Generally speaking,
There are four types of yoga that are normally discussed,
Even though there are a few more.
Bhakti yoga,
Karma yoga,
Nana yoga,
And raja yoga.
Sometimes raja yoga and kriya yoga are combined together.
There are a few other forms,
But classically speaking,
These four tend to be the main ones.
Bhakti yoga is the yoga of devotion,
Especially the devotion to the divine or the devotion to God.
You can really see that a key element of this yoga is faith.
Karma yoga is a path of selfless service and is very much related to the law of cause and effect.
Nana yoga is a path of wisdom or knowledge,
And this is very heavily related to what is the true nature of reality.
The fourth one,
Raja yoga,
Is the path of meditation,
Or rarely at its essence is the eight limbs system of yoga outlined by Patanjali.
These four types of yogas are commonly discussed through Ekatthola,
Sadhguru,
And other various forms of current spiritual leaders.
Actually,
Most of them talk about it at some stage.
Sadhguru though had an excellent story discussing these four yogas and a hidden meaning behind them in a short story.
The short story is as follows.
It happened once that four men were walking in the forest.
The first was a nana yogi,
The second was a bhakti yogi,
The third was a kama yogi,
And the fourth was a kriya yogi.
Usually these four people don't get along.
The nana yogi has total disdain for all other types of yoga.
His is the yoga of intelligence,
And normally an intellectual has complete disdain for everyone else,
Particularly these bhakti types who look forward and chant God's name all the time.
They look at them and think to themselves they are a bunch of fools.
The bhakti yogi,
A devotee,
Thinks all this nana,
Kama,
And kriya yoga is a waste of time.
He pities the others who don't see that when God is here,
All you need to do is hold His hand and walk.
All this mind-splitting philosophy,
Bone-bending yoga,
None of it's needed.
God is here because God is everywhere.
Then the kama yogi,
The man of action,
He thinks all other types of yogis,
With their fancy philosophies,
Are just simply lazy.
Kriya yoga is the most disdainful of all.
He laughs at everybody.
Don't they know that all of existence is just simply energy?
If you don't transform your energy,
Whether you long for God or you long for anything else,
Nothing is going to happen to you.
There will be no transformation.
These four types of yogis,
Therefore,
Generally don't get along.
But today,
They were walking together in a forest when a storm started.
The storm grew very intense and it began to rain quite heavily.
They started running everywhere,
Looking for shelter.
The bhakti yogi,
The devotion man,
Said,
In this direction there is an ancient temple,
Let's go there.
So together they all ran in the same direction and followed the bhakti yogi.
Eventually they came to an ancient temple.
All the walls had crumbled long ago,
Just the roof and the four columns remained.
They rushed into the temple,
Not out of love for a god,
But just to escape the downpour of rain.
In the middle of the temple there was a deity.
They ran towards it.
The rain was lashing down from every direction.
There was no other place to go,
So they moved closer and closer.
Finally,
There was no alternative.
They just hugged the deity all together and sat down.
The moment these four people hugged the idol,
There was a huge fifth presence.
Suddenly God appeared.
In all their four minds the same question arose,
Why now?
They wondered,
We expounded so many philosophies,
Did so many pujas,
Served so many people,
Did so much body breaking sadhana,
But you didn't come.
Now when we're here,
Just escaping the rain,
You turn up.
Why?
God said,
At last you four idiots got together.
The key point here is that each of these yogis represent a different important part of one's spiritual training.
The bhakti yogi for example represents the faith or devotion to the path that you've chosen.
The karma yoga represents the action and hard work needed to undertake the training.
Nana yoga represents the mind and the wisdom that is gained through the training.
And the raja yoga represents the actual training methods in itself.
I hope this short story has provided some benefit and interest to you.
Thank you for listening.
