The eternality of bhakti yoga – Many religious paths promise happiness, including happiness beyond this life. Gita wisdom explains that not all post-mortem destinations are equally good. The Gita differentiates between heaven and the spiritual world: heaven is a place of immense material pleasures attained by religious piety, whereas the spiritual world is the kingdom of God, the place of eternal love attained by bhakti-yoga.

Why does this difference matter? Because the fruit of piety – attainment of heaven – is temporary, whereas the fruit of bhakti-yoga – attainment of the spiritual world – is eternal. We stay in heaven as long as we have the necessary reserves of good karma from our past piety, just as we can stay in a hilltop resort as long as we have the money earned from our past work. Even if our stay in heaven seems enormously long from an earthly perspective, it is finite; when it ends, we fall back to the earthly level of reality (09.21).

Bhakti-yoga acts on the longing that is innate to us as eternal souls — our longing to love and be loved — by directing it toward the all-attractive supreme person, Krishna. Once this longing is fully focused on Krishna by diligent bhakti practice, he mercifully takes us to the place where that longing can be best fulfilled: his eternal personal abode. Even before we get there, he ensures that our resources for that journey are never lost: he preserves what we have and provides what we lack (09.22). And the most important such resource is our attraction for him; it is never depleted or deleted (02.40); it stays with us across lifetimes till we develop it to its full perfection, thus attaining eternal life (06.43-45).  

One-sentence summary:

Whereas religious paths centered on piety take us to places of better material pleasure, bhakti-yoga alone takes us to the abode of eternal love.

Think it over:

  • How is  heaven different from the spiritual world?
  • What is wrong with the attainment of heaven?
  • How does bhakti-yoga provide us an eternal result?

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09.22: But those who always worship Me with exclusive devotion, meditating on My transcendental form – to them I carry what they lack, and I preserve what they have.

The eternality of bhakti yoga

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