How are the eight stages of ashtanga-yoga related with bhakti-yoga?

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The eight points of Ashtang Yoga and Bhakti Yoga, how do we reconcile them? Basically, on the path of spiritual growth, there are two distinct phases to it.
One is detachment from matter, and the other is attachment to spirit. So, Ashtang Yoga primarily focuses on detachment from matter. Yam, Niyam, Asana, Pranayam, Dhyana, Dharana, Samadhi, especially the first five stages, they are all centered on regulating our interaction with matter so that we can connect with spirit.
And then, Pratyahara is actually the sense of disconnection from matter, to a large extent. And then we go inwards. Dhyana, Dharana, Samadhi is where we start connecting with spirit in our inner meditation.
Now, if we look at the Patanjali Yoga Sutras themselves, they talk about Ishwara Pranidhana, surrender to Ishwara, but they don’t directly tell who is that Ishwara. So, Patanjali lived in a culture, he wrote in a culture where knowledge of Ishwara was already there. So, he did not have to specify that.
See, every culture that is there, certain knowledge is presumed. So, for example, if in today’s culture I talk about the Statue of Liberty. Now, I don’t have to explain that the Statue of Liberty is actually a statue here in this place, it looks like this and it means this.
It’s just known at that time. But then, somebody in other time, 500 years ago, what is the Statue of Liberty? And what does it represent? That knowledge may not be available. So, what has happened is, in the Yoga Sutra, the talk about Ishwara is there.
And Samadhi at one level is absorption in Ishwara. But that is who that Ishwara is and exactly how to absorb oneself in that Ishwara, that is not talked about in the Yoga Sutras. So, the Yoga Sutras primarily focus on detachment from matter.
And they talk about absorption in spirit. But what exactly that spiritual reality is, that is not talked so much. Now, in the Yoga Sutras, Yogas Chittavrtti Nirodha, the perfection of Yoga, the connection is said to be the stopping of the material movements of consciousness.
Krishna also talks about that in the Bhagavad Gita, in 6.20 to 23, when he says that Yatra Paramate Chittam Niruddham Yoga Sevaya Yatra Chaivatmanatmanam Vashanatman Tushyate So, Chittavrtti Nirodha, that is the definition of Yoga and Yoga Sutra and that same word Nirodha, Krishna also uses. Yatra Paramate Chittam Niruddham Yoga Sevaya Niruddha, that means basically the consciousness stops moving at the material level. The material movements of consciousness stop and then what happens, Krishna talks about it.
Yatra Chaivatmanatmanam One turns inwards and sees the inner territory, sees the inner reality. Vashanatman Tushyate and one delights in that. So, what is there in the inner terrain, that is revealed more and more in the Bhakti Yoga tradition.
So, in a sense the Ashtanga Yoga and Bhakti Yoga are meant for the same purpose. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says in the 5th chapter that that these different paths Sankhyam Sankhyam Sankhyam In 5.4 and 5 he says that actually these different paths, they ultimately are meant for the same goal. One who sees that they are entirely different paths with no similarity, he says that is Bala, that is like a childish mentality, cannot see deeper.
So, the yogic path focuses primarily on disconnection from matter and connection with spirit. The Bhakti Yoga path focuses directly on connection with spirit. Now, that means the spiritual reality, that is God in his transcendental personal form is talked about, is revealed in the scriptures, in the Bhakti texts.
And we meditate on him, we serve him, we connect with him. And by that by that absorption in spiritual reality, our disconnection with material reality starts happening automatically. It’s like if I have a say a glass of water.
Now, I could try to remove all air from it, create a vacuum over there, and then I fill water in it. Or I just start filling water in it. The more I fill water in it, the air in it will automatically go away.
So like that, we can remove material attachments from our consciousness and then cultivate spiritual attachments. So in this progressive path of Ashtang Yoga, it leading to perfection is talked about in the sixth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. The sixth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita is called Dhyan Yoga or Ashtang Yoga.
And it culminates in 6.47, where Krishna says, among all the yogis, the topmost yogi is one who meditates on me, within one’s heart, and one who gets absorbed in me. So till now, Krishna has talked about detachment from the material world, so that one can come to the culmination of yoga. And then from the seventh chapter onwards, Krishna starts talking about a different language.
Not so much about detachment, but about attachment. So the peak that Krishna describes starting from the second chapter and culminating in 6.47, that peak and alternative way to attain it, Krishna talks about in the seventh chapter. And the first verse he says in 7.1, Krishna says that this perfection of making my mind attached, making your mind attached to me.
He says the Ashtang yogis are absorbed in me. That absorption will come when there is attachment. And how can you become attached to me? He says, I will tell you that process.
And that process he describes from the seventh chapter to the twelfth chapter, that is actually the process of Bhakti Yoga. So both Ashtang Yoga and Bhakti Yoga are meant for ultimately the same purpose of detachment oneself from matter and attaching oneself to spirit. Ashtang Yoga makes it like a two-step process.
First do this, then do that. Whereas Bhakti Yoga focuses directly on attachment to spirit. And as a by-product, detachment to matter also happens.
Does that answer your question? Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Thank you very much for your kind attention. Hare Krishna.