The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.2.32) states:
- ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninas
- tvayy asta-bhāvād aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ
- āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ
- patanty adho 'nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ
O lotus-eyed Lord, although nondevotees who accept severe austerities and penances to achieve the highest position may think themselves liberated, their intelligence is impure. They fall down from their position of imagined superiority because they have no regard for Your lotus feet."
Thus the yogic process a surrendered servant of the Supreme Lord practices is altogether different form Patañjali's eightfold yoga system, beginning with sense control, yogic postures, and breath control. These practices are, in a sense, meant to increase physical prowess for better sense enjoyment. The devotee, on the other hand, follows the best yoga system of God-realization, which is enunciated in the Bhagavad-gītā. His activities are not selfishly motivated, aimed at realizing his own cherished dreams, but are directed toward fulfilling the will of God on earth. This yoga is known as buddhi-yoga, wherein lies the entire world's good fortune.
In the Bhagavad-gītā (6.46-47) Lord Kṛṣṇa states,
- tapasvibhyo 'dhiko yogī
- jñānibhyo 'pi mato 'dhikaḥ
- karmibhyaś cādhiko yogī
- tasmād yogī bhavārjuna
- yoginām api sarveṣāṁ
- mad-gatenāntar-ātmanā
- śraddhā-vān bhajate yo māṁ
- sa me yukta-tamo mataḥ
A yogī is greater than the ascetic, greater than the empiricist, and greater than the fruitive worker. Therefore, O Arjuna, in all circumstances be a yogī. And of all yogīs, the one who with great faith always abides in Me, thinks of Me within Himself, and renders transcendental loving service to Me-he is most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all. That is My opinion.
The devotee is placed in the highest position because his sole intention is to establish the will of the Supreme Lord in the world. Once everything in the world is conducted according to the Lord's desire, then all activities will become spiritual and the Lord's presence will be felt everywhere and in everything. For the devotee, therefore, the purpose of yoga is not to attain such mean and miserly goals as liberation or sense enjoyment, but to reestablish his loving relationship of devotional service to the Lord and to spread this truth throughout the world. He knows that without being on the platform of Brahman, one cannot render the Lord pure devotional service, the highest stage of transcendence. Yet he also knows that Brahman realization is a concomitant of the highest stage of devotional surrender. Therefore, if through devotional service he can help create an atmosphere of spirituality that will pervade the earth and make everything blissful, then why should he strive for the meager, selfish joys of liberation?
Lord Caitanya declared that the constitutional position of every living entity is to be an eternal servant of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Therefore every jīva is inherently a liberated being. The jīva's present conditioned state is an illusion caused by his forgetting Lord Kṛṣṇa. Lord Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā that the jīva is His separated part. The conditioned soul is enchained by the mind, senses, and so on, which are agents of māyā, the illusory energy. The jīva is now in captivity as a result of his previous sinful activities, but why should he remain so eternally? His imprisonment can be easily ended simply by the Lord's mercy. And if the Lord's mercy is not available, then on his own the jīva can never free himself. Conceited persons who think they can obtain liberation without the Lord's mercy, simply by performing strict penances and austerities, are totally mistaken; they fail. Still, although receiving the Lord's mercy is the prime cause for attaining liberation, the Lord does not participate directly in the affairs of the conditioned soul.