts to find his way towards perfection.
Man finds that his body, mind and intellect bind his soul with lower desires. The demands of the body, like thirst, hunger, sleep and enjoyment, he finds to be inevitable; but the thought of coming death frightens him, as he knows he has to leave this body. The mind and its desires and the intellect and its questions man finds to be of utmost importance, but he then becomes afraid of missing the goal by frittering away his time and energy without practicing the discipline. In other words, he struggles for the way to properly channel his time and energy to attain freedom.
Then he finds that the way to attain the goal of perfection is yoga. Yoga is both the means and the end. As a way toward self-perfection, it is the means; as union with God--our real Self--it is the end. Yoga, the art of self-perfection, gives him the supreme satisfaction, for he finds the key in it which unlocks the mysteries of life here and hereafter.
By means of yoga he tries to make his way towards God and finds there are various planes which he has to conquer before he reaches the goal. There is the food sheath (annamaya kosha), vital sheath (pranamaya kosha), mind sheath (manomaya kosha), intellect sheath (vijnanamaya kosha), and bliss sheath (anandamaya kosha). That yoga or way which brings perfection to his gross body which contains one food sheath and vital sheath is called laya yoga with its branches, kundalini yoga, and hatha yoga. That way through which he could attain perfection in his subtle body which contains the mind sheath and intellect sheath is found in raja yoga, jnana yoga, and karma yoga. For the gaining of self-perfection in his causal body or the bliss sheath, he turns to bhakti yoga with its many branches such as nada yoga, mantra yoga, japa yoga, kirtana yoga, etc., through which his whole emotional nature is lifted into absolute bliss in ecstatic union with the Divine.
Man is a complex mixture of will, emotion, and intellect. Therefore, purna yoga aims at the triple transformation of these three important aspects of man. Surrender of the individual will to the divine will and offering oneself for selfless service of humanity--this is karma yoga. Purification and sublimation of emotions by turning them towards God and attaining Divine Love--this is bhakti yoga or the yoga of devotion. Introverting the intellect through self-inquiry and attaining wisdom through meditation is jnana yoga. In the BHAGAVAD GITA we find these three yogas--karma, bhakti and jnana--seemingly the most important yogas for Self-realization. Different only in their preparatory stage, they lead to the same goal and ultimately fuse into one. Karma yoga leads to selflessness. Bhakti yoga leads to love; and jnana yoga leads to wisdom. They are indeed inseparable in their essence. Lord Krishna says, "The supreme state which is reached by the jnana yogi is attained also by the karma yogi. Therefore, he who sees jnana yoga and karma yoga as one, so far as their result goes, really sees." (Gita V:5)
Exclusive development of any one to the negation of the other aspects in him could sometimes make man fanatic, and then he does not realize the whole Truth. According to the GITA, "Yoga is equanimity," and "Yoga means Perfection in action." This equilibrium lies in the triple transformation of the will, knowledge, and love for integral perfection. Sri Aurobindo, the prophet of purna yoga, writes in his great book ON YOGA, "Will, knowledge, and love are the three divine powers in human nature and the life of man, and they point to three paths by which the human soul rises to the Divine. The integrality of them, the union of man with God in all the three, must therefore by the foundation of an Integral Yoga."
(Essence of Bhagavad Gita and Bible, p. 105.)